2007 Colorado Rockies -- The Greatest Story That Sports Has Ever Told?

So we finally have our 2007 World Series lined up. The most consistent team in baseball, versus the team that defies all logic.

Some people call the Red Sox 2004 ALCS/World Series victory "the greatest story baseball ever told". They won eight games in a row in order to claim that honor. But if the Colorado Rockies are able to sweep the Sox out of the Series, where would they rank? That would make 25-of-26 games that the Rockies were able to win.

If eight games in a row qualifies as "best baseball story ever", I challenge someone to find an on-field performance that tops that of the recent Rockies, in any sport.

On September 16th, the Rockies were 6 1/2 games out of the division, and 4 1/2 out of the wild card spot. This was the day that the streak began. Two weeks later, they found themselves winning 13-of-14.

They needed help from a few other teams around the MLB, and they got it. 162 games wasn't enough for their season. They had to play just one more if they wanted to make it into the post-season...

And then they defeated the Padres in the play-in game, which was one of the most exciting baseball games I have ever seen.

At that point, I was thinking that they were just "really lucky", and that their mediocre season would end on a great note because they made the playoffs. "Good for them, see ya next season", I thought.

I was sure that the Phillies were going to the World Series. They had put together a hot streak comparable to Colorado's. And I thought that they had much more talent than the Rockies have ever had in their 15-some-odd years of being a franchise.

I was wrong.

The Rockies swept Philadelphia. 17-of-18 now.

It was halfway through this series that I began to pay attention to Matt Holliday and Co. I started wondering where this ranked on my list of great sports stories. I thought that even if Colorado lost to Arizona, they had put together a hell of a run, and deserved more respect than a lot of people were giving them, just writing it off as "dumb luck".

I didn't give the Diamondbacks much credit in the first place, and so I went out on a limb and picked Colorado to beat them in 6 or 7 games.

It only took them four.

21-for-22.

Not to take anything from the Rockies, but even the most talented teams (which we can all agree, isn't the Rockies) don't win that many. This is more than luck. This is ridiculous.

Will it be overlooked by other "big name" stories? Yes. Coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the MLB post-season is fantastic, but in order to get there, the Red Sox had to also lose three in a row. If it were a team like the Rockies that came back and beat the Yankees, the sports world wouldn't have cared nearly as much, and would have promptly written Colorado off as a World Series Pretender.

George Mason in the Final Four was a big deal. The Music City Miracle was a big deal. "The Play" was a big deal. Flutie's hail mary was a big deal.

But those are just "plays" in "games".

This is a storyline of epic proportions.

We'll see how far these Rockies can write this story starting on Wednesday when they go to Fenway and face the best pitcher in baseball.

I dare someone to name a better story than this one, though.