The Living Room Times

I just got home — a little later than I’d planned — from Coors Field, after watching, in person, “one of the strangest games ever in Denver,” a 14-inning affair that ended in the first walkoff grand slam in Rockies history (and the first grand slam I’ve ever personally witnessed, never mind a 14th-inning walkoff slam), with my Dad.

Pretty damn awesome. And it wasn’t just the grand slam that made the game great. There was weird baserunning, bizarre umpiring, teams running out of players, a pitcher with a .000 batting average being inexplicably walked with the bases loaded (and ultimately scoring the winning run!), a batter badly hurting his knee with a foul ball but nevertheless finishing his at-bat and (gingerly) running the bases, a reigning Cy Young winner coming in as a pinch runner… it was a strange, weird, wonderful game. And here I was initially regretting having picked today’s game to go to, in light of what looked to be crappy weather. The rain cleared out, and then the Rockies gave us a real treat with a seemingly impossible comeback. Wow.

It was the second time I’ve seen a walkoff home run in person, and the first time it was by the team I was rooting for. (The other time was Mel Hall’s three-run shot at Yankee Stadium to beat the Red Sox on May 27, 1991. Ugh.)

Oh, and the Rockies now have a 4-game lead over the Giants in the wild-card race, instead of the 2-game lead it looked like they’d have, when the Giants took a three-run lead in the top of the 14th. Nice.

P.S. The Rockies are now 3-0 this season in games that I attend.