God. Damn. It. I am pissed about the way the Rockies lost tonight. They were winning 4-2 at the top of the 9th, and then a blown save later, the season was over. I spent most of the game pissed, thinking for sure they blew it, and then in the end of the 8th, a brief turnaround, and now… well, maybe next year.
I am thankful for a few things though:
- I got to go to two games in Denver, when I initially thought this would be my first Coors Field-less season.
- I also got to see a win here in Oakland.
- I got to listen to a ton of games due to MLB at Bat on the iPhone, and all of them from the Denver-local 850 KOA feed.
- They made it to the postseason. After much last-second nail-biting wildcard antics, they managed to make it in.
- They didn’t get swept in the NLDS. In fact, they were the only team that wasn’t swept in a division series this year.
- The switch to Jim Tracy not only got them a club-record number of wins, but they also got a bit of attention in the national media with their winning streaks and race to Rocktober.
- It was good to see Jason Giambi in the purple pinstripes.
- At least the Red Sox got eliminated.
- And more salt to the above wound, at least the Yankees are still alive.
And in the “maybe next year” department, it will be good to see Jim Tracy coach a full season, with that initial two months’ of piss-poor coaching removed from the record. And maybe Jeff Francis will be back, and Aaron Cook will stay with it for longer, and who knows what other talent will be added to the club. I’m almost certain Garrett Atkins will move on, given his high salary and crappy year; I initially felt bad about that, given the sentimental attachment of him and 2007, but I’m now convinced that could be for the better.
There are still a few more weeks of baseball left, but I’m ready to close the book on 2009. Way back before the all-star break, I predicted a Yankees-Dodgers WS, and maybe that will still happen. I wouldn’t mind seeing the Angels make it, but this is the point where I tune out for a few months until the itch starts to develop again, and I start pulling out the baseball books and yearning for the start of April to roll around again…