Colorado Rockies

The Rockies entered Major League Baseball in 1993 and immediately captured Denver's imagination. Playing in Mile High Stadium, a cavernous football venue, the Rockies drew an astonishing 4.48 million fans in their inaugural season - an MLB attendance record that still stands. The thin air produced prodigious offensive numbers, and fans flocked to see baseballs fly at unprecedented rates.

The 1995 Rockies, in just their third year of existence, made the playoffs as a wild card team. Behind Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla, Larry Walker, and Andres Galarraga - the fearsome foursome known as the "Blake Street Bombers" - Colorado swept the Braves in the NLCS before falling to the Braves in the... Actually, they defeated the Cubs in the wild card before losing to the Braves in the NLDS. Nevertheless, the early playoff appearance gave the young franchise immediate credibility.

Coors Field opened in 1995 and quickly became known as the most hitter-friendly park in baseball. Walker, the franchise's first superstar, won the NL batting title in 1998, 1999, and 2001, and was named NL MVP in 1997. His brilliance at Coors Field - and the debate over how to evaluate stats at altitude - became a recurring theme in baseball discourse.

Todd Helton became the face of the Rockies for over a decade, establishing himself as one of the best first basemen in baseball. His 2000 season - .372 batting average, 42 home runs, 147 RBIs - was one of the greatest offensive seasons in modern history. Helton's consistency, professionalism, and dedication to the franchise made him the most beloved player in Rockies history.

The early 2000s, however, were largely unsuccessful. The Rockies struggled to develop pitching capable of surviving the altitude, and Coors Field's extreme offensive environment made it nearly impossible to build a competitive pitching staff. The humidor, introduced in 2002 to store baseballs in controlled humidity before games, helped somewhat, but pitching at altitude remained the franchise's fundamental challenge.

Despite the team's struggles, Helton's presence and the entertainment value of Coors Field kept fans engaged. The Rockies were building toward something, even if the path forward wasn't always clear.

The 2007 Rockies authored one of the most remarkable runs in postseason history. After trailing by four and a half games in the wild card race with just two weeks to play, Colorado won 21 of their last 22 games - including a thrilling one-game tiebreaker against the Padres - to reach the playoffs. Matt Holliday's headfirst slide into home plate to score the winning run in the tiebreaker became one of the decade's most iconic images.

The Rockies then swept the Phillies in the NLDS and the Diamondbacks in the NLCS to reach the World Series for the first time in franchise history. The seven-game winning streak entering the Fall Classic was unprecedented, but the long layoff between the NLCS sweep and the World Series start seemed to cool the team's momentum. The Boston Red Sox swept Colorado in four games.

Despite the anticlimactic ending, "Rocktober" remains the high-water mark of Rockies baseball. The 2009 team also reached the NLDS behind Troy Tulowitzki's emerging stardom, but the franchise has struggled to sustain postseason success.