The month of October couldn’t start any better for Major League Baseball. Last night’s game between the San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies was phenomenal and ranks as one of the top games this season. There was so much drama going into the one game tiebreaker that sports fans were torn between watching playoff baseball, and watching Monday Night Football. I chose to watch the playoffs because when the calendar turns to October my location turns to the coach in front of the television. For those who chose to watch baseball they witnessed an unbelievable start to the postseason. The Rockies entered the game having won 13 of 14 games to even have an opportunity to have a chance at the playoffs.
The pitching match-up: NL Cy Young favorite Jake Peavy against Josh Fogg. Josh who? Fogg, you know the pitcher with a career record of 60-60 and a 4.90 ERA. He was facing Peavy, who lead the National League in wins (19), strikeouts (240), ERA (2.54) and WHIP (1.06). We certainly know who had the advantage on the mound. The Rockies had home-field advantage and were in the midst of a historical comeback. Personally I wanted the Rockies to win. They hadn’t been to the playoffs since 1995! To put that in perspective, since the Rockies last made the playoffs the single season homerun record has been broken – twice, The Yankees have won four World Series Championships, the Red Sox ended an 86 year curse, there are two expansion teams – the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays, Alex Rodriguez has hit 511 of his 516 career homeruns and the era is known as the Steroid Era. This is the Rockies team that last made the playoffs before last night:
C – Joe Girardi
1B – Andres Galarraga
2B – Jason Bates
3B – Vinny Castilla
SS – Walt Weiss
OF – Dante Bichette
OF – Larry Walker
OF – Mike Kingery
Bench – Eric Young, Ellis Burks, John Vander Wal
Since 1995 Joe Girardi has won Manager of the Year, Andres Galarraga battled cancer, and Eric Young is on Baseball Tonight. How can you not root for this team? If I haven’t swayed you yet to jump on the Rockies bandwagon, please read the following article from the Rocky Mountain News about how the team is playing for Todd Helton who before last night had never been to the playoffs: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/mlb/article/0,2777,DRMN_23924_5706395,00.html 
September was a magical month for the Rockies, hopefully October will be just as kind.
-MVP
