The Blake Street Bombers

Balls are really flying out of Yankee Stadium. After the first 34 games there, there have been a total of 119 homers. This means that the stadium is on track for about 284 homers by the end of the season. The record for homers hit in a ballpark for a single season was 303 in 1999 at Coors Field, the home of the Colorado Rockies. Coors had 141 home runs after 34 games. The high elevation of Denver aids homer numbers in Coors. People wonder what aids these homer numbers in New York. Some say it’s the winds, while others say that the field is too small. Nevertheless, this unrealistic display of power can help people take a look back at the four men mainly responsible for those homers in Coors Field, the Blake Street Bombers.
Andres Galarraga, Vinny Castilla, Dante Bichette, and Larry Walker were tremendous sluggers for the Rockies in the late 1990s. The quartet was nicknamed the Blake Street Bombers because Blake Street is the street right outside of Coors Field. Even when the Rockies struggled, the Bombers would attract record numbers of fans to the field to watch the homers fly. In 1995, the Blake Street Bombers combined for 139 home runs. However, there was a special element about these sluggers. They were an exception from the normal slugger that could hit a lot of homers, but didn’t really have a decent average. In 1995, the Bombers had a combined .309 average. This incredible hitting prowess led to a playoff appearance for the Rockies in’95. Unfortunately, they met up with the Atlanta Braves, who beat the Rockies, and went on to win the World Series. This postseason appearance was the only one for the Rockies until 2007, when the club shocked everyone by going 7-0 in the playoffs before getting swept in the World Series by the Red Sox. The next year the quartet produced 136 homers despite only getting 18 round-trippers from injured Larry Walker. Ellis Burks stepped up and beyond, producing 40 homers with a .344 batting average.
Then, in 1997, the Blake Street Bombers hit their peak. They hit a combined 156 homers and had an incredible batting average of .324. In that same year, Ken Griffey Jr., Paul Sorrento, Jay Buhner, and Edgar Martinez of the Mariners hit a combined 155 homers, but only maintained a .287 batting average. Galarraga was traded after that season to make room for a talented young first baseman named Todd Helton, who is now arguably the greatest Rocky of all time. This new quartet of Castilla, Bichette, Walker, and Helton only hit 116 homers, but they did hit for a .332 average. The new Bombers hit 139 homers in that famous 1999 season, but two more key parts of the original Blake Street Bombers, Vinny Castilla and Dante Bichette, departed after the year’s end. The homer-aiding conditions at Coors just made it way to easy for steroid users, who already had an advantage. Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire hit a combined 5 homers in just 6 games at Coors Field in 1999.
To compare the Blake Street Bombers with the great Yankees team in 1927, Murderer’s Row, would be a travesty. Murderer’s Row was able to dominate baseball and win the World Series, while the Rockies could only make the playoffs once in the tenure of the Blake Street Bombers. Even though the Bombers managed to hit more homers than the four best hitters on the ’27 Yanks, the four best in Murderer’s Row (Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel, Earle Combs) were able to obtain a combined batting average of .356, which was 24 points higher than the best average for the Blake Street Bombers. Even though they weren’t the greatest of all time, the Blake Street Bombers provided Rockies fans with excitement and flair during their short time together in Denver. Should their numbers be considered tainted like the ones of steroid users because of the park they played in? I don’t think so. They managed to hit many of their homers in other parks as well. As the home run total in the new Yankee Stadium skyrockets toward a mile high record, Rockies fans can sit back and remember the good old days of Galarraga, Bichette, Castilla, and Walker. These good times included the Super Bowl championships won by the Denver Broncos in 1997 and 1998. Times have changed, with controversy and injuries quelling the Broncos’ chances at winning each year. Fans wonder when Colorado will stand above the rest again, other than in altitude.

Pudge

Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez. One of the best and most well-known catchers in baseball from the ‘90s to the present. The only backstop to overshadow his prime was Mike Piazza. I-Rod was and still is a rare combination of consistent hitting and a cannon arm. Pudge is one game away from tying Hall-of-Famer Carlton Fisk on the all-time list for games caught. This milestone has much more worth than it would appear. Back problems make the art of catching very tough. Add on to that the fact that the catcher calls every pitch thrown by his pitcher and the fact that Rodriguez had to catch his first 12 seasons in the blistering summer heat of Texas. Pudge, a member of the Astros, will head back to Texas in an interleague match, which is an appropriate setting for him to tie and break the record. Fisk’s storied career goes past his durability. He played an unrealistic 24 seasons in the majors, a feat most other position players can’t accomplish. Fisk was a Red Sox backstop throughout the ‘70s before joining the White Sox, where he would stay until he retired after the ’93 season.
Although Fisk and Rodriguez weren’t quite Mike Piazza, Johnny Bench, or Yogi Berra, they were still some of the toughest guys to ever play the position. Fisk, also known as Pudge, is mostly remembered for his famous home run to win Game 6 of the 1975 World Series against Bench and the Big Red Machine. The blast was launched in the 12th inning, but was the most memorable detail about it was the fact that Fisk was waving for the ball to go fair as it sailed over the Green Monster. Nevertheless, the Red Sox lost the series, and Fisk never won a World Series title. Rodriguez, on the other hand, won a championship with the Florida Marlins in 2003. The still active Pudge should be a lock for the Hall-of-Fame that Fisk resides in. Ivan’s 2649 hits and .300 career batting average after 19 seasons are more impressive than Carlton’s 2356 hits and .269 career average in 24 campaigns. Fisk’s 376 homers are 76 ahead of Rodriguez’, but I-Rod’s 1243 RBI’s are just 87 behind, a milestone the younger Pudge could easily reach, barring injury. Rodriguez also won an MVP award in 1999, something Fisk couldn’t accomplish. I-Rod should also be remembered for being the first catcher in MLB history to have a season with more than 30 homers, 100 RBIs, and 100 runs. He was also the first catcher to record more than 20 homers and 20 steals in a season.
Even though Rodriguez’ legacy shall endure forever in the Hall-of-Fame, there is another active catcher who has a chance to make a much bigger impact. After winning the batting title in his second season, Joe Mauer of the Twins has exploded into the spotlight of baseball stardom. Despite missing a month of this season due to an injury, Mauer is only 7 homers behind the AL leaders. He will easily win the batting title again this season if he can get in enough at-bats to qualify. His .414 batting average is 50 points higher than the current leader David Wright. The greatest news is that Mauer is just 26 years old. Only time and injuries can tell us if Mauer can have the durability and consistency to join Pudge, Pudge, Piazza, Bench, Berra and a few others as the greatest catchers of all time.