The Colorado Rockies are in the World Series for the first time, after coming back on a 21-1 game run. They clinched a spot in the playoffs on a whisper of a play and proceeded to sweep the division and league titles.
It leaves people wondering if Colorado isn’t getting a little boost from above.
General manager Dan O’Dowd acknowledges that he tries to populate his organization with players with integrity and values, regardless of religious preference. The team holds weekly chapel and Bible study, and adheres to what’s been described as a “Christian-based code of conduct.”
O’Dowd stopped short of saying that God put his unlikely team in the World Series, but says that if it were any other organization, “I would not be here.”
Posted by Kristin Mehler
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15 Comments
It’s the Tom Landry (Dallas Cowboys) formula. Appear to work for him, keeping the players in tow and concentrated as a team.
What a crock………….
I hope they go out in four.
Go Sox!
Yeah well good luck to them anyway.
Don’t really follow baseball anymore. But even I know that the Sox were appealing for divine intervention a hundred years before the Rockies (the team not the mountains) existed.
Actually, the Rockies do get a benefit from above; from about a mile high.
Fact is, it’s a different game at altitude. Hits carry farther, curve balls break less, Wakefield knuckle ball is likely to be ineffective. Coors field is a substantial home advantage for the team that’s learned to adapt to mile-high baseball.
MH, hasn’t MLB attempted, with the Rockies’ cooperation, to diminish this advantage by keeping the baseballs to be used in the game in refrigeration? It is my understanding that since this policy has begun, there has been a reduction in home runs, the curve balls break better, etc.
With that said, I think being acclimated to the higher altitude must give the Rockies an advantage, particularly in the later innings.
And, on behalf of all Cubs’ fans everywhere, “Just wait until next year”.
I love the “sky god” aspect of this.
Who says these christianists dont think if they put a quarter in god’s mouth and pull the lever…
…they get a treat and a wish fulfilled?
Click yer heels three times dorothy!
God gives a crap about baseball? Besides if hes omnipresent he already knows who’s gonna win
“Vaughn Tolle” –
Since curve balls, sliders, knuckle balls, and moving fastballs depend on spin of the stitches against the air, refrigerating baseballs would have little effect on the lower air pressure of high altitude. The Rockies pitchers have 82 games a year to adapt to thinner air.
Refrigerating balls may, theoretically, deaden batted balls, but the issue seems moot when post-season games extend practically into November.
Before Coors Field, the big league ball park considered “The Launching Pad” was Fulton Field in Atlanta, the highest-altitude in the majors at about 3,000 feet. The Rockies’ park compensates somewhat with more outfield acerage, but that results in wider power alleys.
One of the feel-good stories about the Rockies is the team’s youth. Most of them are home-grown which means they came up through the minors at altitude, including Triple-A Colorado Springs Sky Sox.
Now, no rational fan would consider Colorado to be a superior team than the Boston Red Sox, but I suspect Mile-High Ball will make things interesting.
Myth Busters tested the effect of the humidity in which the baseballs are stored. The Rockies now store theirs in a humidor. Short story is that it makes over a 10% difference in the distance the balls fly.
Exactly, Outlander – the balls are stored in saturated humidity, not refrigeration. It greatly diminishes the rebound factor when the ball meets that bat resulting in a shorter flight. Generally speaking, there are no more cheap home runs.
Anyone who has ever thrown a curveball knows that the air molecules hitting the stitches coupled with the rotational velocity of the ball creates movement. Throwing against the wind makes the ball move more.
In Denver, there are fewer air molecules, so the baseball won’t move as much as at sea level. However, the reduced air pressure also results in less drag, so a fastball doesn’t slow down in the air as quickly as it does at sea level. Ergo, every major league manager knows to power-pitch at high altitude and to finess-pitch at sea level. Do the Rockies have an advantage when they play in Denver? Not any more than any other team’s home field.
Monkey: Wakefield isn’t on the world series roster for the Sox due to a bad back.
Don’t have any problem with them having VOLUNTARY religious rites but when it comes to a “Christian code of conduct”, I have a BIG problem. The Rockies and MLB are an employer and as such they have no business fostering religion on the employees of the organization. The first muslim or Jew they get on the team will be talking lawsuit if they keep that up.
Is this called the “Rocks vs Sox” series?
I did not even realize that Denver had a high altitude than Atlanta. The air in Atlanta is so damn thin that on bad pollution days in the summer you can’t hardly breathe!
OMGZ THEY BELIEVE IN GOD THEY’RE HORRIBLE PEOPLE