Bernie Lincicome

"This may never happen again," said Hurdle. "You look at your history books, how many times has it happened so far?"

The first one is forever.

The first kiss, the first car, the first World Series.

Rock on Rockies. Rock and Roll. Rock-a-Bye Bye Babies.

Brooms in barrels sold briskly along the newly named Rockies Road, a mis- identified block of 21st Street, it being neither rocky nor much more than a lane. Coors Field had an air of cockiness about it, as if all that had led to this night was not some sort of blinding marvel.

Demanding a sweep of the Diamondbacks seemed a bit presumptuous, but the newly smug faithful reflect their team's heady success, nearly unprecedented and yet accepted as fitting.

The Rockies' Ryan Spilborghs helpfully tried to identify this group of uncommon and unrecognized players doing what no one since the Big Red Machine had done, zip through the playoffs undefeated, now the first to ever sweep the Division and League Series.

"Maybe we'll be the Big Black and Gray Machine," Spilborghs said, there being no chance that will ever catch on.

But more does seem necessary for these Rockies, Kid Rocks carrying what romance there is but as interim as a teenager's pants length.

"Rock solid," said pitcher Jeff Francis, "no pun intended or anything."

With all those easy puns, maybe it will become the Worockld Series, something of the sort. What was the Sports Illustrated cover, which, by the way, is another curse burst by this bunch?

Out of Thin Air. A Mile-High Miracle. And this was before the sweep of the Diamondbacks, and a cover only because the writer happened to live in Philly and volunteered to drop by.

This is how it has worked, by chance, by accident, on purpose as well, but if luck is the residue of design, this worked not exactly as planned but even sooner and better.

"This is a special moment in the career of every man involved in this," said manager Clint Hurdle. "This may never happen again. You look at your history books, how many times has it happened so far?"

Hurdle said he had not given it much thought, how it all has happened, that he would think on it eventually, that it is all mixed in the general rush of images.

Todd Helton's walk-off homer against the Dodgers, the 13th-inning rally against the Padres, Kaz Matsui's most unlikely grand slam in Philadelphia, even the extra-inning game in Arizona when Willy Taveras walked to force in the winning run, a situation that would not have existed if Taveras had not made a lunging, stretching catch to kill a Diamondbacks rally.

The moments are all jumbled and, more importantly, still going on, without anyone quite certain who the next hero will be, but clearly certain there will be one.

"I don't think there is anybody who has not contributed," said Hurdle. "From top to bottom. Ramon Ortiz may have thrown one 1-2-3 inning while he was here, and it just happened to be the 13th inning against the Padres after we already dropped two runs down."

Or even the poor choices of the other manager, from the Phillies' Charlie Manuel and his clunkers to Bob Melvin sticking with his closer, Jose Valverde, through 42 pitches until he walked home the run that beat him.

"You hold your head high, 'cause you had a helluva year," said Melvin, if not as high as the Rockies who had one just a bit better.

The six runs after two outs Monday, the fateful choice by Hurdle to lift his starting pitcher who was pitching just fine, the two-strike pinch hit by Seth Smith to get the lead, an error that should have ended the inning, a hit from Matsui, a rocket - no pun intended - from Matt Holliday, the MVP of the series if not the season, all the way to the World Series.

And how fitting that the brash and empty Eric Byrnes of the Diamondbacks, who swore his team was outplaying the Rockies, was the final out, Byrnes slithering on his stomach as Troy Tulowitzki threw him out.

And all of this while being stuck again on the backside of prime time. Not to interfere with the Eastern baseball, the Rockies and Diamondbacks played out a drama apparently of interest only to the odd socks of our odd time zone.

"It will always be Yankees/Red Sox in Major League Baseball," said Francis. "But there is no reason why a team like us can't come in and take baseball by storm for a month and a half like we have. And there's really no reason why we don't have as good a chance as anybody at winning this thing. Whether people take notice or not or whether people catch on or not, that's not really something that we're concerned about. We know the people in Denver have caught on and that's pretty exciting."

Never been anything like it.

lincicomeb@RockyMountainNews.com

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