What new Rockies?
April 10, 2000. The home opener was glorious, as always. The weather was perfect, cool and cloudy. And the Rockies were exactly the same as the previous seven years: good and poor defense, contrasting great pitching and terrible, and almost all of their runs coming via the homerun blasts, from some of the usual suspects: Lansing and Helton. Just like the old Rockies, the new ones ran out to a big lead, then almost blew it with horrible relief pitching in the ninth. Just like the old Rockies, this version played uninspired ball in the field, topped by Perez letting an easy ground ball deflect off his glove, but was saved by the kindly scorer who ruled it a hit rather than an error as it deserved. The game had its unique moments too: Ken Griffey, Jr. hit his 400th homerun and became the youngest player ever to reach that milestone, and on his father’s 50th birthday, to boot. Then there was a power surge that knocked the lights and scoreboard out and stopped the game for about twenty minu
