Sports: A Way To Build Community

Colorado's sports scene has undergone a seismic shift. Long a place fanatical about football, we are now crazy about baseball, too. The Colorado Rockies have come up from under the radar to win seventeen of their last eighteen games, and are playing the Arizona Diamondbacks, beginning Thursday, best of seven games for the National League Championship.

The Rockies made a decison to build their team with young guys through the draft, as opposed to making trades for veteran players. They were quiet about it, because in the sports world people want to win now, this year, and not delay gratification for a few years. Sure enough, there was a lot of criticism of the management team by the local media.

The plan worked! The so-called experts who write and talk about baseball barely know the Rockies personnel. The national media feature stories about the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, or Cubs on a daily basis, but rarely write about the Rockies. The Rockies are okay with that. They like sneaking up on people. They won their division by defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in three straight games.

They play excellent defense. I believe I read that their fielding percentage is the best in the history of baseball! They have excellent pitching. They lost three of their starting pitchers to injuries late in the summer. Instead of frantically trying to make a trade or two, they gave the ball to the young guys who had been playing for their minor league teams, and they have come through handsomely. Their bullpen has been marvelously effective. The bullpen are the pitchers who come in in the late innings, and often just work one inning each. The manager of the Rockies is a very likeable fellow named Clint Hurdle. A former catcher, he has been very supportive of his young players, and shows them that he has great confidence in them.

Colorado fans are some of the best sports fans in the nation. The Broncos are not doing well, so the fans will just let Coach Mike Shanahan try to figure out what he needs to do to right the ship. Meanwhile, over at Coors field, there are a bunch of young guys who really know how to play the game of baseball, and we are all enjoying watching or listening to the games.

Me? I listen on the radio as I sweep and mop the floors, do the laundry, and do the dishes. One never knows when the Social Services gestapo will swoop down to make another unannounced visit to check on the well-being of our foster children. We'll be ready for them next time.

I grew up listening to sports and other programs on the radio. I don't think my parents bought their first t.v. set until I was about ten years old, and Howdy Doody was no match for the imagination-stretching programs on the radio. The Shadow Knows! The Lone Ranger Rides Again! Now I am listening to the Rockies make their push to get to the world series. It won't be easy, because the Diamondbacks are a very good team.

When we moved out here to the high plains last July, we made the decison not to subscribe to any cable or satellite t.v. We do have a nice library of children's videos, but we have learned that we can live without the televison programs. Listening to excellent sports announcers on the radio is a great way to learn some of the more subtle details of the sport. And the sports play a big role in bringing people of the community together around a common connection.