Whos Are Rivals?

[Old Sweater]

OK you Rockies fans, who do you consider to be our rival in the NL West?

For me it's easy, the Dodgers, haven't liked them since 63 when they 4-0'd my then favorite team the Yankees.

[Old Sweater]

Dodgers it is by a majority vote!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I rule down here.hehehehehehehehehehehhe

[Solair Wright]

I would have to say it's the Diamondbacks, by geography. They're southwest of the Rockies, but they've been known to cause games to go to extra innings. They usually do it to - who else - the Rockies, but they've caused games to go to extra frames when Colorado had a 1 or 2 run lead prior to that.

I guess it may be Arizona, but the Rockies don't have much to worry about in rivalry.

[Old Sweater]

I would have to say it's the Diamondbacks, by geography. They're southwest of the Rockies, but they've been known to cause games to go to extra innings. They usually do it to - who else - the Rockies, but they've caused games to go to extra frames when Colorado had a 1 or 2 run lead prior to that.

I guess it may be Arizona, but the Rockies don't have much to worry about in rivalry.


Arizona is closer but they didn't get in the league until 98. Just like the Broncos rivals are the Raiders, seems to make more sense to me to have a California team as a rival. Also when we play the D-Backs at home it don't sound like we are the road team like when we play the Dodgers. We have Californians on 16 inch centers here.

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

OK you Rockies fans, who do you consider to be our rival in the NL West?

For me it's easy, the Dodgers, haven't liked them since 63 when they 4-0'd my then favorite team the Yankees.


Although I wasn't even born then, I don't like the Dodgers too, because they should have stayed in Brooklyn.

[Altitude]

Arizona is closer but they didn't get in the league until 98. Just like the Broncos rivals are the Raiders, seems to make more sense to me to have a California team as a rival. Also when we play the D-Backs at home it don't sound like we are the road team like when we play the Dodgers. We have Californians on 16 inch centers here.

Or the Chargers, but historically it has been the Raiders. But, I agree with you that it should be a California team. I think the Padres could be too after what happened with the best NL Wild Card Tiebreaker in MLB history.

Broncos vs. Chargers(now)/Raiders(historically)
Rockies vs. Padres/Dodgers

[Old Sweater]

Or the Chargers, but historically it has been the Raiders. But, I agree with you that it should be a California team. I think the Padres could be too after what happened with the best NL Wild Card Tiebreaker in MLB history.

Broncos vs. Chargers(now)/Raiders(historically)
Rockies vs. Padres/Dodgers

Good to see another Rockies fan down here!!!

[Altitude]

Good to see another Rockies fan down here!!!

Yeah, we are few and far between. Nice sig, where did you get the Rockies one?

[Old Sweater]

Yeah, we are few and far between. Nice sig, where did you get the Rockies one?

At a userbar site. Just typed in 'userbar' in a google search then typed in 'userbar activator' to animate it

[Imgran]

proper English spelling, apparently...

If you don't have a natural rival don't force it. Right now the NL West is pretty much up for grabs for whoever's able to take it -- impressive parity in that division except for the Giants who are just generally terrible and pay a GM to be a hopeless talent evaluator who's locked in baseball's stone age. And the Giants have the resources to turn it around if they ever get up the grit to fire Sabean.

In other words, unlike the wierd dynamic in the AL East where there's really only 2 strong teams, everyone in your division is pretty much your rival. Thanks to the Rockies AL-style lineup and emerging young arms, though, you could probably say more accurately that you are everyone else's rival right now.

Rivalries are overrated. Boston lost their rivalry against New York this year (meaning the Yankees beat the Sox head to head) but look what happened in the end. All they really are is a way to pass the time and find something to fret about to keep you excited in the first half of the season before the division races are sorted out.

If you have to ask this question at all you probably don't have one. That's OK. I think you pretty much proved that you don't need one anyway.

[Old Sweater]

Nice little essay saying you don't like rivalries. I do.

[Imgran]

Say what? I'm just saying that the Rockies don't really seem to have a team that they're particularly hard-wired to hate. Any one of 4 teams could sort out to be the special enemy of the Rockies in a given year. There isn't enough backstory with most of the teams in the NL West for there to be a true blood-boiling rivalry. Individual fans or players can hate individual teams but that's not the same thing as the special relationship between Sox and Yankees fans, or even Cubs and Cardinals fans.

Give it enough years of one team's consistent dominance of the division and that'll change of course. That's usually what it takes..

[spark240]

Rivalries are overrated. Boston lost their rivalry against New York this year (meaning the Yankees beat the Sox head to head) but look what happened in the end.

But the NYY/BOS rivalry, or any rivalry, isn't just about head-to-head results.

[AutographCollector]

But the NYY/BOS rivalry, or any rivalry, isn't just about head-to-head results.

It's about bragging rights, first place, who makes the post season, and well everything else in between.

[Imgran]

First place, yes. Making the postseason? Only when one team doesn't. Thanks to the wild card both the Yankees and the Sox usually get in. Of course Sox fans get special glee about poor Joba Chamberlan's head being wreathed with Canadian Soldiers as he tries to save a crucial postseason run.

But there's also something dirty to it. Something that turns good people into "them," an enemy that it's OK to hate irrationally. It's not all fun and games, especially when you're behind.

Think of it this way: you want to know who your rival is? When the star player of a team breaks his leg and you laugh gleefully, when their ace destroys his life with a bad choice and all you can think about is how now we have a chance, when their catcher dies in a plane crash and you have to fight to feel properly sorry for his family, that's when you know who your rival is.

[Old Sweater]

Think of it this way: you want to know who your rival is? When the star player of a team breaks his leg and you laugh gleefully, when their ace destroys his life with a bad choice and all you can think about is how now we have a chance, when their catcher dies in a plane crash and you have to fight to feel properly sorry for his family, that's when you know who your rival is.


I guess so if you are a sick and demented soul. I haven't cared for the Dodgers as long as I can remember but I respect the club and I wish injury on no player, even Pete Rose when he played.

[Imgran]

That's my point. For devoted fans sometimes a real rivalry is too much. Be glad you don't have one because having one means too much of your enjoyment of baseball as a fan is tied up in not just you winning but someone else losing. When you've got two win-at-all-cost teams in the same division with the money to make a bid each year.. that's not healthy, especially when one only succeeds at the expense of the other and neither tolerates a year of missing the playoffs well. That leads to some of the attitude problems and meanness I was just talking about.

be happy you live in an open division where fans know how to roll with disappointment and not hate each other over it. Sometimes I wouldn't mind trading. There reall has been Sox-fan-on-Yankee-fan violence and vice versa, a couple cases made the news last year.

[Old Sweater]

Be glad you don't have one because having one


I do. In the first or 2nd post I said Dodgers and was brought up Yankees by my Grandpa. I just don't get into the smackie talk to much and don't hate the Red Sox but I sure enjoy it when the Yankees beat them.

The Rockies winning the season series and finishing above the Dodgers for the first time in Rockies history was almost as sweet as the Rockies making the WS.

I also believe that the Yankees have won the last 3 season series with the Red Sox.

[Westlake]

I also believe that the Yankees have won the last 3 season series with the Red Sox.

The all important season series. I'll take the World Series over that any day.

Colorado certainly didn't make any friends with San Diego in the last game, if they have good games against them next season, I could see something shaping up there.

[Old Sweater]

The all important season series. I'll take the World Series over that any day.

Yeah, so would I but the season series is a big thing for me in a rivalry. The Rockies have also taken 2 outta the last 3 years against the Dodgers.

Colorado certainly didn't make any friends with San Diego in the last game, if they have good games against them next season, I could see something shaping up there.

Maybe, but I doubt it. Padres can only be mad at themselves. Where the Rockies didn't make any friends last year was in Phillie when they hammered the crap outta the Phillies pitching in splitting a 4 game series. In the cake walk victory for the Phillies in the 4th game, Alfonseca went right at Heltons head after Holliday got a bit smackie on the basepaths with some Phillie players after hitting 3 HR's in the first 2 games. The Phillies also plucked Holliday in the 2nd game of the series after his 3rd HR. After that 4th game is when the Phillies got hot and it was so sweet when the Rockies swept them in the playoffs.

[Altitude]

Maybe, but I doubt it. Padres can only be mad at themselves. Where the Rockies didn't make any friends last year was in Phillie when they hammered the crap outta the Phillies pitching in splitting a 4 game series. In the cake walk victory for the Phillies in the 4th game, Alfonseca went right at Heltons head after Holliday got a bit smackie on the basepaths with some Phillie players after hitting 3 HR's in the first 2 games. The Phillies also plucked Holliday in the 2nd game of the series after his 3rd HR. After that 4th game is when the Phillies got hot and it was so sweet when the Rockies swept them in the playoffs.

It's Philly, they never are winners. It would be good if the Rockies could catch up to winning like all the other pro Colorado teams do on a consistent basis.

[Coorslight22]

The dodgers!

[MT.Jarhead]

I recently moved to Colorado and am a Rockies Fan. I agree, rivalries are a pain...I have 2 former military buddies, one from NY and one from Boston, and they fail to relaize that no one else cares about their rants and railings...except of course them! I am a St Louis Fan also (Pre Rockies) and it's nice going to a game at Coors field and not getting my chops busted becase of my "Red Birds" jersy and cap. I suspect from the amount of Cardinals gear I see in the stands, that at least half of Colorado must have been Cardinal fans prior to the Rockies. This question of "do we have a rivalry?" came up at work today and we basically agreed that we thought it was Padres, D-backs and Dodgers for all the previously stated reasons. However we all pretty much agreed that if the Rockies are out of it in the Post Season we would root for our Westen Division Bros...So I guess by that measure we really don't have a rivalry.