Jamey Carroll had decided to quit. His minor-league career had reached a dead end. He was making less than $12,000 a year. The Montreal Expos didn’t seemed interested in calling him up after seven full seasons in the minor leagues.
He was driving home from Ottawa, his last Triple-A outpost, figuring it was time to become a coach. Then the Expos called him up because of an injury.
So five years after making his debut, nearly two years after losing his mother to an illness, Carroll waded into the spotlight on baseball’s biggest stage Monday night. His sacrifice fly in the 13th inning scored Matt Holliday with the winning run, sending the Rockies to the postseason for the first time since 1995.
“I know my mom was up there in God’s ear during those last few innings telling him things,” Carroll said. “This means everything. It makes the journey (to the big leagues) worth it.”
HELTON’S DAY BRIGHTENED BY VISIT FROM YOUTH COACH
As Todd Helton enjoyed the ride of his life, he created more seats in the minivan for those important to him.
On Sunday afternoon, a first-time visitor graced the clubhouse, an unassuming man who wore a smile that couldn’t be wiped off with sandpaper. In a private moment before Monday’s National League wild-card tiebreaker, Helton revealed his identity.
It was Mark Rouse, his travel-team coach growing up.
“He called me a few days ago and said he wanted to be here for this,” Helton said. “He was one that was there when I was playing 70 games a year as a kid. It was nice to have him here.”
Helton said he slept perfectly Monday night and arrived at Coors Field more excited than nervous. He went through his normal pregame routine, getting his final tuneup in the indoor batting cage at 4:44 p.m.
Fielding prowess. The Rockies were charged with one error Monday – Jamey Carroll’s bad throw in the 11th – and ended up with only 68 errors for the 163 games, plus the major-league record for the highest fielding percentage in a season. Their fielding average of .98925 bettered the Boston Red Sox’s .98910 of last season. The 68 errors were 11 better than the next-lowest total in the majors (Baltimore) and 15 fewer than the next-best team in the NL (Pittsburgh).
Brothers in arms. Perhaps nobody on the Rockies knows the Padres better than does Mike Bard. A former college coach, Bard was hired to throw batting practice for the Rockies for home games this year. He knows a major-league swing – his brother Josh, a former standout at Cherry Creek High School, is the starting catcher for San Diego.
They rode to the ballpark together Monday, and Mike insisted it wasn’t awkward.
“We talked about everything but baseball,” Mike said.
This wasn’t the first time the brothers were forced to face each other. Mike was an assistant coach at the University of Kansas when Josh was starring at Texas Tech. Admitted Mike: “It’s gotten a lot easier than it was then. I told him (Monday) to go, fight, win. And we left it at that.”
NLDS rotation. The Rockies’ rotation lines up as follows: Jeff Francis, Franklin Morales and Ubaldo Jimenez. They are expected to face the Phillies’ Cole Hamels, Kyle Kendrick and Kyle Lohse.
Sunday mess. Nobody’s going to complain, but the fact the Rockies advanced to the Division Series sets up a potentially crowded sports calendar Sunday in Denver and beyond. The Broncos face San Diego at Invesco Field at 2:15 p.m., the Avalanche plays San Jose at the Pepsi Center at 6 p.m., the Rapids play Toronto at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park at 6 p.m. Unless the series is a three-game sweep, the Rockies would face Philadelphia in a Game 4 at Coors Field at 8 p.m.
Nuggets are fans. George Karl grew up “a baseball guy” and Allen Iverson is coming around, but the Rockies’ run was the buzz Monday at the Nuggets media day. Iverson lives in the same building as Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, and they occasionally bump into each other. Karl and several players went to the game, sitting in a Coors Field suite.
Iverson, who spent 11 seasons in Philadelphia with the 76ers, said he will be cheering for the Rockies.
“Ever since I met (Tulowitzki) and found out what type of person he was, I’ve been a Rockies fan ever since,” Iverson said. “When I got here, I met him the first couple of days I was here, and he told me if I wanted tickets to let him know. I didn’t know he was that good. I never heard of him before.”
Double trouble. If the Rockies had lost, there was potential for controversy in the wake of the umpiring crew’s ruling that Garrett Atkins’ seventh-inning drive to the left-center field wall stayed in the field of play, leaving him with a double and not a home run. It came with one out and nobody on in the seventh, with the Rockies clinging to a 6-5 lead.
Long drought: That the score stayed knotted so long was due to the Padres’ relief crew. The Rockies went 4 1/3 innings without a hit off Heath Bell and Doug Brocail before Jamey Carroll’s single in the 11th.
TV ratings. FSN Rocky Mountain’s telecasts of Rockies games averaged a 3.5 rating and were up 22 percent compared with 2006 and up 53 percent from 2005.
