Mendoza's 5280 reasons to hate Scott Boras...

Read about how 1 man can turn baseball into a joke.

"No more half-filled stadiums next year" - Holliday

Holliday-being-a-Rockie-as-long-as-possible hopefuls, such as myself, got a quick endorphin rush when he said the above statement. Why? Because he could have EASILY said a cheesy, generic remark like Sullivan or Atkins did, but instead went this route of talking about the '08 season. If I were head editor of the Denver Post, Holliday's quote would be at the top of the front page tomorrow.

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to have Holliday-hope)

Rockies trades...

As you probably know, the Rockies management said they'd pony up an additional $20 million to payroll this year. It looks like it's mostly going to go to Holliday, Hawpe, Atkins, Kaz and possibly a new centerfielder or addition to the bullpen.
Position by position, it looks like this:
Catcher: If Torrealba asks for a big pay increase, you gotta let him go; fact of the matter is that this is his peak right here and you can optimistically expect the same numbers out of him next year. Iannetta, on the other hand, should get more games but isn't completely ready for starting every game yet. I like the rumor of getting Lo Duca but lets please forget about Barrett.
First: Helton's not going anywhere.
Second: If Kaz wants $3 million (2X 2007) it might be a good idea to do it or maybe trade him for a sweet bullpen guy. And with Ian Stewart doing fall instructional ball to become a 2nd baseman, it might not be the worst thing in the world if Kaz was traded.
Short: T3 (Troy Trever Tulowitzki) could quite possibly be the most underpaid ($381k) future star anywhere; lucky Rox. They definitely have to keep him here in CO as long as possible; he could easily be to the Rox what Jeter is to NY.
Third: Atkins isn't going anywhere; although will get a lot more $.
Left: This, Holliday, is where the majority of that $20 million is going. His salary should likely be up around A-Rod's and Zito's but here's thing: unless he gets traded to the BoSux or Mets, his chances of seeing another world series any time soon are not good. We'll see if Boras decides to screw over this Rox 'story-book' teams in the MLB which could easily turn into a dynasty team consistently making the playoffs (reminiscent of the 90's Braves). If I were Boras, I'd let the Rox payup for 1 more year (at a discounted 'Rox price') to show the baseball world that Holliday is capable of more amazing things than what we've seen and then at the end of '08 do it again (Rox discount) or possibly get a $200 mill. 7 yr contract somewhere else that he probably deserves.
Center: if Seth Smith could play center, the Rox would have it made in the shade and it would be a good idea to buy season tickets now to avoid the World Series fiasco the Rox management will deal with again next year. What will likely happen though is Spily, Taveras or Sully will stay in this position.
Right: Hawpe will have to fend off Seth Smith with some amazing defense and offense; IF the Rox were to trade Hawpe for an amazing bullpen guy that wouldn't be the worst thing though but Hawpe will likely stay in right albeit for a higher price tag.

Starters: Aaron Cook's a little overpriced now and with a $4.5 million option in '08 he might be a little more overpriced.
Keep Francis, Morales, Jimenez and Hirsh at whatever costs though. Fogg never was too impressive and seemed to me to be the luckiest pitcher in baseball. Wouldn't be worse thing in world to see him leave.

Bullpen: This is where the real fun begins. Corpas isn't going anywhere; Herges should be re-signed (he's got the 'experience' element much needed); Hawkins won't get his big big bucks but should come back nonetheless. Flip a coin on Affeldt as he'll either amaze or disappoint, hard to say which. Fuentes is the main question mark. I personally think we saw the start of Fuentes' downfall this year; you never knew which Fuentes would show up but it would either be the super-amazing Fuentes of years ago who made it to the All-Star game without question, or it would be the Fuentes who threw meat-balls (like those to the Sox). I would trade him away for another bullpen guy or another starter.

There you go, there is definite potential for the Rox to come back better than '07 (believe it or not) but at the same time the Rox could easily go back to their '05-06 ways if they don't play things right.
We'll see I suppose.
Mendoza 5280 (hopeful reasons to buy '08 season tix)

Clint's Adventures in Hurdling Bad Plate Umps

So Game 3 felt like it should have been a win: Taveras was sitting and the Rox went back to their spring training lineup more or less. Game 3 hurt, as did my vocal cords and the Baseball Gods did not come through with a Buckner-esque error from Ortiz.
Game 4, however was all Hurdle's mistake. Why he did not go right to Corpas instead of Fuentes I'll never know. Fuentes looked lost up there and served up a meat-ball nowhere near Yorvit's target but right into Kielty's bread-basket. Oops.
The Baseball Gods, though, knowing that true Rox fans would be distraught if Seth Smith didn't get a shot at saving the game, had him end up being the last batter of the season. So in the end we can't hate Hurdle too much.
We can however hate each of the home umps for making an unheard of amount of bad strikes/balls. Luckily Fox wisened up to it by Game 4 and started showing their "Fox Trax" thingy more often and showed each of the bad calls (I counted about 12 balls called strikes against the Rox hitters and about 6 strikes called balls against the Rox pitchers, which forced them to throw out meatballs).

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to say "oh well, whatcha gonna do?")

Baseball Gods to Hurdle: Seth Smith is your human rabbits foot

Call this data-mining at its worst or call it a statistical fluke or call it luck or call it a hot-streak; I don't care. The fact of the matter is the Rockies have NEVER lost with Seth Smith in and they desperately need a spark in their at-bats. Furthermore, Smith does something that few Rockies (especially Spily) have been doing: attack the ball. He's 7-for-12 with a triple (against Peavy even) and 1 strikeout which means he's doing better than Ian Stewart and Joe Koshansky under the pressure of the big leagues. Furthermore his SkySox batting average, RBIs and HRs are very Holliday/Atkins/Helton-esque.

I don't know, I think I'll just be happy if the lineup is a different one tomorrow night.

Anyhow, I'm hoping a huge 'Bartman'-like caliber event happens Saturday to rattle the BoSux's cage and causes them to have a meltdown of Cub-al proportions.

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons Hurdle has to start acting like he wants to win "Manager of the Year")

Baseball Gods to Hurdle: "Hello? You there? Use Smith!"

Not much to say.
-Spily might as well have been a pitcher up to bat. Oops, eh?
-TGFH (Thank God For Holliday) or that would have been another embarrassing game; of course him getting picked off almost exed out any good he did for the night, especially since his hit to get on was a key momentum-shifting thing in that 8th inning. Oops, eh?
-Home ump was different tonight though still extremely inconsistent and forced Jimenez to layup meatballs on too many occasions, including the one which gave the go-ahead RBI to Lowell.
-Did Rockies management jinx their own team with the ticket-fiasco????? Hope not.
-Are these 2 losses going to clear the Rockies bandwagon created only a month ago???? Hope so.
-Will the Rockies' bats return to Coors???? Hope so. Stats still say the whole team's in a slump but due to breakout for at least a couple games. After watching these guys since Spring Training I can tell you that I've never seen this ugly of a slump.
-Will Fogg's magic work again???? Hope so.

Mendoza's 5280

Baseball Gods to Hurdle: "Your test begins now"

I'm going to be straightforward here with how the CoRox can beat down the BoSux: change around the lineup. During this whole 8-day layoff I've been hoping and anxiously awaiting Hurdle's decision on who would be the DH there in Boston, and then the lineup comes out with Spilborghs there. Not sure why he was there; Hurdle should know that Seth Smith does amazing things given the chance and that Spily has essentially been a noneventful player this postseason. And why oh why is Hurdle not bunting Taveras on base more? During the pre-season Spring Training games, Hurdle was making Taveras bunt left and right and it was taking a serious toll on the opposing pitchers' gameplans. But since Taveras came back he's been a non-event, like Spily, except for one outstanding (possibly game-saving) catch against the D-Bags. Hurdle's got to either get Taveras back to bunting where he can at least get the blood running through him (high-energy player) or switch him up altogether with Cory Sullivan; and Spily has to take a seat too on DH and Seth Smith has to replace him immediately. Kiszla actually makes sense at the end of his article.
Whatever Hurdle does, he has to start rewarding performance by mixing up the lineup tonight (maybe put Tulo in the 2 or 3 spot since he seems born ready to play in the World Series and maybe give Hawpe 1 more chance before considering moving him back a spot) and get Seth Smith somewhere in there. Smith's a play-maker plain and simple and perhaps Hurdle deserved only 1 run on offense for not playing him.

Mendoza's 5280 (confused looks from us CoRox fans after hearing Helton say Spily would be DH)

Post-reaction reaction...

So I think the Rockies were used to playing in high-energy stadiums and crowds and last night was anything but high-energy right from the start. The Fenway crowd seemed quiet and very calm, almost like they were expecting a win to be delivered to them on a golden platter and so instead of being the '10th man' they were more like casual onlookers. I think this probably caught the CoRox by surprise.
I still stand by my belief that the home ump, Montague, truly made some bad 'ball' calls against the Rox pitchers forcing them to lay-up perfect meatballs down the pipe or face a walk. Also, I'm not sure how Montague could possibly call that balk against Morales from behind homeplate with that angle; it was very much so like he and the ump at 1st were aware that he had a tendency to kick his leg back a bit and were ready to jump all over him if he did it even remotely close. And it didn't help that Francis couldn't find his killer-curve, and really didn't even get a chance to use it much thanks to bad umping.
That bad umping really made a difference against the CoRox offense, but I guess that's something that you as a hitter have to be aware of and therefore maybe have to be more protective around the plate (Taveras' first strikeout of the game was an example of how he could have protected better). So perhaps the 8-day layoff did screw with some of their timing (somebody get Hawpe a Golden Sombrero) while allowing others to finally get back in the groove (Helton/Tulo/Atkins).
One thing that really stood in contrast was how the BoSux batters reacted to either fouling good pitches away or striking out and being mad at themselves because they would consistently throw out certain 4-letter words. The CoRox however had double the strikeouts, half of them on shady strikezone calls, but didn't feel the need to cuss up a storm. So the CoRox definitely are winning the World Series based on character; lets hope the Baseball Gods turn that into actual wins.
Mendoza's 5280 (reasons for the CoRox to run for President in '08).

Bushleague umpiring

Not much the CoRox can do when Montague is calling everything for the Beckett even remotely close and nothing for Francis and Morales (Speier straight up choked) forcing them to throw huge meatballs right down the pipe.
Started with Taveras being called out on the first at-bat; funny how Fox's little clipshow of Beckett's 'K's half of them are actual true strikes whilst the other half are BS calls.
BoSox suck. Tulo's on a tear. Helton's gonna kill some people.

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to wake up tomorrow with a clear conscious though).

Now would be a good time to turn off SportsCenter and ESPN altogether

They, and every other major media outlet not based in Denver, are discounting the Rockies way way WAY too much again.
They lie and say the 8-day layoff will affect the Rockies, but if you ask me it'll just give the power hitters (Helton, Atkins, Holliday) time to re-find their swings, Helton especially. Helton said this was true and said he was very glad to have 8 days to get out of his funk.
They ignore the fact that when the CoRox faced the BoSux back in June, that the CoRox absolutely outscored them 20 to 5 and that 19 of those runs were against their 'all-star' Beckett and Schilling duo, while only 1 run was against knuckball-man Wakefield and that he's injured now and won't be on the World Series roster at all. They especially ignore the fact that this BoSux-pounding happened at Fenway.
They instead talk up how the BoSux have decimated the American League and then remind us "the American League is the one with the better-hitting".
Anyhow, I'm just waiting for the sports columnist/anchor/commentator to say that the entire Rockies team, not just Josh Fogg, are 'dragon slayers' because they took down Beckett, Schilling, Webb, Peavy, Valverde, Smoltz, Hoffman, Mussina, Clemens, Pettitte. Any behavioral statistician (if such things exist) could pretty easily look at the Rockies' stats in 'must-win' games and against big-name pitching aces and in 2-out at-bat situations and easily decipher that the Rockies are a team who do amazing under things pressure.
My advice to BoSux fans at Fenway tonight? "Be quiet, you fools, you'll anger the beast!"

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to again mute the game and turn on 850 KOA on radio).

Mr. and Mrs. Mendoza are now a rare breed of Rockies fan...

in that we were extremely extremely lucky to get tickets (by way of my brother's computer in Oregon).
And, as luck would have it (again), they are for Game 3 again (long-time, meaning 2 weeks, Mendoza blog readers know that me and Mrs. Mendoza went to Game 3 of the NLDS with the Phony Phillies and Game of NLCS against D-Bag Diamondbacks).
My Oregonian brother had 1 browser open on 1 computer and by luck the Rockies website welcomed him in just after 1 pm mtn. After incorrectly inputting the garbled word verification, he finally was able to buy the tickets. He did 'best available' and somehow seats in section 119 were available over an hour into the ticket selling spree; which goes to show how horribly slow and sloppy the Rockies ticket system was.
So although we'll never truly know if the Rockies tickets got into the 'right hands', I can assure you that at least 4 of the tickets are now in the hands of some hardcore Rockies fans.
On a sadder note, one of my co-workers who is as much a lifelong Rockies fan as me, and bought tickets for every playoff game, did not get tickets. Upon hearing that the tickets sold out completely, he came into my office with shiny eyeballs and a reddened nose and looked like his world had just come crashing down around him. After consoling him by sharing in the insult-spewing towards the Rockies office at how stupidly they handled all this, he left my office saying "Man I hope the Rockies kick the shit outta those Sox."

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to believe that there will be 10-times the people standing outside Coors listening as there will be inside watching during each home game)

Post Rockies second server crash prediction headline: "World Series tickets now available at King Sooper's"

Just a prediction right now; we'll see if it comes to fruition at 12:01 pm mtn.
It seems that the Rockies management don't think they can do a lottery of any sort in the time given.
So the obvious next choice to get those tickets out there would be a King Sooper's ticket sale because having 500,000 people rushing to Coors Field all at once would not be a good thing for anyone.
We'll see.
Obviously this is all moot if the servers do in fact hold up this time.

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to have this page bookmarked just in case)

"Malicious Attack", you say?

Mrs. Mendoza nailed it: "Were the ordinary users (you and me) being 'malicious' in the way we were constantly refreshing the Rockies' website or was it a hacker-led 'malicious' attack?"
My response: "We'll find out based on if the Rockies get the FBI involved or not."

So is it a BS cover-up or not? Who cares; right now the only thing that matters is what happens 15 hours from now.

Mendoza's 5280

Why are the Rockies management taking forever to make a new ticket-selling plan?

2 big problems facing them: How do you sell the tickets in a way that will work (forget 'efficiency') and how do you do it to minimize potential lawsuits?
The website system will crash again; no doubts there, right? But what are the real other options now?
-I mentioned King Sooper's in a previous post but the second they say that all tickets will go out via King Sooper's there will be a mass-panic to drive wildly to the neighborhood King Sooper's whereby they better have security/police on duty because it will quickly turn into a mad-house. And if any of those people going to get tickets either cause an accident or get into an accident suddenly the Rockies are put in litigation's way. Bad plan.
-They can go back to the ticket lottery system except say it's 100% ticket lottery this time. This would cause probably more than half of the people who tried to access the ticket website here in the Metro area to drive madly to Coors Field. Again, insane driving/accidents would put the Rockies back in litigation's way; but on the bright side the Rockies could have more of a centralized police presence around where the tickets are sold.
-They emulate the Cleveland Indians' online lottery system whereby we would enter an online lottery with emails and they'd do the lottery that way. It seems to me that the main setback for the Rockies would be if they truly had no way of doing this (with either a lack of programmers who could do it or something like that); and it might go against some kind of current Rockies contract in place with Paciolan to sell tickets (although I think the Rockies office could probably easily argue that Paciolan definitely didn't uphold their end of the contract, hence a breach). If the Rockies did it right this could be the best plan.
Again, we'll see hopefully some time before the 10 o'clock newscast (like they said) but so far they've totally missed their stated press conference times.

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to do the online lottery like the Indians').

You people apparently read my blog or read my mind...

From 9news.com:
"21st Street from Market Street to Blake Street is closed as is Blake Street from 22nd Street to 20th Street due to heavy pedestrian traffic in the area around Coors Field."

Well if/when the website reopens it'll just re-crash itself (perhaps a couple thousand tickets will go out before that though) and then maybe the Rockies office will consider King Sooper's sales or line lottery for the rest, in which case it would be a good thing to be within proximity of a car and a King Sooper's.

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to keep at least half a tank of gas in your car at all times).

Rockies need to switch to 100% King Sooper's or line lottery sales right now

This is ridiculous. I figured the Rockies' office (and by that I mean Paciolan) would have their shite together more than this but it appears as though they were the only ones in the Denver area NOT expecting 8.5 million hits in 90 minutes. Pathetic.
All I have to say is thank the Baseball Gods that only a "couple hundred" tickets were sold. There's still hope for decently-priced tickets.
Now if you'll excuse me I have to go sacrifice a baseball.

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons why the line lottery must be reinstated immediately)

Baseball Gods gave the Indians too many chances

but they couldn't convert. So the Red Sux will gladly take their place.

I never mentioned this because I didn't want to jump to conclusions about how the Rockies felt but my guess is this had a huge impact after all on the Rockies: when the D-Bags beat the Rockies weeks ago there at Coors and secured their spot in the playoffs they started celebrating right there on the field. The Rockies players watched all of it and slowly made their way to the locker room; a shot of Holliday staring out at the celebrations really ingrained itself in my memory and you could just feel that the Rockies wanted vengence and wanted that feeling. Weeks later they got that feeling and then some right there on the same field.
Tonight I'm guessing the majority of the Rockies watched the Sox-Indians and watched all the way through to the end and saw this sight from the Indians dugout whilst the Sux were celebrating:



Now how hard do you think the Rockies are going to try to NOT be in this kind of situation?
On a brighter note, it was nice hearing the national tv commentators talk up the Rockies for once. But I guess they gotta make people think it'll be a good competition (and make them think the Sux will have a chance even though the Rox embarrassed them back in June) so as they can get some ratings.
Mendoza's 5280

Very good articles in the Denver Post this Sunday

about Hurdle, Helton, Seth Smith, and just the Rockies' long wait. Definitely recommended reading on a snowing Sunday while we all wait for the next 23.5 hours to tick by.

Prediction: here's the Denver Post headline on October 23: ROCKIES FANS SHUT OUT

The story will have to do with how hundreds of ticketbrokers from across the country each used hundreds of computer farms to virtually buy 99% of the available World Series tickets in 45 seconds. In the article there will likely be a Rockies rep who says something dumb like "We had software implemented which deterred a great majority of ticketbrokers but it appears as though a few got through" or "We will do our best to find out who circumvented our ticketbroker filtering technology and decide what to do from there", or they'll try to cover their asses by saying "We greatly underestimated the effects of ticketbrokers and greatly overestimated our ticketbroker filtering technology, but that's to be expected due to this being our first World Series ticket sale."
All BS statements and nothing Rockies management or MLB can do (or would like to do) because all those tickets will immediately be on StubHub earning MLB a cut on each ticket sold.

In the highly unlikely event that the press asked for my statement I'd slam down the idiots claiming that an all-outdoor-lottery system would have just equally led to hundreds of hired homeless standing in lines for the nationwide ticketbroker companies. I'd say that the ticketbrokers WANTED it online because they can put millions of ticket-buyers 'in line' that way; whereas the lottery system would have limited ticketbrokers to the number of people who would physically want to be in line representing the ticketbrokers (ie in the Metro area there are 9000 homeless people in the Metro area).
Here, I'll put it this way: if these ticketbrokers wanted the same ticket-buying success on the line lottery as they'd have on the internet, they would have had to payoff at least 4000 homeless people to buy World Series tickets, and that's assuming that those are 4000 of the luckiest homeless people ever in that they would each have needed to win the line lottery to even buy the tickets.
And now I'll reframe it this way: making all the available Rockies World Series tickets available only online is the line lottery equivalent of allowing ticketbrokers to have 10 million hired ticket-buyers waiting in line and each of the hired ticket-buyers is amazingly equipped to stand in line and amazingly 'lucky' with the line lottery.
Good job Rockies management and good job MLB.

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to worry about not getting a World Series ticket at face-value)

Crap, my views coincide with Woody Paige...

In his article today he ends by saying:

Here's my proposal:
Everybody who buys one or more tickets at the website must type in his name, address, credit-card number, naturally, and an ID (driver's license) number. Each ticket-purchaser will be able to get a computer printout (as airline passengers do online).
Then, at the gate on game night, the person who purchased the tickets must present the computer printout, the ID and the credit card for admission. The purchaser and his companions must be together, and each would receive a wristband.
The procedure would slow the process of permitting ticket-holders to pass, but we're accustomed to airport waits, and it would guarantee that those who bought the tickets were using them and prevent scalpers with 30 computers from buying tickets and reselling them online or in the street.
Coming from a fool, this plan is foolproof.

It's funny because I had the exact same idea as he did yesterday after thinking about me and Mrs. Mendoza's upcoming Vegas weekend and thinking about how the airline tickets have to match "your official ID" and thought if the Rockies really truly wanted to keep the tickets out of money-grubbing across-the-country ticket brokers' hands and wanted the true fans who will actually use them and not resell them (even with the opportunity to make 10 times what one paid) they should do this.

I hate to say it but come Monday at 10:05 am there will be 2.3 million angry and pissed off Denver-metro'ites who will suddenly be faced with having to pay at least $400 (for worst seat in the house- rockpile) if they want to see the Rockies in their first World Series.
Lets just hope that that anger and bad karma is channeled towards the Rockies' management, who got rid of the line lottery, and MLB, who is taking at least 15k tickets each game, instead of 'Kaz-H-Bomb-Atk-itzki' and the awesome Rocktober (greedy trademark pending by the Rockies) pitching staff.
We'll see.

On a side note, it appears as though Manny Ramirez has now built up enough ill-will with the Baseball Gods due to his recent verbal sideshow antics and laziness on the field (ie "the longest single baseball history" yesterday) so that now the Red Sox should get thoroughly embarrassed by the Indians (or Rockies) in front of their own fans.
But don't worry, Manny, you always have next year to try to build up goodwill with the Baseball Gods.

Mendoza's 5280

Rockies are 2 degrees of separation from Mendoza

Since this blog is named after Mario Mendoza and dedicated to the Rockies (more or less), I figured I'd connect the 2.

Here we go:

-Mario Mendoza, above, hit .215 for his career and often hovered in the lower .200's, typically making him be at the bottom of major league batting average lists published in newspapers;

-For awhile, it was thought that George Brett coined 'Mendoza Line' (although it appears a sportwriter started it before Brett) after checking these newspapers to make sure his own batting average wasn't below Mendoza's.

-George Brett was a teammate of Rockies Manager, Clint Hurdle, on the Royals from '77-81 and apparently the 2 were 'drinking buddies' (and are good friends still, hence why George Brett was in the dugout with Hurdle at the end of Monday night's NLCS Game 4).

The alternative goes likes this:

-Brett was thought to have coined 'Mendoza Line'.

-Brett was famously involved in the 'Pine Tar Incident' whereby Home Umpire, Tim McClelland ruled that a Brett homerun was an out due to too much pine tar on the bat.

-McClelland was the home ump in the Rockies-Padres Wild-Card where baseball wackos say Holliday missed home plate and yet was called safe by McClelland; those same wackos however don't raise an equal amount of fuss over Atkins' obvious homer ruled as a double which would have given the Rockies the lead and never made the game go to extra-innings where Holliday's slide at home occurred.

Mendoza's 5280 (degress of separation)

Links:

Basic Mendoza Line history

George Brett history

Pine Tar Incident

Time for simple math with simple estimates...

[Well I was going to do a neat writeup on Mario Mendoza (for whome this blog is named after) but that'll have to wait a day.]

So a Colorado Rockies spokesman said that the Wild-Card game against the Padres sold about 500 tickets/minute, which means (based on about 15000-20000 season ticket holders, which leaves 30000-35000 tickets available) the game sold out in just over an hour.

Now, based on how the MLB handles World Series games and based on World Series ticket sales for recent teams we can just about estimate how quickly tickets will go for the Rockies(assuming the Rockies' website doesn't crash like the Giants' did in 2002).
Based on the above Giants article (saying 14k tickets were available) and based on the 30000 season ticket holders (out of 41k capacity) the Giants had that year, we can estimate that around 15000 total tickets (5k per game) were reserved for the MLB.
Now if we use the same estimates for tickets reserved for MLB (around 15k) and the estimates of current season ticket holders (15k-20k) and the fact that Coors has just a smidge over 50k capacity we get anywhere from 70k-90k total tickets available for the 3 games.

Here's the huge variable: how much more demand is there for World Series tickets than for the wild-card game?
If you assume 50-times the demand than the Wild-Card (25k tickets/minute) then the World Series will be sold out in at least 2.5-3.5 minutes.
If you assume 10-times the demand (5k tickets/minute) then it'll be sold out in 14-18 minutes.
(Note: The White Sox sold out of tickets online in 18 minutes in 2005).
Mendoza's 5280

[Update: One intangible item I forgot to include, which may increase these estimates by a tiny bit, is that the Wild Card game had no ticket limits whereas right now there is a 4-ticket limit on World Series tickets.]

[Updated Update: Apparently the Rockies either have a ton more season ticket holders than thought or their being forced to give a ton more tickets to MLB this year; either way some spokesperson said they estimate 17k-18k tickets are available per game (51k-54k available altogether) which drastically cuts the times till they sellout down to 2-10 minutes.
Also, all these assumptions were based on the Wild Card game which didn't have this weeklong wait and didn't have an exact time at which point millions (?) of people would try to buy at once; getting these World Series tickets of course will come down to clicking at the exact right moment and just being one of the lucky few.]

THIS JUST IN: Rockies World Series tickets only available online now!

Looks like Mrs. Mendoza won't have to wake up hours before sunrise on Monday after all because the Rockies are ditching the outdoor lottery system altogether and going 100% online ticket sales.
I wonder if Sun Microsystems is re-thinking having their logo on the Rockies' website, in the upper-right corner, after the server crash this will cause.
One could say that the downside to this decision is that it allows the nationwide ticket-selling companies and dot-coms (who's only avenue of buying tickets was online due to being headquartered across the country) more tickets to re-sell at insane prices, at the cost of local fans who were planning on driving down to Coors (such as Mrs. Mendoza) and hoping to get a lucky number in the lottery to buy decent tickets at face value.

Here's the big question: how long after tickets are available at 10 am will it take for them to sell out?
My guess? 2 minutes assuming the website doesn't crash in a firey ball of embarrassment for Sun Micro.

Mendoza's 5280

I bow to this guy....

and it's not Chuck Norris...

World Series Trip Means Fan Must Fulfill Marriage Promise

"When I sit down and focus on the game I keep a scorecard. I keep everything in order. I don't even get up to go to the bathroom," said Cruz.
[........]
The pair plan to wed on Leap Day so, as Cruz puts it, he only has to celebrate their anniversary every four years.

Tuesday's thoughts...

-True Rockies fans today have bags under their eyes (unless they regularly stay up till midnight). I say this because many bandwagoners in my office today said they went to sleep after Holliday's homer. My response: ?!.........Che?!
-Supposedly left field fans were singing "Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Heyyyyyyyy Byrnesy Hoooooo Haaaaaa I wanna knowwwwwwwwwwww would you be my girlllllllllll" during when that song comes on after the 7th inning stretch. Awesome.
-World Series ticket plans are being made. Redundancies must be implemented. Relatives and friends all across the nation must know when to try to buy tickets online. The homeless must be hired to stand at Coors to get a decent position in the lottery. Ms. Mendoza must practice standing in line for hours without a bathroom break. I have to practice navigating coloradorockies.com and lube up my mouse clicker and shine the red optical 'eye' with a Q-tip. Redundancies, people, because $tubhub will not be an option this time.
In the sad event that the whole system fails:
-Current Denver to Cleveland airfare (10/24'ish): $420/person; Current Indians game 1/2 WS tickets: $250/per
-Current Denver to Boston airfare(10/24'ish): $286/person; Current Boo-Sox game 1/2 WS tickets: $800/per

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WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

How bout them Rockies?!
Future Matt Holliday, Seth Smith, comes through to get momentum for Rockies.
Real Matt Holliday comes through with a key homer.
Byrnes does a face-plant as the last out of the game/series.
Tulowitzki proves himself to be a future Gold Glover.
Helton gets a chance to show how high he can jump (again).

Out of all the post-season games so far I'd say this is the closest the Rockies have come to 'being lucky':
-Bob Melvin kept the rookie (who seemed to be more concerned with getting hits for himself than pitching) in 1 batter (Holliday) too long.
-The Rockies then put on a strikeout show while holding the lead (Juan Cruz owns the Rockies).
-D-Bag, catcher, Snyder converts a Fuentes mistake/meat-ball into a 3-run homer at a key moment.
-Byrnes is overanxious to prove himself as last at-bat.

Who's next, Indians or Red Sox? Indians at this point are most-like the Rockies which would make for an interesting Series; while the Red Sox would mostly be a bunch of has-beens with most of the country likely behind them and the Rox would have no choice but to embarrass them (again).
Too late to type more right now.

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Monday thoughts...

-Out of all the current Rockies, I would 9 times out of 10 pick Torrealba to be up in a clutch situation. Meaning if we're tied or losing and there are 2 outs and runners in scoring position and Rockies are at home and it's the later innings, Torrealba is who you want up. He's one of those rare players who you can really see getting better if the crowd is behind him; it's quite a thing to witness in baseball actually because it's rare (more of a football thing perhaps). I could care less if the stats agree or not, Torrealba's the man in that situation (Kaz Matsui is a close second, though). If it's a HUGE MUST WIN game (like 9th inning in the 7th game of World Series or a wild-card tiebreaker) you probably couldn't go wrong with Helton though. Helton's got the ultra-rare 'super-star' gene which allows him to steal your breath away in an ultra-rare 'must hit or lose' situation by getting a hit that no one sees coming, except of course Helton. Holliday is still young and so doesn't quite have it yet, though is mighty close.

-Tulowitzki is going to do something absolutely huge here soon. I mean how do you have 50k people yelling "TULO" as loud as they can (one of the reasons my voice is gone today) in unison when you're up to bat and NOT do something amazing at least once? My advice: keep your eye on him. To quote Homer Simpson: "But, Marge, that little guy hasn't done anything yet. Look at him. He's going to do something and you know it's going to be good."

-Denver Post writer, David Harsanyi, agrees with my pro-scalping beliefs.

-StubHub.com came through for us. Due to a "I thought you were going to buy them. Well I thought you were going to buy them", moment, Ms. Mendoza and I didn't buy yesterday's Game 3 tickets directly from the Rockies; we bought from a Stubhub listing instead. At not even double the face value of 2 tickets (including 'handling' and Stubhub's commission), we got to enjoy the Torrealba homer in super-extreme in-your-face RD (Real Def). All we had to do was pickup the tickets (which made us nervous because they ending up being e-tickets) at McCormicks, which was all of a block out of our way. Very cool stuff. Go Stubhub. Next time we just gotta pick a more alive section (stay away from section 112). My guess is we were surrounded by season ticket holders who didn't quite get the significance of a post-season home game and so they were treating it like any other game. Example?
(overheard this)
Old Man: Sit down people it's only the second inning. (after Ojeda hit into a double-play).

-Weirdest 'Have you ever been to a baseball game?!' moment for me at Game 3 yesterday? Hearing a blond woman behind us yell loudly to Holliday on his second at-bat: "Com'on Holliday, hit another home run"; and then to Torrealba on his second at-bat: "Get another double, Torrealba". Some people are just greedy like that.

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Baseball Gods dish out some more freezing drizzle justice...

So first of all, Byrnes is a fool and an idiot.
Anyone who's ever played baseball knows you don't just go out and say that the team who's beat you twice now (at your own home) is just lucky.
Why do you not say such idiotic things? Because it pisses off the Baseball Gods that be.

Eric, you ran your mouth off negatively one day and you smash into the wall the next on a Holliday homer. And I want you to know that half the cheers from Rockies fans were from you smashing your face into the wall.

Why else is it not a good idea to piss off Baseball Gods? Upton being the last D-Bag batter of the game with a grounder right to Atkins. That's what happens when you stare down Francis after an HBP and after you throw a shoulder/elbow at Matsui at second while he was trying to turn a DP. Upton should actually be glad it wasn't something worse, like running into the left field wall and having your legs fly above your head on national tv.

On a side note, we picked the wrong section to sit in. Most of the people were treating the game like a regular season game; I lost count of the number of times people behind me said 'down in front', all the while being surrounded by other sections filled with true standing Rockies fans. But whatever, perhaps a foul ball will go flying into the right field corner tomorrow to wake those people up.

Lastly, I can now say that I have been 10 feet from Cal Ripken and Frank Thomas. Their TBS pre-game and post-game show was on the way to our seats. You probably even saw me and/or heard me (yelling 'sweep') in the background and didn't even know it.

We look now to World Series tickets- games 3, 4 and 5(if needed). That's all I'll say about that. I'm gonna go find some wood to knock on now. No, I'm not kidding.

Pix by Ms. Mendoza should follow soon shortly, hopefully.

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"Dr. Bartman or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Game"

So tomorrow, 10/14, is the 4th anniversary of Steve Bartman supposedly ruining the Cubs' shot at a World Series. And while I was among the majority that initially (foolishly) blamed Bartman for the whole thing I eventually came to my senses and realized that 99.7% of what happened to the Cubs wasn't his fault (like this guy).
For those who forget, this was Bartman.

The man was just an overanxious Cubs lover who did what 99.9999% of the population would have done given the same situation.
How do I know that??? Look at this:


I see at least 6 other hands/gloves (besides Alou's and Bartman's) reaching out for the ball! Some fans, huh?

And watching Alou's initial reaction makes me glad that the Cubs lost that game badly. Dusty Baker really didn't help much either by looking so beat and downtrodden in his post-game press conference.
I think I'm starting to come up with a baseball thesis along the lines of if your players or your fans are cry-babies, whiners or poor sports and piss off the Baseball Gods, then your team will be struck down miserably. Recent examples?
-Padres outfielder Milton Bradley, whiner extraordinaire, first takes out fellow outfielder Mike Cameron then gets taken out himself by Bud Black, his own coach, while arguing with the first base ump (granted, that ump was found to have egged Bradley on; still though you don't give in). Padres then lack the offensive power to beat the Brewers, which would have taken out the Rockies, and then again lack it to take out the Rockies in the wildcard sudden death.
-Phillies' firstbaseman, Ryan Howard, whines and curses at the homeplate ump in NLDS game 1 against the Rockies after being called out on a couple nasty Corpas strikes. Although he would hit a homer the next day in game 2 it was not enough and too late. He was incessantly booed by Rockies fans in game 3, was struck out miserably a couple more times and was basically a no-show at a time when the Phonies needed him most. It's a shame too because the the Phonies had some good Baseball Gods approval after helping out the Rockies ground crew.
-D-Bags fans in game 1 of NLCS after Upton threw himself at Kaz and made it an interference doubleplay. Fans embarrass themselves, throw trash on the field (ya, that really pisses off the Baseball Gods) and give the whole nation a reason to hate the D-Bags and root for the Rockies. Baseball Gods make it a point to embarrass the D-Bags even more by having that game end on Miguel Montero getting out by over-sliding what would have been a momentum-building double in the 9th.

The wife and I will be in the lower section near right field for tomorrow night's Game 3 (yes, another Game 3) at Coors and will be sure to not reach out for any balls nor throw any plastic bottles on the field plus we will be standing for 99% of the game (or until the people behind us tell us to sitdown) and will wave our 'Go Rockies' white towels for every Fogg/Affeldt/Hawkins/Buchholz/Fuentes/Corpas strike, every 2-strike count, every catch, every groundout and every Rockies hit/walk/steal or runner in scoring position.

Soon to be voiceless again,
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So the Rockies sucked at bat...

but the D-bags sucked more at everything else in the end. Why Valverde wasn't pulled after his first walk is beyond me; especially if he's never gone 2 innings in a row before. You could tell he was broken down emotionally after walking Carroll especially; I'm hoping he's broken down for the rest of the games here on out. Jimenez was amazing; you gotta just put that guy in a troubling situation every time I suppose to really get his talent out there.
Go Rox!

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Rockies vs. Phillies Game 3 NLDS Lights go out!

So the wife, my little brother and I attended the Rockies-Phillies NLDS game (we were in right field corner near foul pole) where the lights went out in the 2nd inning. This video was taken from my cell-phone and was literally seconds after it happened. Lots of cheering and lots of flash-bulbs. And those lights coming on at the start were a couple auxiliary lights. Disclaimer: I am not a good camera-man.

Wife and I are going to game 3 here on Sunday against D-Bags; we'll see if anything wacky like this happens again.

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Dang wish I spoke Chinese...

http://denver.craigslist.org/etc/437687332.html I am assuming of course that this would be for Rockies games.

So your team is down 0-1 in the NLCS...

You'd think that especially now Phoenix-ites would be cheering on their team and would be in a frenzy to go to tonight's game. But a quick look at the D-Bag's ticket website shows many tickets still available. Good job, Phoenix.
Again, wishing I were a Rox fan living in Phoenix right now.

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Classless and pathetic...

Seriously, D-Bag fans? You seriously think Upton taking out Matsui with the extra elbow wasn't interference?! Wow. And a lot of you think it necessary to throw trash on the field as an added response to booing?! Wow. Nice respect for the game.
Well all I have to say about tonight's game is D-Bag fans showed why they and their team do not deserve to win and Justin Upton has taken the place of Ryan Howard as this series' cry-baby/bush-leaguer.
Sorry, I'm just in shock right now as to how the D-Bags made it this far on just Webb's and Evil Byrnes' shoulders.
Just another sign I guess that the Rockies are and always have been the best team in baseball this year.
A blowout score of Rockies 10, D-Bags 0 would really please me now.

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500+ feet?

Word from 9News sports anchor, Drew Soicher, is that Todd Helton hit a homerun during BP yesterday that landed in the 'Friday's' restaurant in left field there at Chase Field. What is the distance of the restaurant from homeplate you ask? 500+ feet.
After hearing this and after seeing Helton bat 1-for-12 against the Phonies I think it's safe to say that he's due and due soon in a big big way.
We'll see. Game 1 starts in less than 2 hours.

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What happens to the tickets???

This scalper (here) bought 60 NLCS tickets for $3k, hoping to in turn sell them for $14k and got caught. My initial reaction? What happens to the tickets? Then it was 'what a creep!'
But upon further review how is this any different from a company doing an IPO only to watch it's shares get bid up up and away in the open market?
Seems to me like this guy is creating a market, which is a good thing, and as long as the tickets were legit and people were willing to shell out the money it seems fine by me.
According to this survey though, 75% of you disagree with me while 25% of you are probably scalpers.
Again though, What happens to the tickets??? It would be a shame if they just sat idly in an evidence locker.

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Who wants it more?

By the way, if you want a measure of who wants the NLCS more look no further than ticket sales right now. The D-Bags are far from selling out even just 1 game. As of right now you can easily buy as many tickets you want for tonight's game straight from the D-Bags' ticket window. We Rockies fans however must put up at least double the price (for lousy seats) through Stubhub.com and risk buying from a sheister who will take the money and run (probably to Arizona).

Wishing I were a Rockies fan living in Phoenix,
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The 'H-Bomb'

I've been saying this for the past 2 years now: call the 'meat' of the Rockies middle-lineup the 'H-Bomb' for Holliday, Helton and Hawpe. Those 3 alone are an offensive force to be reckoned with and it's time the media realized it.
Years ago the Houston Astros had the 'Killer-B's' with Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman and the media (Sports Center) loved them. Well now it's high time they start loving the 'H-Bomb'.
Of course maybe they choose not to because in a way it would be wrong to put all this focus on just the 'H-Bomb' players instead of spreading it equally among the rest of the offensive juggernaut made up of Atkins, Tulow and Matsui.
Speaking of Matsui, I can guarantee you there is a higher correlation between him being in the lineup and the Rockies winning compared to him not being in the lineup (mid April to mid May) and the Rockies winning. Somehow the Rockies are just better with him there than not.

Maybe I should tweak 'H-Bomb' to 'Kaz-H-Bomb-Atk-itzki'. Nice.

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Told you there would be more posts

Some things that worry me:
1) Holliday's agent; Scott Boras, means that Holliday will likely go elsewhere to get 'Zito-esque' money. The fact that he participated in the Homerun derby against Hurdle's wishes really doesn't bode well for Holliday fans.
2)Taveras re-joining the team; baseball is all about superstition when it comes to winning streaks. And no matter how good your previously injured players were, you do not let them start playing amidst one of the greatest and most-important winning streaks in Rockies' history.
3)Francis on 'Sports Illustrated' cover; see above regarding superstition, and I'm not entirely sure I buy this one but it still doesn't help. I do however believe in the Madden Football curse.

Some things that hamper those worries:
1) Luckily, the Rockies overall are too young and naive to believe in superstitions and let it get to them (Francis didn't even know what the Sports Illustrated curse was, silly Canadian); the exception of course is Helton who is probably sacrificing a live chicken as we speak.
2) The Rockies have 2 'Mini-Holliday's' in the making in the forms of Seth Smith and Ian Stewart.
3) The Rockies are really really good.

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"Rockies are going to go to the World Series"

What a statement to start a blog off with.
Would you believe me if I told you that I spoke those exact words to my would-be wife almost exactly 7 months ago after watching the Rockies' offense pummel the San Francisco Giants and then the Texas Rangers in Spring-training ball? It must have been pretty evident too since the would-be wife agreed with me. And actually I think most fans at Hi Corbett in Tucson and the next day at Surprise Stadium (Rangers) in Surprise would have agreed.
There was something different about the Rockies this year right from the start. They finally played like they wanted to be there, like they deserved to be there and like there were 30 other players below each of them who would instantly love to out-do them to make it to The Show.

Helton gained a menacing Ruthian physique and had a goatee to boot; Holliday suddenly looked like Clark Kent and hit like the superhero he concealed; Atkins and Hawpe appeared to be the Dynamic Hit-making Duo which pitchers seemed to dread. But it didn't stop there! There was the new Jeter-esque shortstop named Tulowitzki as well as the Bizarro-Ichiro second baseman in Matsui. They also had the 'speed guy' in Taveras as well as the guy who melded it all together in Torrealba. Not to mention the pitching which finally arrived for the Rockies in Cook, Hirsh and Fogg. Hurdle was practically handed the World Series on a silver platter with this baseball version of Super Friends.
So are any of us hardcore Rockies fans, who made the roadtrip down to Arizona, surprised now that the Rockies are 4 games away from making it to the World Series? Hell no. And in fact many of you should be biting your tongues now for snickering and laughing and saying 'ya right' after the few of us told you upon arriving back in Denver that "The Rockies are really really good this year".

Here's my history with Rockies baseball: since their inaugural season in '93 (when I was 10) I was a huge fan. My brother and I were among the first in the 'Rockies Rookies Fan Club' (look it up) and our dad had shared season tickets during the first couple years at the old Mile High. But even before the Rockies we were big fans of the Denver Zephyrs (look it up) and occasionally went to their games.
From '93 until the start of the Hampton/Neagle period (late 2000'ish) the Rockies had that 'young team' desire to win but only average skill. But when Hampton/Neagle came, the Rockies' attitude suddenly turned into greedy laziness which spread quickly. A perfect example was in Larry Walker's sudden absolute refusal to hustle to first or for a hanging flyball (hence his nickname among us: 'FatAss').
My brother and I and friends still went to games but refused to pay full price. Instead we'd buy $4 rock pile tickets and then sneak past ushers into the 100-level sections and incessantly boo Walker.
The favorite player among my friends and I was Juan Pierre, mainly because he looked like he was high with his hat on crooked in his picture on the big board. My brother and his friends even named their house cat Juan Pierre due mainly to that picture.

Anyhow I digress.

The wife, my little brother and I went to last Saturday's game and saw the Rox sweep the Phonies (I would pay anything to see Ryan Howard cry to another ump again) and now we are looking to go to at least game 4 against the D-Bags where we will be taunting Byrnes to get a haircut and stop killing fans with his bat.

I have a lot to blog about so hopefully you visit often.

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