Strike One: The baseball hat matters.
It matters – A LOT – that the plaque that will hang in baseball’s Hall of Fame, the one with the image of Larry Kenneth Robert Walker on it – will feature the five-time All-Star and 1997 National League MVP wearing a Colorado Rockies baseball cap.
It will be the first – and thus far only – one of it’s kind.
The Rockies are in their 29th year of existence, and they’re finally just now getting on the map, so to speak. Colorado finally has a substantive MLB history that doesn’t have to do with attendance or perceive ‘tainted’ batting titles.
There is nothing “Park Adjusted” about Larry Walker. He’s a Hall of Famer.
Yes, it took a decade of eligibility for him to get in. Yes, it took the voting members of the Baseball Writers of America looking deeper than 3,000 hits (which he didn’t get) or 500 homer milestone (which he didn’t hit) to see the real value of Walker as a player. It took detailed examination and a willingness by the voters to look at things like “Wins Above Replacement” and other advanced analytic measurements to see Hall of Fame numbers. But they were all there. Despite a glut of injuries that kept him off the field a bunch, and despite the stigma that his success was a byproduct of playing at altitude (which the numbers prove wasn’t the case) Walker made it. The Rockies made it. “Today, I don’t say I have a cap in Cooperstown, I say WE have a cap in Cooperstown,” Walker told the Coors Field crowd during his jersey retirement ceremony.
So despite the fact that he started his career in Montreal and finished it in St. Louis, Walker enters Cooperstown as a Colorado Rockie. The hope is that rather than being an outlier, Walker’s induction is setting a precedent.
Todd Helton is on the doorstep. In his third year of Hall of Fame eligibility, the Rockies stalwart – who played his entire 17-year career in Colorado – garnered a touch under 45% of the vote. The five-time All-Star saw a big increase from 16.5% in his first year. He’s definitely trending upward, and with seven years left, his chances of getting the necessary 75% are now decent.
Walker’s induction should give Helton’s chances a solid boost.
As for future, it will also be very helpful if Nolan Arenado – already a six-time All-Star and eight time Gold Glove winner – continues to flourish, especially offensively, away from Coors Field. Arenado’s first eight seasons were spent putting up (mostly) huge numbers as a Rockie, with the ever present stigma of “Ya, but Coors Field” hanging over his head. Changing his mailing address to St. Louis this season – and continuing to put up 30+ homers and 100+ RBI while not playing his home games a mile above sea level – should help change the perception that guys who do great things in purple pinstripes are less deserving than those who perform in other “baseball” towns.
Walker has done his part. Helton can only watch and hope. Arenado can keep bashing homers and starring for a play-off team and help erase the stigma for good.
Rockies fans should be cheering loudly for Arenado this post season. He can still be a help the home team.
Strike Two: After four games – two of which were against Power Five teams – the Colorado State Rams sit at 1-3 with a tough outlook for the rest of the season. After two horrible losses to start the season, the Rams have shown well the past two weeks…but as they say, you are what your record says you are.
Meanwhile, an hour to the north, their archrival Wyoming sits at 4-0 and in great shape to make a bowl game for the fourth time in six seasons.
Make no mistake, the Cowboys are a better football program than CSU is right now (even though the Rams currently own the Bronze Boot.) But the way these two teams have reached their respective records to date is very different. It begs the question about which is the better scheduling philosophy – scheduling for wins…or scheduling for eyeballs.
Wyoming has played a pillow soft non-conference slate, featuring games against Montana State (ranked 13th in FCS), Northern Illinois (2-2), Ball State (1-3) and winless UConn. Not exactly Murderer’s Row. CSU has played South Dakota State (a national title finalist last season currently ranked #2 in FCS), Vanderbilt (an SEC team, albeit a lousy one) a very solid Toledo squad (which they inexplicably beat) and battled fifth-ranked Iowa from the Big Ten.
A heck of a lot more people, including a couple of national TV audiences, have watched the Rams highs – the win over Toledo and the hard fought loss at Iowa – and lows, including those miserable performances in their first two home games. And CSU got a nice payday in Iowa City.
All the while, after avoiding OT by stopping a late two-point conversion at winless UConn, Wyo remains unbeaten…and pretty much unnoticed.
If the schedules were reversed, Wyoming would probably be 2-2, while CSU might be 3-1. And neither would likely be a sure thing for a bowl game.
CSU’s need for attention – and money – has led the admin to try to fill it’s beautiful young stadium with marquee non-conference opponents. Since the new stadium opened its gates, the Rams have won a couple of those games, defeating Oregon State to open Canvas Stadium in 2017 and Arkansas in September of 2018. But just as often – as in the case of recently televised debacles against SDSU and Vandy – the plan hasn’t exactly worked out as they’d hoped. While the stadium remains a wonderful addition to program and the campus as a whole, having TV audiences watching fans flocking out at halftime is a bad look, regardless.
Wyoming will have a few nice TV games once conference play kicks in, and of course they’ll get a lot of people watching come bowl season. That may pay off on the recruiting trail more than having high school prospects watch your team getting beat on their home turf in September.
On the other hand, if either of these programs are auditioning to join bigger conferences – and CSU is reportedly considering making a lateral move to the American Athletic Conference – then getting noticed, even in a loss – is probably better for the long term profile.
The bottom line is this: Wyoming has the better sense of self-awareness. They know who they are and don’t seem to be too concerned about trying to be a lot more than that. As a whole, they seem to be comfortable in their own pigskin, so to speak.
That’s not a strength that Colorado State shares. The CSU admin – and supporters – aren’t content to stay in their Group of Five lane. And it’s cost them in the win-loss column.
The new stadium in the Fort was a must. It’s a fantastic facility and a great addition to campus. It’s too bad CSU sees the needs to schedule up to try to fill seats.
Strike Three: Ben Simmons is not going to be a Denver Nugget. That much has become crystal clear.
Simmons – the former top overall NBA draft pick – is demanding a trade from the Philadelphia 76’ers. Denver isn’t on the published short list of potential destinations but have been mentioned as a “sleeper” in the trade talks.
The Nuggets have done their best to squelch those rumors, especially after the recent re-signing of Aaron Gordon, and details about what it would take to make the deal work financially paint a very different picture for Denver’s future if they tried to absorb the remaining years of Simmons’s five-year max $170 million contract (about $146 mil.)
It would mean taking a hammer to the Nuggets current nucleus, including likely having to include Michael Porter Jr. and perhaps Jamal Murray in the swap.
So that deal isn’t happening.
But should it? Or at least one like it? Should the Denver Nuggets be willing to dramatically shake up a roster that’s produced two outstanding seasons (but no championships) in a row?
Right now, while other organizations – like the Los Angeles Lakers for example – are making big player moves (LA acquired Russell Westbrook and what’s left of Carmelo Anthony this off season) the Nuggets have been content to resign Gordon (a very important move) and count on first round draft pick Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland to make a very good team (who won’t have Murray for the first half of the season) even better for the immediate future.
Going big – as in acquiring a 6’ 10” standout defensive guard and playmaker in Simmons – isn’t in the plans. Not at the moment, anyway.
Certainly the current group of Nuggets have earned the chance to compete in what will finally be a “normal” NBA season, both in length and in time frame. They should be rested and ready to compete for the top spot in the ultra-competitive NBA Western Conference and have Jokic defend his MVP crown.
But it’s the job of guys like Connelly to not only explore all available roster options, but to have back up plans in place in case thing don’t go well. The Nuggets are counting heavily on MPJ taking a big leap forward from starter to All-Star. He has all the physical tools to do so. Someone has to step in during the first half of the season while Murray works his way back from a severe knee injury. At some point, Denver needs to be able to give Jokic more rest, too.
Simmons would dramatically alter the way the Nuggets look and play. If there was a way to team him with Jokic and Murray (because MPJ would certainly have to be part of the trade going the other way) Denver would immediately be among the few favorites to win the NBA title.
Fantasy Basketball, anyone?