On “Faith Day” at Coors Field on Sunday, the Rockies flashed on the scoreboard a long list of various church groups in attendance, making up a major part of the announced crowd of 45,660.
The scoreboard roll call seemed to take even longer than the San Diego third inning, when the Padres — on “Faith Day,” the opponent had to be either the Padres, the Angels or the Cardinals, didn’t it? — scored seven times to take an 11-0 lead. The San Diego outburst sent recently acquired Rockies pitcher Livan Hernandez strolling to the dugout, accompanied by a chorus of scattered, yet noticeable, boos.
After the Padres finished off the 16-7 rout, perhaps 15,000 remained behind and gathered on the third- base side of the stands to listen to testimony from Rockies co-owner Charlie Monfort, former major-league pitcher Dave Dravecky and Rockies outfielder Seth Smith, leading up to a concert from Christian rock music superstar Steven Curtis Chapman.
The reality was that even the positive-leaning folks in the seats realized the chances of the 2008 Rockies getting back in the National League West race are history.
Last season? In the secular sense, the Rockies’ run to the World Series was a miracle — and it becomes more of one every day.
Thanks to a rotten division, the Rockies could have taken advantage of a homestand that began with four games against Washington and three against San Diego to at least be within striking distance when Arizona arrived for the three-game series that begins Tuesday night.
Instead, after losing five of seven to the dregs of the league, and failing to take advantage of a four-game Arizona losing streak that ended Sunday, Colorado is eight back.
“We have six weeks to play, a little bit more,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said after the debacle. “We had some of the same questions earlier. The last road trip was a big, monumental one, and we went 6-4. This homestand, we were going to get well. We haven’t. This is, I would say, one of the most difficult weeks we’ve had here in a long time.
“I would say this three-game series is an opportunity for us to get things right. If it gets away from us then, we’ll know where we are at the end of those three games. It could be sobering. And it could give us something to hold onto and look forward on.”
The preponderance of intradivisional play the rest of the season makes it likely that somebody will win at least 83 games, and to get to that, Colorado would have to go 30-12 down the stretch.
Maybe all of that is breaking down the irrelevant, because the bigger issue isn’t one of numbers and 2008 standings, but of a long-range outlook. Is there any hope? Is there any hope that the Rockies’ 2007 run can be something other than a meteor striking LoDo?
Helped considerably by the spike in season tickets, the Rockies on Sunday cracked 2 million in home attendance, and they’re averaging 33,900. This still isn’t reminiscent of the sellout era, but what it should do above all is prove to the Monfort ownership that just a taste of winning — just a taste! — is enough to regenerate the excitement and pack the park on many nights.
With that as a backdrop, all the hairsplitting over the daunting effects of past mistakes (Mike Hampton, Denny Neagle, et al.) and Todd Helton’s contract is flimsy rationalization.
Now, the somewhat stunning one-two moves of taking on Hernandez’s contract and, to make room for him, eating the $900,000 remaining on Kip Wells’ one-year deal could frighten the ownership even more if Hernandez at this stage of his career truly is as bad as he looked in his Colorado debut Sunday.
What now?
The Rockies should tell Helton, out with back problems, to take the rest of the season off and try to get well for 2009 — if that’s possible.
Find out if Ian Stewart is the real deal at third.
Keep Garrett Atkins at first, and commit to keeping him, too.
Test Matt Holliday’s sincerity about his professed affection for Colorado with a long- term offer that involves concrete numbers, rather than leaked parameters, and with a deal that finds the middle ground between: a) making the hometown discount an insulting percentage, and, b) handing agent Scott Boras a blank contract and telling him to fill in the numbers.
Win the fans’ faith.
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
