Winning the Right Way

Tonight is the first game of the World Series and I am 100% behind Colorado to win. Not because I am a HUGE Angels fan and would love nothing more than for the Red Sox to lose and not beause they are the underdogs but because I am impressed by the Rockies organization.

Back on September 15, baseball's Colorado Rockies were only four games above .500, six-and-a-half games behind in the race for the final playoff spot. With only nine games left to play, they were still four-and-a-half games behind. And now the Rockies, 40-to-1 shots to make it to the playoffs, are in the World Series.

To get to the playoffs, the Rockies had to win 14 of their last 15 games, including a do-or-die one-game playoff against the San Diego Padres. As befitted this improbable story, they won that game by scoring three runs in the bottom of the 13th inning to overcome a two-run deficit.
Once October started, the Rockies kept rolling: They swept both Philadelphia and Arizona to enter the World Series having won 21 of their last 22 games.

The Rockies' way means "[doing] the best job [they] can to get [the right] people with the right sense of moral values . . ." To that end, prospective Rockies are interviewed to see if they are compatible with the Rockies' approach.

And off the field, the Rockies players recently proved that the "Rockies' Way" is the right way. Last summer, a minor league coach in the Rockies farm system, Mike Coolbaugh, was killed by a line drive while coaching at first base. The Rockies players have now voted a full share of the team's playoff money for the coach's family.

With all the news these days about steroids, cheating, and felony arrests, modern-day pro sports needs a story about the good guys. And athletes need the reminder that it is possible to excel both as a player and as a human being—that character counts. Go Rockies!!