The Long Tread Up the Mountain: Colorado’s Championship-less Rockies
Courtesy of: Brush-News Tribune (Getty Images)
After Tuesday night, the Colorado Rockies are the only major sports team in the Denver area without a championship. The Rockies are the one person who sees all their neighborhood buddies throwing their own parties and dreaming of what it would be like to have their own. Beginning with soccer, the Colorado Rapids won the MLS Cup in 2010, besting FC Dallas 2-1 in extra time. Each of Colorado’s NFL and NHL teams, the Broncos and the Avalanche, has won their league’s respective championships three times. And most recently, to the delight of a roaring home crowd at Ball Arena, the Denver Nuggets hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the first time, after a blistering, hard-fought Game 5 against the Miami Heat.
Courtesy of: @rockies Instagram (Getty Images)
In contrast, now in their 31st season of existence, the Rockies have one lone World Series appearance for their efforts. It happened in 2007, behind some of their greatest players to date: Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki, and Matt Holliday.
Photo by Denis Poroy (Getty Images)
Within the last 10 years, from the mid-2010s to the late 2010s, they showed some promise. Their last playoff run was a lightning-fast exit in the 2018 Division Series, falling to the Brewers, who were led by that year’s NL Most Valuable Player, Christian Yelich. As a result of those cups of coffee in the 2017 and 2018 playoffs, the Rockies shed key players from those rosters, including Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, Jon Gray, and DJ LeMahieu. Bidding farewell to instrumental stalwarts of the team in any situation is already difficult for fans, but it hurts even more when many are homegrown talents.
Photo by: Danny Karnik (Associated Press)
Since 2018, the Rockies have either finished in fourth or fifth place in the NL West, under the .500 mark in every season. Without a clear star player and leader on the field, the franchise’s struggles have continued this season, with a 29-41 record so far and losing records both at home and on the road. A path to the playoffs appears blocked again this season for the Rockies, as the NL West is the most competitive division in the National League and one of the toughest divisions to play in the MLB.
The Rockies are miles away from bringing a World Series Championship to the city of Denver, not even contending for a playoff spot. The best way to describe their situation might be the protagonist of the song “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)” confessing to a confidant, in particular the outro, which tails off with the lines,
The long, it's so long
The long, very long
it’s an implied reference to the road or journey they must take.