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The Benevolent Crue
2005-09-23 16:11
by Mark T.R. Donohue

The Brewers -- a third-place team who quietly have a better record this year than the Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, or D-Backs -- are giving away all the tickets to their season finale. This is the team who resigned their young ace, Ben Sheets, to a long-term deal earlier this year. The team who traded two cheap role players for Carlos Lee in the offseason. A team unquestionably on the rise (who have drawn 2.2 million paying fans this year).

The Rockies would never do something like this. In the midst of a campaign that will go right down to the wire with regards to breaking the franchise's all-time mark for futility, it'll be full price to see Barry Bonds and the Giants this weekend. Wouldn't it be great, even if it is a total gimmick, to see Coors Field full in September? I don't even know why I'm talking about this. This is the team that traded Shawn Chacon for chattel because they were terrified of the arbitration reward a 1-7 starter might command. This is a team that held up a Preston Wilson deal for weeks not because they wanted to make sure they got the best prospects possible in return (ha!) but because they wanted to pay as little of his remaining salary as possible. But give the long-suffering fans a bargain comparable with the ones they themselves seek in players? Yeah, right.

But back to the positives: Aaron Cook is awesome. 6-1, 3.23 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, only three homers allowed in 69 2/3 IP. And people are talking about Jason Giambi for Comeback Player of the Year. Ha! Cook's life-threatening situation wasn't self-inflicted. To the best of my knowledge.

So this is it: last home series of the year. Having safely fended off 100 losses Colorado will next try to finish better than the 67-95 mark of the 1993 team. They need five wins in ten games to do it. Against San Francisco the pitching matchups will be Francis-Matt Kinney, Sunny Kim-Lowry, and Wright-Cain. If you are planning to go out and see the home team one more time, you might want to go Saturday instead of Sunday because Bonds will (probably) not play in the day game after a night game. Also, do you really want your last Rockies game of the season to be a Jamey Wright start? No, you don't. Go, team.

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