Spring Training Cometh Soon

It's a cold, breezy, cloudy day here, temperature barely above freezing.  But, the knowledge that "pitchers and catchers report...", this week, warms my blood.  Winter is NOT my favorite season, in fact, it is my least popular time of the year.  I do appreciate that Winter makes me appreciate the coming of Spring, but I do not ski, nor do I like being cold.  Funny, ironic, because I love the changing seasons here in Colorado, but I do wish that Winter were more wintry than it has been.  We need the snow, the moisture to ensure green fairways this summer and wildfire abatement in our tinderbox-dry foothills, mountains and prairies.  I realize that, while playing numerous rounds of golf in December, January and February here in Longmont, that we shall all pay for it later, with drought conditions and water rationing this summer.  I almost feel envy from the conditions being experienced in the northeastern part of the country right now, seeing pictures of people digging out from tons of snow, the power outages, the paralyzing effect of Nature unleashing her precipatory fury on mostly powerless human beings.  I am mostly glad that it's happening there and not here, but conscious of the repercussions from the lack of snow here.

The Broncos and Denver, indeed the entire Rocky Mountain Empire, still grieve over the failure of our beloved NFL Football Team to deliver a title to our loyal fan base.  The way it all ended will be cause for much discussion over the course of the football off-season and beyond.  Tie ballgame, thirty-one seconds left in regulation, two time-outs remaining, ball on our own twenty, Peyton F. Manning trots onto the field, and, KNEELS DOWN?  Unforgivable, not since Half-a-loaf Lou Saban, Bronco head coach from 1966 to 1971, ordered quarterback Don Horn to kneel down with the score tied 10-10 against Don Schula's Miami Dolphins in the season opening game of 1971, at the newly remodeled Mile High Stadium, has surrender been met with such derision.  Denver's 'offense' that day in 1971 consisted of Floyd Little left, Floyd Little right and Floyd Little up the middle, 23 carries for 70 yards.  Former Buff, Bobby Anderson, did carry the ball 8 times and caught 5 passes.  Dolphin QB Bob Griese and his squad turned the ball over to the Broncos 5 times that game, but Denver's offense was mostly ineffectual, yet still led 10-3 into the fourth quarter, until Griese connected on a 31-yard TD pass to Paul Warfield to tie the score, with still plenty of time left.  Denver did get the ball back with three minutes to go, and Little did pick up 30 yards on a run into Miami territory, but after two incomplete passes, Saban ordered QB Horn to run out the clock as the sellout crowd at Mile High lustfully registered its disapproval.  Saban's explanation to the media afterward: 

"We had chances, they had chances. We blew them."
"They had better personnel on that club than us and I wasn't about to let them win it."
"What's the old saying, 'A half a loaf is better than none'?"

Saban was gone from Denver before the 1971 season ended.

To be fair, John Fox surrendering to a tie against the Ravens in regulation wasn't what cost the Broncos the game.  Denver's defense surrendered way before that.  And, it only became fitting that PFManning gift-wrapped the deciding interception to Raven CB Corey Graham with 1:33 remaining in the second overtime.  That was the third turnover of the game for Manning, who never looked comfortable in the frigid conditions at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.  If not for Bronco kick returner Trindon Holliday's two touchdowns (90-yard punt return to open the scoring in the first quarter, before PFM had even touched the ball, and a 104-yard kickoff return to open the second half), the game would have been a blowout in regulation.  Peyton threw 4 touchdown passes in the game.  Unfortunately, one of them went the wrong way, as Graham intercepted a high, deflected pass and scored from 39 yards in the first quarter.

At any rate, the Ravens continued on to beat the Patriots and gain entry into the Super Bowl against the 49ers.  Ravens won, who cares, they covered the over.  Football's done, step aside, it's time for baseball! 

Oh, wait, the Nuggets are on a 9-game winning streak, longest for the franchise since 2005.  This year's edition of George Karl's Nuggets is interesting, fun to watch.  Not like Melo's Nuggets.  I hope they do well, especially since their chief nemesis in the playoffs has been the LA Lakers, and Kobe's team is in danger of not even making it to the playoffs this year.

Attention now, deservedly, turns to baseball.  Not so much for our Colorado Rockies.  Under the radar is an overstatement of how little attention is being paid to our loveable(?) losers there on Blake Street.  New manager (Walt Weiss), hitting coach (Dante Bichette), pitching coach (Jim Wright, unfortunately, not my son-in-law's dad), third base coach (Stu Cole), first base coach (Rene Lacheman), bullpen coach (Bo McLaughlin) and catching coach (Jerry Weinstein).  Gone, is Jim Tracy, who managed from May 29, 2009 until he resigned on October 7th, stating at that time that "I am not the man for this job any longer.   A lot of situations have changed since I was first asked to manage this club."  Changes dictated by General Manager Dan O'Dowd and Director of Major League Operations Bill Geivett, and endorsed by owners Dick and Charlie Monfort.  Changes necessitated by the inability to find and develop Major League caliber pitching talent and conform them to the unique challenges presented by playing half their games at a mile high.

Gone, also, will be Jason Giambi, who did interview for the managerial position vacated when Tracy resigned.  Giambi could return, as a backup and designated driver for Todd Helton, but that seems unlikely.

Joining returning bench coach, Tom Runnels (from Greeley) are pretty much the entire squad from 2012 that lost 98 games.  The improvement that the Rockies brass and optimistic Rockies fans hope for boils down to one thing: improved health.  Troy Tulowitzki, Jorge DeLa Rosa, Juan Nicasio, Jhoulys Chacin, Todd Helton, Michael Cuddyer, Christian Friedrich.  In O'Dowd's and Geivett's eyes, these players all count as off-season acquisitions, since they all missed significant parts of last year's dismal season.  Re-signing Jeff Francis and inviting Yorvit Torrealba and Manny Corpus back are attempts at reconnecting with success enjoyed by the franchise back in 2007 and 2009.  Alas, the probability is clear that the Rockies will be out of contention by Memorial Day, again.  Why, our Denver Nuggets may be still be playing in June, when the Rox will most probably be 10 games behind both the Dodgers and the Giants in the NL West.  The highlight of the 2013 season, for me, will be when the Yankees visit Coors Field in May.

Not to be a Negative Nellie, but dwelling on the Colorado Rockies fortunes makes me feel like I did in the late 60s and early 70s, when the Yankees were owned by CBS, and they sucked.  The Bronx Bombers played in the 1964 World Series, capping a 5-year period where they appeared in five consecutive championship series.  They lost in 1960 to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Bill Mazeroski's 9th inning homer in game 7.  New York beat the Cincinnati Reds in 1961 and the San Francisco Giants in 1962, lost to the LA Dodgers in 1963 and the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964.  They did not return to the World Series until 1976.  From 1921 through 1963, the Yankees appeared in the World Series as American League Champions 29 times, winning 20 championship rings.  When CBS owned the team from 1964 through 1972, they never made it to the Series.  George Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973, and they were back on top by 1977.  They won again in 1978, then, captain Thurman Munson was killed in a plane crash in August of 1979, and the Yankees didn't win The Series again until 1996, Derek Jeter's rookie year.

Ironically, because Steinbrenner didn't believe Jeter was ready to be the regular Yankee shortstop for the 1996 season, he authorized a trade with the Seattle Mariners that would have shipped a young Mariano Rivera away in exchange for shortsop Felix Fermin.  But, new Yankee manager Joe Torre, director of scouting Gene Michael and assistant general manager Brian Cashman successfully argued to let Jeter begin the season at shortstop, thereby allowing them to keep Mariano Rivera in the process.  Jeter went on to bat .314, score 104 runs and hit 10 HRs with 78 RBIs.  He was unanimously selected AL Rookie of the Year, only the fifth time in 50 years, while Rivera has recorded a Major League record 608 saves and has finished 892 games in his career, all for the Yankees, thank goodness.  On May 3rd last year Mo went down with a knee injury that ended his season, but he returns healthy this season, hopefully to continue his remarkable pitching career.

Early predictions: Al East Baltimore Orioles, AL Central Detroit Tigers, AL West LA Angels, Wildcards NY Yankees and Oakland A's.  NL East Washington Nationals, NL Central Cincinnati Reds, NL West LA Dodgers, Wildcards Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants.  Tigers beat the Orioles in the ALCS, Nationals beat the Dodgers in the NLCS.  Washington Nationals World Series Champs.  Rockies might win 75 games this year.

I leave you with this, a quote from the incomparable Dodgers announcer, Vin Scully:

"Football is to baseball as blackjack is to bridge. One is the quick jolt. The other the deliberate, slow-paced game of skill, but never was a sport more ideally suited to television than baseball. It's all there in front of you. It's theatre, really. The star is the spotlight on the mound, the supporting cast fanned out around him, the mathematical precision of the game moving with the kind of inevitability of Greek tragedy. With the Greek chorus in the bleachers!"