- published: 14 Aug 2015
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The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver, Colorado.. They are currently members of Major League Baseball (MLB)'s National League (NL) West division. Their home venue is Coors Field. Their current manager is Walt Weiss. The Rockies have won one National League championship (2007). They mounted a rally in the last month of the 2007 regular season, winning 21 of their final 22 games, and reached the 2007 World Series. However, they were swept by the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox in four games.
Denver had long been a hotbed of Denver Bears/Zephyrs Minor league baseball and many in the area desired a Major League team. Following the Pittsburgh drug trials, an unsuccessful attempt was made to purchase the Pittsburgh Pirates and relocate them. However, in 1991, as part of Major League Baseball's two-team expansion (they also added the Florida (now Miami) Marlins), an ownership group representing Denver led by John Antonucci and Michael I. Monus were granted a franchise; they took the name "Rockies" due to Denver's proximity to the Rocky Mountains, which is reflected in their logo. Monus and Antonucci were forced to drop out in 1992 after Monus' reputation was ruined by an accounting scandal. Trucking magnate Jerry McMorris stepped in at the 11th hour to save the franchise, allowing the team to begin play in 1993. The Rockies shared Mile High Stadium (which had originally been built for the Zephyrs) with the National Football League's Denver Broncos their first two seasons while Coors Field was constructed. It was completed for the 1995 Major League Baseball season.
Colorado (i/kɒləˈrædoʊ/, or /kɒləˈrɑːdoʊ/) (Spanish for "ruddy") is a state in the United States encompassing most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is part of the Western United States, the Southwestern United States, and the Mountain States. Colorado is the 8th most extensive and the 22nd most populous of the 50 United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Colorado was 5,456,574 on July 1, 2015, an increase of 8.50% since the 2010 United States Census.
The state was named for the Colorado River, which Spanish travelers named the Río Colorado for the ruddy (Spanish: colorado) silt the river carried from the mountains. The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28, 1861, and on August 1, 1876, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed Proclamation 230 admitting Colorado to the Union as the 38th state. Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because it became a state 28 days after the centennial of the United States Declaration of Independence.