Baseball is a Funny Game

Which is probably why I like it so much. It can be frustrating, mind-boggling and exhilarating all at the same time. It's also streaky.

I grew up as a Philadelphia Phillies fan. To the best of my knowledge, I don't remember the 1964 season when they had a 6 1/2 game lead with 12 games to play. And blew it by losing 10 in a row before winning the last two games. No, I became a fan the next year, when they would have some very miserable years, before they finally won their first World Series in 1980.

In 1976, the Phillies had a 25-5 run, from late April to early June moving to a 32-11 record and never looked back as they finished with 101 wins.

Sometimes a good run can carry you for the rest of the season:

The 1982 Atlanta Braves started the season with a 13 game winning streak--then were 76-73 the rest of the season, and won their division.

Sometimes you a good start is just the beginning:
The 1984 Detroit Tigers won 35 of their first 40 on their way to winning the World Series

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I became a Colorado Rockies fan in 1993 when they began, but I really started to follow them in depth in 1997 when I moved to the Denver area and fell in love with Coors Field. No, I became a fan right when they would have some miserable seasons having losing seasons for the next 10 years.

During the 2007 season however, my full allegiance moved from the Phillies to the Rockies despite both teams having amazing finishes:

The Phillies avenged the ghost of 1964, as they overcame a 7 game deficit to the Mets by winning 13 of their last 17 games, while the Mets lost 12 of their final 17.

Meanwhile the Rockies who were playing .500 ball all season, and had never in franchise history had more than a 7 game winning streak, won 11 in a row, lost 1 and then followed that up with a 10 game winning streak propelling them to their first World Series via the Wild Card Berth. Amazingly, they had to overcome a 7.5 game deficit to the Mets with only 15 games to play to do it.

Which brings us to this year. The Rockies were buried 12 games under .500 and in the midst of an 11 game road trip in which they had lost the first 3 before heading to the 1st and 2nd place teams in the Central division, when they started on another 11 game winning streak. Many times, especially if you are really a bad team, the end of the streak will send you back into a tailspin, but the Rockies met the loss with a 6 game winning streak. Overall, they have currently won 21 of 25 and are about to embark on a stretch of 16 home games out of the next 20 games after today.

Good news for the Rockies?--Like I said Baseball is a funny game. Check back with me later this month.

Note: The Above was reprinted from the TotallyGruntled Blog originally Posted 7/1/2009