NLCS - Rockies vs DBacks????

Ok, first off, I want to see a show of hands by anyone who picked the Colorado Rockies to face off in the NLCS vs the Arizona Diamondbacks back in April when the MLB season began. Anyone?.............Didn't think so.

This is probably the biggest surprise in all of baseball. Even if you had picked a team coming out of the NL-West to play in the NLCS, it would have been most probably the Dodgers. Afterall, back in the spring the Dodgers tore through their spring training. Had a pretty good staff of starting pitchers in the rotation, and good fielding. But once the season began things in the NL-West just completely blew up in every prognosticators face. People thought, that with San Diego's veteran pitching staff that they would be in the mix in the NL West, but certainly not one of the top teams in the nation. The D-Backs were picked to finish 3rd at best, and the Rockies were picked anywhere but in front of either the Padres or the Dodgers.

Almost everyone of the MLB media wonks and gurus back in April were picking a Mets vs also-rans in their NLCS matchups. Most picked the Dodgers, although a few did pick Milwaukee. But almost none of them picked a team out of the NL West, and those that did, picked the Dodgers. But absolutely NOONE picked TWO teams from the NL West to be playing for the pennant. No way, no how...and if they tell you now that they did, they are lying. (BTW, I picked the Dodgers to win the NL West...so just shows you how much I know about this too, huh?)

The D-Backs are probably the biggest surprise of the two only because their pitching staff is overall the youngest in the nation. (Cue Dick Vitale and his 'diaper dandy' spiel) Brandon Webb is not only the ace of the staff for Arizona, and a young gun, hard-throwing right-hander; but also is a homegrown Kentucky kid that we can be proud of playing on the biggest stage in baseball. He grew up in Ashland, KY and played for UK. He made his full MLB rookie season in 2004 with the DBacks, (although he made his debut in 2003), where he got "schooled" his rookie season by the MLB hitters, going 7-16 in 35 games he appeared in. But for a rookie he had a good season ending it with a 3.59 ERA. The following year he trimmed that to 3.54, and then again down to 3.10, and finally this season he is down to a 3.01 ERA and won 18 games over his 34 regular season appearances. Webb is showing all the signs of maturing into one of the best pitchers in the majors, and again, he is a Kentucky-bred kid. If you have not seen him pitch, then tomorrow's opening game of the NLCS is your chance. This kid is very good.

Again, the Arizona D-Backs were on NOONE's radar screen back in April, and yet behind an incredibly young pitching staff, they are in the NLCS. If they go no further it will still be one of the biggest surprises in MLB.

If the D-Backs are one of the biggest surprises then the Rockies is one of MLB's biggest shockers. Behind only the complete meltdown of the NY Mets. Where the Mets meltdown was shockingly bad, the Rockies late season surge was just as shockingly good. On Sep 16th. Colorado was sitting 4-5 games out of the NL West lead, behind both the D-Backs and the Padres. Not only that, they were behind both the Phillies and the Padres in the NL Wildcard race by about 3.5 games; and they had just come off a 3 game losing streak. So, what did the Rockies do? Nothing but win 12 of their last 13 games of the season while knocking the Padres completely out of the wildcard race, by taking 3 games @ San Diego and 2 of 3 from the NL West leader Arizona at Coors Field. Colorado is THE hottest team in baseball right now, and is riding an incredible streak. And if you have ever been to Coors Field, the Rockies fans deserve this. They are some of the best fans in all of baseball. Not to mention that Coors Field is, IMHO, very probably the most beautiful ball park in the nation. Not the best, mind you, just the most beautiful. When you can sit in the stands and get the Rocky Mountains with their snowpeaks as the backdrop, you can not help but just become "rocky mountain high". The place is gorgeous.

As I started off with, this NLCS matchup will not only be the biggest surprise; I think it will be one of the best matchup's of the post season. I am a big RedSox fan, and will look at their matchup vs the Indians later on, but right now, at least for the first game of the NLCS, I am going to enjoy watching this matchup of strong Rockies hitters vs young and talented D-Backs pitching. Who am I rooting for? I guess because of the local ties, I will hope for the D-Backs. But I also lived in Denver for a couple of years, so the Rock's have a special place in my heart. Whatever the outcome, it will be a great matchup...one that I hope goes 7 games. Not because I can not decide who should win, but because I would like to see both of those "cinderella" teams get every ounce of the experience of the NLCS that they can.


Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to give a HUGE shoutout and kudos to TBS for their coverage so far of the MLB divisional playoffs. Primarily two aspects, their camera work, and more importantly, the play-by-play and color commentators. TBS went out and found GREAT "baseball announcers" and excellent "ex-baseball players" who have been just wonderful to listen to. These guys KNOW baseball. And they keep their focus on the games and on the field. They do not go off on rants about funnel cakes or Britney Spears, but instead show respect for a grand game, and the players efforts by being focused on the game of baseball. I know of lot of people out there love those, "human interest" story crap. But as sports fan of the Tank McNamara character SweatSox variety, I can tell you this, "WE HATE THAT CRAP!!!!" If you want to learn about how so-and-so has had such a difficult time raised by his blind-in-one-eye, crippled grandmother who sits in the rain to watch him play, TURN ON LIFETIME CHANNEL YOU NANCY!!! This is BASEBALL, and there's NO room for any of that touchy-feely crap in baseball! (stepping down off of soapbox now)....

Until next time, enjoy the game, and remember, the last two words of the national anthem are, "Play ball!"