San Diego – Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki sat in front of his locker and declared the mantra of a baseball team too ornery to let its crazy dreams die quietly.
“We’re staying alive,” Tulowitzki said Saturday night, “and riding it out as long as we can.”
During 15 years of major-league baseball in Denver, nobody has filled the Rockies clubhouse with his presence the way Tulowitzki does.
With hot-hitting slugger Matt Holliday shelved by a strained oblique and scrap heap refugee Mark Redman starting on the mound, Tulowitzki supplied two hits and ignited the scoring in a crucial 6-2 victory against San Diego that pulled Colorado within 2 1/2 games of a postseason berth as the regular season enters its final tense week.
How did the Rockies get here?
Following the giant steps of Tulo.
He might not have the statistics to match Holliday. But it is Tulowitzki who has allowed Colorado to believe no dream is too crazy to come true.
The campaign to make Tulo the National League’s rookie of the year is nice. But he put the resiliency in the Rockies. If you believe leadership counts for as much as batting average, then Tulowitzki is the real most valuable player of this team.
With the Rockies crumbling in the spring, their record sliding to 18-26, it seemed like an opportune time for a rookie to keep his yap shut.
Instead, one of these years, maybe we’ll look back at May 21 as the moment Colorado became Tulowitzki’s team.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been on a losing team my entire life,” he said that day, when yet another Rockies season appeared lost. “You don’t want to get used to this. It’s disturbing.”
What Tulowitzki has done for this franchise cannot begun to be measured by his 22 home runs, most ever by an N.L. rookie shortstop.
What Tulowitzki has done is change the culture of a team. For too long, mediocrity was the loftiest goal the Rockies seemed able to afford. Since Tulo announced he was sick and tired of losing, however, Colorado has gone 65-46 and steadfastly refused to quit in the chase for a wild-card berth.
“He wakes up wanting to win,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said.
“When (Tulowitzki) wakes up in the morning, the only thing on his mind is winning the game, whatever that’s going to take, whether it be the glove, something on the bases or swinging the bat. That’s his first and foremost focus. I’ve been around great athletes and good ballplayers. Some would wake up ready to make a highlight film, some wake up ready to hit. He wakes up looking to win.”
Tulowitzki does not believe in anything less than being No. 1. What’s more, anyone who does not agree will not only lose the 22-year-old shortstop’s respect, but get an earful of his wrath, because the lone thing Tulo cannot do on a baseball field is grin and bear it.
Anybody who has been burned by the competitive heat of Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan or wilted under the intimidating glare of Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy realizes what can give a superstar that incredible wow is sometimes far beyond anything in the box score.
It’s far too early to suggest a poster of Tulowitzki will wallpaper as many bedrooms of worshippers as have been filled by Jordan or Roy.
But playing baseball’s ultimate position of authority, Tulo craves the responsibility Larry Walker never had the emotional tools to assume and brings an in-your-face edginess that the quiet professionalism of Helton simply does not demand.
It feels like the sunny dawn of a new era in Denver sports, with Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler walking without fear in the shadow of John Elway, the Nuggets mimicking the swagger of Carmelo Anthony and Tulowitzki standing tall at shortstop for the Rockies.
None of these three princes are older than 24. They possess the potential and drive to entertain Hall of Fame dreams. All come complete with an easy-to-love nickname and the charisma to be the face of a sports-crazy city.
We mean no disrespect to Jay-C or Melo. But Tulo is the man who would be king.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
