THE OPENING LINE

Rick Velotta

Monday, Oct. 15, 2007 | 7:24 a.m.

When Sun sports guru Ron Kantowski asked me to write about being a Colorado Rockies fan, he added that I was the only Rockies fan he knew. It's a little like being told, "You're the second-best writer I know, but everybody else is tied for first."

True, there aren't a lot of people out there like me who have allegiance to the best team you've never heard of. While all you fans of the Yankees, Cubs and Dodgers need entire encyclopedias to chronicle your historic highlights and team lore, I could list the high points for my team on the back of my grocery list.

I'll never forget the day it was announced that the team would take on the name of the mountain range west of Denver. I was driving over Vail Pass on one of my annual excursions to my former home state. I read all about it the next day in the Rocky Mountain News (everybody calls it "The Rocky," by the way) by a great Denver sports columnist named Norm Clarke, who now is probably Southern Nevada's highest-profile Rockies fan.

We got into the playoffs by the second year, but ran into that Atlanta Braves pitching machine roadblock in the first round. Wait until next year.

But then, Andres Galarraga and Dante Bichette got old and next year became next year. And Larry Walker played hard and hurt and gunned down more runners at third base from right field than just about anybody in the game and next year became next year. And every Rox pitcher said he'd master baseball with an altitude early in the season before seeing his ERA hit double digits (before the decimal point) by season's end. And next year became next year.

But then came the 2007 Rox. A team that played better baseball since mid-May than any other team in the National League, despite a nine-game losing streak when our closer got hurt and then imploded. A team that took two out of three at Fenway and swept the Yankees at home in the interleague series. A team that finished the year with a winning streak that ranks among the best ever.

If it weren't for the fact that they're playing a team that is remarkably similar to them in the National League Championship Series, they'd be America's team.

The Rox will have to be content to be the best team you've never heard of. At least the Cleveland Indians team led by Willie Mays Hayes in "Major League" got to make an American Express commercial. Today's Rockies made a TV spot with a bunch of guys playing a cow-tipping prank on Dinger, the Rockies mascot, and pitchers sitting in the famed Coors Field humidor chucking the good balls into their bags and the bad ones into their opponents'.

Can the Rox stay hot one more week? Will we be able to see what it's like to battle for World Series tickets on Stub Hub? Can the H guys - Holliday, Helton and Hawpe - take us on one more Rocky Mountain High?

Fans who wear the purple and black say Rock on.

THIS WEEK'S BEST BET

Las Vegas Wranglers vs. Stockton Thunder 7:05 p.m. Sunday Orleans Arena

The Wranglers open their home season with plenty of new faces, including the Ferraro twins , who spent time in the NHL.

TICKETS: $11.90-$35

ON THE WEB: www.lasvegaswranglers.com

ALSO WORTH A LOOK

UNLV vs. Colorado State football 6 p.m. Saturday Sam Boyd Stadium

It's homecoming for the Rebels.

TICKETS: $15-$28

ON THE WEB: unlvtickets.com