Game 99: Twins at Rockies

First Pitch: 2:10 PM CT

TV: Twins.TV

Radio: TIBN

Know Thine Enemy: Purple Row

(Note: Yes, I know this accidentally posted a week ago before I scrambled to hide it. Unless Ben waved some sort of magic wand while I’m wandering the Rockies, I wasn’t able to save that exact version + comments. So—let’s begin anew!)

Hello from Denver, Twinkie Town! I’m not going to the game today, but if all has gone to plan I’ll have been at Friday & Saturday’s Minnesota Twins vs Colorado Rockies clashes. Stories & pics to come, as usual!

When I think of the Rockies franchise, I have an oddly specific

memory of reading this book about their creation and inaugural season. Don’t ask me why a book about baseball’s newest expansion franchise (1993, along with the Florida Marlins) would have appealed to a 11-year old who mainly knew baseball through Tony La Russa Baseball II on the computer and his dad’s VHS tapes of Games 6/7 of the 1991 World Series—but I was a precocious reader and ended up working in libraries for awhile. So it all sort of tracks.

Anyway, I recall being fascinated by the Blake Street Bombers and the thin air of the Mile High area (I’d often purposely put my Tony II teams in that stadium in hopes of more simulated dingers).

My baseball bible as a child

A look back at those ‘95 Denver denizens is pretty wild...

• Andres Galarraga: 604 PA, 31 HR, 106 RBI—and a league-leading 146 SO.

The Big Cat

• Eric Young Sr.: League-leading nine triples!
• Vinny Castilla: 571 PA, 34 2B, 32 HR, 90 RBI
• Larry Walker: 562 PA, 31 2B, 36 HR, 101 RBI, .988 OPS
• Dante Bichette: 612 PA, led the league in H (197), HR (40), RBI (128), & SLG (.620). Yet, astoundingly, only compiled 1.2 WAR. Was he the worst LF of all time?!

Dante about to trot

Despite all that offensive pop, the team’s non-pitcher OPS+ was 99. So, this was a league-average squad at the plate. Baseball was bonkers in the mid-1990s!

Pitching-wise—yeesh. Unless Kevin “Puttin’ on the” (not an official nickname) Ritz was starting games, it was likely a slugfest. Well, until the later innings when a dominant bullpen would show up.

Baseball-Reference.com

A 108 ERA+ overall, meaning that the 1995 Colorado Rockies were a better pitching team than hitting team. Again: bonkers.

Ultimately, the Rox rode a 77-67 record in the strike-shortened ’95 season to a Wild Card berth. Alas, they drew the Maddux-Glavine-Smoltz eventual World-champion Atlanta Braves in the ALDS and were bounced 3-1.

Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP via Getty Images

Forever amazed that a guy who looked exactly like everyone’s stereotypical high school substitute teacher could be so dominant

All in all, I just remember the 1990s Rockies being fun squads. Folks hadn’t quite figured out the altitude effect—and even if they did, the answer was probably “take more PEDs and/or just mash the ball over the fence”—so it was bombs away in Denver!

Boom!

In a post-humidor world, the homers don’t fly as happily in the Centennial State as they used to, but perhaps today these clubs can turn back the clock and send a few into seats!

More from twinkietown.com:

• Twins players watch the solar eclipse in Chicago