Colorado Chronicles

2:49am EST- The sound of an alarm springs me to my feet, only to quickly discover that it’s the OLD MAN’s malfunctioning cell phone alarm waking me three and a half hours early.

5:15am EST- The sound of an alarm springs me to my feet yet again. This time its for real. The start of a long exhausting day.

8:15am EST- Philadelphia flight 2886 to Denver Colorado leaves gate D4 heading west.

10:15am MST- The wheels of flight 2886 touch down on the runway of Denver International. The OLD MAN and I officially arrive in Denver. It’s a family tradition that dates back to the summer of 1993. Every single MLB season since has consisted of at least one family baseball trip. In the early days the whole family would jump in the back of the OLD MAN’s pickup and head cross-country. Now a day it’s just the OLD MAN and I, and we fly.

12:00 pm MST- The OLD MAN and I arrive at 21st and Main St. in downtown Denver. We park our rental car and spend the rest of the afternoon touring downtown Denver while waiting for the gates to open for the first game of a three game set between the Colorado Rockies and the Cincinnati Reds. The match up we have traveled over 1700 miles to see is not a very good one. The Rockies are in third place in the NL west with a record of 59-70 eleven games under .500 and 9 games out of first place. The Cincinnati Reds are even worse. They were in dead last in the NL central with a record of 56-72 and 21.5 games out of first place. However both the OLD MAN and I have a baseball agenda beyond the games we are in town for.

In addition to taking in our first ever game in Denver’s Coors field, I plan on paying particular attention to Rockies Left Fielder Matt Holliday. I am also scoreboard watching all the games in the American League East, while the OLD MAN looks for autographs and Rockies memorabilia.

5:33 pm MST- The Gates are open and we enter the turnstiles in right field.

5:42 pm MST- The OLD MAN receives an autograph from Reds All-Star rookie Edison Volquez. A player he predicted to be a star, and new favorite of his.

6:10pm MST- The Reds leave the field completing batting practice. The grounds crew begin striking the nets and batting cage.

7:02pm MST- Four umpires emerge onto the field and a coach from each team greets them with lineup cards behind home plate.

7:07pm MST- The first pitch is delivered. With poor attendance and little cheering I begin to wonder if I’m at a baseball game or a golf tournament.

7:12pm MST- I am quickly reminded that I am at a ball game when the third batter of the game, Brandon Phillips, launches a two run home run over the wall in left center field.

7:23pm MST- Rockies left fielder Matt Holliday hits a mile high fly to right field for the second out of the bottom of the first. A little more distance and less height, it would have left Yankees stadium. As much as I love Holliday’s power intertwined with his .344 average, I quickly realize some dilemmas with the Yankees acquiring Holliday. First off is that left field is his natural position. I had thought he was a right fielder, which is what the Yankees will be looking for this off-season. Also Holliday is a right-handed hitter. The Yanks will be looking for a hitter between Jeter and A-Rod in the lineup, and the ideal player would be left-handed. (Especially with the dimensions of Yankees Stadium)

7:36pm MST- A very mild, but steady rain beings to fall. It lasts only a few minutes.

7:48pm MST- The scoreboard is updated in right field and the Yankees have retaken the lead in their game against Baltimore. 16 game winner Mike Mussina is on the mound in Baltimore, but I have no idea if he is still on the mound, or the pitcher of record.

7:58pm MST- The flood gates up and the boos filter down as a Chris Dickerson single gives the Reds a 6-0 lead. It’s the fourth run scored in the inning, and it chases Rockies starter Livan Hernandez from the game.

8:31pm MST- The wave begins circling the stands, as the Yankees game goes final on the scoreboard. Yankees win 9-4.

8:45pm MST- In Holliday’s third at bat, he pops up to the shortstop with the bases loaded. My infatuation with Holliday begins to fade. The last thing the Yankees need is another hitter that can’t produce with the bases loaded. The Boston Red Sox game goes final on the board. Sox win 8-4 in Toronto.

8:50pm MST- The OLD MAN and I begin to talk about our great seats for Saturday’s game. Tonight we are in the upper deck, but tomorrow we will be sitting just thirteen rows from the tarp, and just two sections from the third base dugout. We each paid $40.00 for the tickets. Just out of curiosity I look up the cost of the same ticket at
Yankees Stadium in my handy dandy pocket schedule. The cost for one seat on the third base line just two sections up from the dugout at Yankee Stadium is $380.00!!! I can’t believe it! I knew the prices were out of hand at Yankees Stadium, but I had no idea it was that bad! No baseball ticket is worth $380 bucks! The discovery leads to long conversation about baseball’s elitism between the OLD MAN and I.

9:35pm MST- Another game goes final on the Scoreboard. Tampa Bay wins yet again!

9:41pm MST- The Rockies mount a comeback scoring three in the seventh and now two more in the eighth. They pull to within 8-5.

9:56pm MST- Fransisco Cordero comes into the game for the Reds looking for his 25th save of the season.

10:07 MST- Cordero gets his save and the Reds win game one of the three game set. The day is complete and now another baseball journey is in the books. The OLD MAN and I are now within a handful of baseball parks of having seen them all. We leave Coors field and retreat to our hotel in Colorado Springs for some much needed rest.

Worst To First, The 2008 Tampa Bay Rays

I just can’t laugh off these guys any longer!

The 2008 Tampa Bay Rays are for real!

New York. It’s the city that never sleeps. As Frank Sinatra said, and I can vouch for him, “if you can make it there you’ll make it anywhere.” New York’s baseball club, is the 26 time world champion New York Yankees. They are considered the most famous franchise in the history of professional sports. The Yankees pinstripe uniforms are not only stylish, but also recognized everywhere. New York plays their home games in "The House That Ruth Built", Yankee Stadium. Frequent stadium guests include Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, and Yogi Berra.

St. Petersburg. It’s the little city across the bay from Tampa Florida. Their baseball club- the Tampa Bay Rays. They are the result of Major League Baseball’s 1998 expansion. In the last ten years the Rays have never once had a winning season. Formerly known as the Devil Rays, they have been the worst franchise in all of baseball before this season. They play their home games in Tropicana Field. It’s a building that should have been condemned long before the Rays moved in ten years ago. Frequent Tropicana guests include former WWE wrestlers Brian Nasty Boy Knobs, and Greg The Hammer Valentine.






On May 13, 2008, while working an event in Orlando Florida, I rented a car and drove 100 miles southwest to St Petersburg and Tropicana Field to watch the Yankees and Rays battle in the second game of a four game set. The Yankees were already beat up, under achieveing and playing .500 ball two months into the young season. The Rays on the other hand, were the toast of the American League. Everyone was expecting the Rays to be a good club in 2008, but no one was expecting them to be near the top of the Division after two months of play.

The Yankees were having a hard time hitting during the road trip in Tampa, a theme that would remain constant throughout the season. But on this night I was confident they would find a way to win, with ace pitcher Chin Ming Wang on the mound for New York.

The game quickly developed into a pitchers duel between Tampa’s Edwin Jackson, and the Yankees Wang. The more I watched of the duel the more frustrated I got as a Yankee fan. The Rays lead 1-0 in the top of the 9th when Yankee Hediki Matsui launched a solo homerun off Tampa closer Troy Percivil just inside the right field foul pole. I remember thinking that the Yankees were lucky to be on the scoreboard. I also remember thinking that they would still lose the game either in the bottom of the 9th, or in extra innings.

In the bottom of the eleventh, with the greatest closer of all time on the mound, Mariano Rivera faced pitch hitter Gabe Gross with a runner on. Gross lined a base hit up the middle, and Johnny Gomes came around to score. It was a very dramatic walk off victory for the Rays. Tropicana field was buzzed with fans beginning to believe in their team. Rays manager Joe Maddon was walking the field with flair of confidence as he congratulated his players. Maddon’s walk was similar to the one I often saw former Yankee manager Joe Torre take after victories.
As a Yankee fan, I was very dismissive of all the celebrating surrounding me. Shortly after the game ended, word got around that the Red Sox had also lost. The result of the Sox loss combined with the Rays win was a first place status for Tampa in the American League East.





I remember thinking, “how cute.”

“The Rays are in first place. Enjoy it while it lasts guys. Cause in the Al East, this will never hold up!”

How could it possibly last?

A team with a 44 million dollar payroll ( fifth to last in all of baseball). An organization that has a ten-year tradition of mediocrity. A team that plays in the same division as the powerhouse Yankees and Red Sox. Besides it was only May 13th. There was almost five months of baseball left to play. I just laughed off the Rays victory and continued to laugh the rest of the summer.

But now it’s August 20, and the laughing has stopped.

The Rays have the best record in baseball. They are up by 10 games over the Yankees, and just took two out of three games from the second best team in baseball, the Los Angeles Angels. (Tampa almost swept Los Angeles.)

The Rays are for real.

And soon Tampa will begin to concern themselves with things like magic numbers, post season ticket deposits, and game one starters. The tides have turned. Although New York might be the better city, have a greater stadium, and a far superior baseball franchise, the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays are better in the only way that matters, the standings.

State Of The Yankees

(All In The Family Theme)




Oh the way the Yanks once played.

October included a Ticker Tape Parade.

Fans like us we had it made.

Those were the days.

And you knew the division then.

New York on top with a lead of ten.

Mr. We could use another fella like Bern-Dog Williams again.

Didn’t hit into double plays.

Who the hell are the Tampa Bay Rays?

Victories came one hundred different ways.

Those were the days.

Redemption

I have been avoiding a Josh Hamilton story of my own, only because the story has been told very eloquently by both HBO and Sports Illustrated in the last 12 months. First on HBO’s Real Sports, with Bryant Gumble, Jon Frankel ran a story covering Josh’s remarkable comeback. Then Sports Illustrated writer Albert Chen did a cover story on Josh in June. But when I saw the display Hamilton put on in the 2008 homerun derby at Yankees stadium, I had to break out of my writers slump / block and throw in my own two cents on what may be baseball’s greatest comeback story.

Josh Hamilton, born Joshua Holt Hamilton on May 21st 1981 in Raleigh North Carolina, was regarded as a gifted athlete from a very young age. His natural left handed swing, quick wrists, and growing muscle mass made him a top prospect, admired by scouts all over the country. In 1999 Josh was the number one overall draft pick selected by the Tampa Bay Rays. He received a four million dollar signing bonus with the Rays and began his ascent to the Majors. His first stop was the Single A Hudson Valley Renegades in June of 2000. During his time in upstate New York Josh began experimenting with drugs and alcohol. A combination of injuries and isolation from friends and family back home, lead Josh down a path of self-abuse. By spring of 2004 Josh was frequently absent from Rays training camp, failing drug tests, and broke. He would leave the game altogether in 2004. A direct quote from Josh himself is, “I was doing everything within my power to kill myself”. Homeless, and addicted to crack and alcohol, Hamilton had hit rock bottom. Josh sought out refuge at his grandmother’s home in North Carolina. Shortly after he checked back into rehab, and stuck with a program of abstaince from substance abuse.
His long road of recovery had begun.

In 2006 Josh hopped from the Tampa Bay Rays, to the Chicago Cubs, to the Cincinnati Reds. All the while Josh kept clean while playing baseball more consistency and without injury. Just before the all-star break in 2007 Josh was called up from triple A to the Cincinnati Reds where he made his major league debut. In 90 major league games Josh hit .292 with 19 homeruns and 47 RBI’s. Josh keeps himself on a very strict schedule now. He occupies his days playing ball, praying, and raising his daughters. He keeps no more then 20 bucks in his wallet at a time, so that he is not tempted to seek out drugs.
After the 2007 season, Josh was traded to the Texas Rangers where he picked off right where he left off after the trade. As I type this Josh has a .304 average with 24 homeruns and 103 RBI’s with two months of baseball left to play! He was elected to represent the Rangers in the All-Star game in New York just two weeks ago. But his performance at Yankees Stadium during the homerun derby put Josh on the nations radar.

He hit 28 homers in the first round !!! Thirteen in a row!!!

And not one of Josh’s 34 total homeruns was a cheep shot. Josh hit one two thirds of the way up the black bleachers in centerfield, (an area that has one been hit by a handful of players in major league history). He hit several into the tier reserve sections of the right field upper deck (the only seats I can afford anymore at Yankee Stadium). He hit one into the old Yankee Bullpen in right, which bounced to the back outer wall of the house that Ruth built. He hit one into the last row of the right field bleachers!

Now I realize that the whole thing is an exhibition. Josh was hitting essentially batting practice homers. No one pitch that he launched was thrown faster then 65 miles and hour. However the scouts that sought out the young North Carolina outfielder back in 1999, finally saw Josh reach is full potential in New York at the mid summer classic.

Having shared many of the same demons in my own life that Josh has battled, I find both his comebacks so completely improbable and so remarkable that there is no way that my own words will ever do it the justice that it deserves. To me what makes Josh’s journey great is his ability to overcome the extreme challenges of sobriety and addiction, where most people die long before they can even assume normal lives and then once accomplishing that phenomenal feat, Josh climbed the minor league ladder alas reaching the majors. He overcame the skeptics, the minor leagues, and achieved the almost impossible dream to become a professional ball player. Other players have overcome injury, and substances to make MLB comebacks (Strawberry and Gooden are just a few). But Josh’s story is unique because he was at rock bottom both personally and professionally. A baseball player can’t be any lower then being banded from Single A. Josh is not just a comeback ball player, he is a comeback human being.