For One Day: All Was Right With the Colorado Rockies
By Joe Morrone
Aug 17, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Former Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton acknowledges the crowd during a ceremony to retire his number before the game between the Colorado Rockies and the Cincinnati Reds at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
For one day and night, Colorado Rockies baseball was fun again. Coors Field was electric, if only for a few hours. In case you missed it, the day started with a tribute to a legend and was followed by two wins that brought back memories of LoDo magic. For one day, all was right with the Rockies again.
The highlight of the day was the retirement of Todd Helton’s jersey and the ceremony that accompanied it. Helton was the Rockies best player and the face of the franchise for 17 years. The speeches from former teammates Brad Hawpe and Matt Belisle brought back fond memories of better days, and were great tributes to Helton as a player and a man.
The show was stolen though by Helton’s daughter, Tierney Faith Helton. She said “Now that my Daddy has been home- a lot- I want to ask you one question: do you want him back?” Everyone, including Helton, laughed while most of the crowd probably screamed yes.
The Rockies have taken a lot of heat this season and deservedly so, but they put on a first-class ceremony on Sunday. #17 will now hang at Coors field forever and Helton will always be a Rockie.
After the ceremony, most people expected the Rockies to continue their losing ways by dropping both ends of a double-header. Not on this day, not on the day when the Rockies honored their best player.
Trailing 9-5 going into the bottom of the ninth and staring at another loss, the Rockies turned back the clock. They scored two runs to get within two and up came Drew Stubbs.
Stubbs, in true Helton fashion, hit a three run home run to left center field to give the Rockies a 10-9 victory.
The night was capped off by a rare Sunday night game at Coors Field and I don’t what it was, but the game had a party feel to it. Maybe it was just the idea of one last weekend fling before Monday morning showed up, maybe it was leftover excitement from the Helton ceremony or maybe it was a carry over from an improbable win in game one.
What ever the reason, the fans were having a great time and the Rockies did not disappoint. Trailing 5-2 in the late innings, the Rockies scored three in the seventh inning to tie it and five more in the eighth to win it 10-5.
The win included Micahel Cuddyer hitting for the cycle in his first day back from the disabled list. The better the Rockies played, the louder the fans got and the cycle began to feed off of itself. It was a day and a night that the Rockies and their fans did not want to see end.
This was the way is used to be at 20th and Blake; the Rockies almost always played well at home even in down years. When the Rockies resume play on Tuesday, chances are that they will quickly revert to their losing ways but for one day everything felt right at Coors Field.