Colorado Rockies Set for Opening Day

Opening Day is similar to late September, when everyone is a fan of their team and is rooting hard for them. It is a day that is celebrated with flyovers and bunting adorning the stadiums.

Although baseball is not the most popular sport in America, there is no doubt that Major League Baseball knows how to throw a party on Opening Day. There is not another sport in this country that has an Opening Day as sacred as Major League Baseball's.

For the Colorado Rockies, this is a special Opening Day. Nothing will ever top the 1993 opener that saw 80,220 fans jam into Mile High Stadium to watch their dreams come true of having a Major League team, but if there is an Opening Day that compares, it is definitely 2010.

Never has there been such anticipation for a Colorado Rockies club. Never has there been this much talent donning a Rockies jersey every single day of the season. The expectations are extremely high for this team. Fans are expecting them not just to be competitive, but to win.

It could be argued that the 2008 Rockies season was highly anticipated, and it was. The 2007 team had shocked the world and found themselves in the World Series. Fans were quick to jump on the bandwagon, but because it happened so fast, and the average fan had no idea who Brad Hawpe, Ryan Spilborghs, Troy Tulowitzki, or Garrett Atkins were. There was still some learning to be done. That, coupled with the fact that even the most die hard Rockies fan had to wonder if that team had peaked before its time.

The 2010 Colorado Rockies are a different story. Those fans who didn't jump off the bandwagon after a lackluster 2008 season have learned about these players. They have seen them struggle, but they have also seem them deal with adversity and get off the mat and fight.

This generation of Colorado Rockies, once labeled Todd and the Toddlers, have morphed into the newest version of the Blake Street Bombers. Not in the fact that they hit home runs at an alarming pace, but in the fact that this city, a city that loves to fall in love with its sports heroes, has fallen in love with this group of players.

Instead of simply liking Todd Helton, fans are falling in love with the other players on the team, and not just the superstars. Players like Ryan Spilborghs and Ian Stewart are adored in the same way that this city took to guys like Dante Bichette and Vinny Castilla.

This 2010 Colorado Rockies team has won the hearts of its fans, fans who for years have been waiting for a good baseball team to return to the Mile High City. Rockies fans finally have that team, and it has been a long time coming.

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