MLB: "FOR LOVE OF THE GAME"---COLORADO ROCKIES & "KEEPING ON!"

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . //. . . MLB: “FOR LOVE OF THE GAME”---COLORADO ROCKIES & “KEEPING ON!” --- “FOR LOVE OF THE GAME,” it’s a meaningful phrase that we hear from professional athletes quite often, translation: “It’s why I do what I do, it’s who I am,” usually said sincerely. I thought about this while in the Press Box at Coors Field last night, watching the NL West’s currently 40-59 Colorado Rockies lose to the NL East’s now 54-43 Washington Nationals, 7-2, a game in which the Colorado franchise was being shut out until mid-game, which is when the Rockies put two runs on the board. Hope lifted when that happened, more so in a later inning when the Rockies managed to load the bases, though the team’s two outs were constricting, especially so with Rockies LHP, Franklin Morales, about to take a turn at the plate. So, Rockies manager, Walt Weiss, went with the traditional option, he selected a pinch hitter, OF Brandon Barnes. It was then the PH’s chance for a single, an extra base hit, or a grand slam HR, whatever could drive in one or more runs. But Barnes couldn’t exploit the situation; his plate appearance became a third out. Next half inning, the Nat’s gained another run, game just about over for the Rockies, the club’s sixth loss in a row, keeping the team in last place of the NL West and last within the full NL, tied with the NL Central’s 40-57 Chicago Cubs and the AL West’s 40-59 Texas Rangers for last place both leagues, a slightly favorable difference for the Rockies being that the Rangers are now 21 games behind first place within their division. The Rockies are 15 games behind first place, but the Cubs are in better shape now than the Rockies are, they are 13 games back of first within their division. As for that phrase, “LOVE OF THE GAME,” when leaving the stadium I heard numerous fans cursing the Rockies vehemently. It struck me, then, that these fans were possibly only “fans of ‘a team,’” not really “fans of ‘the game,’” and I say this largely because, in spite of the loss to the Nat’s, the Rockies played as best they could last night, and the game produced excitement surely for “fans of ‘the game,’” not just for “fans of ‘a team,’” a point being that “fans of ‘the game’” never leave a stadium feeling that they didn’t get their money’s worth. OKAY, LET’S FOCUS ON THE ROCKIES AND THEIR CHANCES FOR A RESPECTABLE MLB-2014 FINISH, ON THEIR ENDING THE CURRENT SEASON AS A .500 TEAM. A big question, then, is, “Can the Rockies get to .500 from where they are today---.404?” Here’s the troubling news: for the Rockies to reach .500 by the end of this MLB season, they have to win 41 of the 62 games that the team has have left to play, allowing for closeness to 81 wins, 81 losses, thus a .500 record. Of those 62 games, while 31 will be against teams that, like the Rockies, are now under .500, all have better records than the Rockies have, except for the Cubs that the Rockies will challenge during seven of the 31 games, which implies opportunity for some wins. This said, the remaining 31 games of the 62 to be played starting tonight will be against teams that now hold high above-the-margin records, among them, division leading clubs, e.g., the NL West’s 55-44 S.F. Giants and the 56-45 L.A. Dodgers, the NL Central’s 54-45 St, Louis Cardinals, the AL Central’s 54-41 Detroit Tigers. Sadly for the Rockies, should they from tonight on become a .500 team, in other words win half of the 62 games that they have left, they’d still finish the year with a double-digit deficit and a finish below .500. A variant of the earlier question is, “Can the Rockies actually win the 41 games that could deliver a .500 finish?” True is that no-one can throw a knockout punch at the theory of probability, so we have to say here, “Anything can happen,” but creating doubt is that of the Rockies last 41 games played, they’ve won only 12, which is a less than .400 record. So, what may be left here? This: no matter how much goes into a strategy to win baseball games, something quite valuable will always remain for fans and for a ballclub to experience, and that’s the existence of players being afield simply for “LOVE OF THE GAME,” good reason to be at the ballpark no matter where one’s favorite MLB team is in the standings. END/ml