Colorado Rockies: Top 32 moments in franchise history tournament

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8 May 1997: Second baseman Eric Young of the Colorado Rockies throws the ball as first baseman Mark Johnson of the Pittsburgh Pirates slides into the base at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. The Pirates won the game 10-8. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bahr / /

We here at Rox Pile decided to compile a tournament of the top 32 moments in Rockies history. Kevin Henry and I have compiled a list of 16 each. We will have four brackets with eight moments in each bracket. However, you will be deciding which moments advance and which moment which is truly the best in Colorado Rockies history. Today, we discuss one of our #8 seeds: the Rockies stealing 10 bases against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1996.

On June 30, 1996, the Rockies faced the Los Angeles Dodgers in classic Coors Field slug-fest. In the game, the Rockies stole 10 bases in their 16-15 walk-off win over the eventual National League West champion Dodgers. Here were the lineups for visiting Dodgers for that game:

The lineup was made by interim Dodgers manager Bill Russell, who was just in his seventh game as Dodgers manager after regular manager Tommy Lasorda, who had just recently had a heart attack. He would never return to the helm as he officially retired about a month later.

The Rockies lineup, made by Don Baylor, who passed away earlier this week as we recounted in this article, looked like this:

Eric Young stole six bases, which tied the MLB record (two players stole seven bases in the 1800s but it was not Major League Baseball yet). Two more stolen bases were recorded by McCracken, and one each by Burks and Bichette.

2 Jul 1995: Left fielder Dante Bichette and third baseman Vinny Castilla of the Colorado Rockies stand on the field before a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California. The Rockies won the game 10-1. Getty Images. /

In the first inning and a half, both teams went scoreless. In the first inning, though, Burks stole his base after he had a two-out walk. He advanced to third base on After that, there was only one half inning that was scoreless for the rest of the game. In the bottom of the 2nd, Vinny Castilla hit a solo home run with one out off Nomo but the Rockies did not do any further damage in the inning.

In the top of the third, things started going haywire as Mark Thompson allowed three straight solo home runs to Mike Piazza, Eric Karros, and Raul Mondesi with one out. All of them hit their homers on the first pitch of the at-bat. Dodgers third baseman Mike Blowers came up and with an 0-2 count and hit a double for the fourth straight hits. Todd Hollandsworth followed with a single to score Blowers and within nine pitches, the Rockies went from being up 1-0 to being down 4-1. After Greg Gagne flied out, Hideo Nomo helped his own cause by driving Hollandsworth in with an RBI double. Chad Fonville was the ninth batter in the inning and recorded a single to advance Nomo to third. Don Baylor had seen enough and pulled Thompson for reliever Roger Bailey.

Thompson ended his afternoon with 2 2/3 innings pitched and giving up eight hits, five runs, and three walks. Bailey retired Delino Deshields to mercifully end the inning.

14 Apr 1997: First baseman Andres Galarraga of the Colorado Rockies swings at a pitch during the Rockies 10-8 win over the Montreal Expos at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. Credit: Getty Images. /

The Rockies closed the gap with help from Eric Young. He led of the inning with a single. Walt Weiss struck out but with Ellis Burks at the plate, Young stole second and third base. Burks recorded a four-pitch walk. Dante Bichette came up and on the first pitch, Eric Young stole home to make it a 5-2 Dodgers lead. On the next pitch, though, Bichette hit a two-run bomb to close the gap to 5-4. Nomo struck out Galarraga and Castilla swinging to end the inning.

The fourth inning

With one out in the top of the fourth, Eric Karros hit his second homer of the day off Bailey but there was no further damage. In the bottom half of the inning with one out, Quinton McCracken got on base by an error by Delino DeShields. With Bailey hitting, McCracken stole second base and with Young hitting, McCracken stole third. Young got on first with a nine pitch walk and he stole second base with Walt Weiss batting for his fourth stolen base of the afternoon. On the next pitch, Weiss laced a double to right field to score both McCracken and Young to tie the game at six a piece.

Ellis Burks drove in Weiss with an RBI double and Bichette drove Burks in with a RBI single to make it 8-6 Rockies. Bichette stole second base with Andres Galarraga at the plate but he was stranded on second.

5 Mar 1997: First baseman Eric Karros of the Los Angeles Dodgers in action during a spring training game against the Montreal Expos in Vero Beach Florida. The Dodgers won the game 11-4. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Dunn /Allsport. Getty Images. /

In the fifth inning, the Dodgers regained the lead after Mike Piazza recorded a RBI single to score Chad Fonville. Darren Holmes (who is currently bullpen coach for the Rockies) came on in relief of Bailey and walked Karros to load the bases. He then gave up a three-run triple to Raul Mondesi which made it 10-8 Dodgers. Mike Blowers was retired to end the half inning.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Rockies had the bases loaded with nobody out with the help of two singles by Castilla and McCracken and a walk by Jayhawk Owens. Pinch hitter Milt Thompson (who was in for Holmes) struck out. He was followed by Eric Young, who grounded into a force out at second, got on first and he scored Castilla to make it a 10-9 game. He stole his fifth base of the game when Weiss came up. However, Young and Owens were stranded.

In the sixth inning, both the Dodgers and Rockies had lead-off home runs by Hollandsworth and Burks off new pitchers (Steve Reed for the Rockies and Chan Ho Park for the Dodgers). Hideo Nomo left the game with five inning pitched and he gave up nine hits, nine runs (only five were earned), four walks, and nine strikeouts and he had 114 pitches.

In the seventh, Reed retired the Dodgers 1-2-3 but in the bottom half of the inning, the Rockies faced a new pitcher, left-hander Scott Radinsky. He set McCracken and pinch-hitter Trent Hubbard down but Eric Young came up again and he got on-base yet again, this time via an error by the shortstop, Greg Gagne. Young did not steal a base, though, but he got to third base on a single by Walt Weiss. Burks and Bichette eached recorded RBI singles to score Young and Weiss to retake the lead by the score of 12-11. Both Burks and Bichette were stranded by Galarraga, though, as he struck out.

7 Apr 1998: John Vander Wal of the Colorado Rockies in action during a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. The Cardinals defeated the Rockies 12-10. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bahr/Allsport. Getty Images. /

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In the eighth inning, Curt Leskanic came on in relief for the Rockies and he gave up back-to-back singles to Mondesi and Blowers. Hollandsworth came up and drove Mondesi in on a sac-fly to tie the game back up at 12 a piece. Leskanic retired Gagne and Roger Cedeno (who was pinch-hitting for Radinsky) to end the inning.

In the bottom half of the inning, Antonio Osuna came on in relief for the Dodgers and with one out, Jayhawk Owens flied to Mondesi in right field but he couldn’t catch it so Owens went to second base on the error. McCracken grounded out for the second out of the inning and John Vander Wal came up to pinch-hit for Leskanic. He, then, hit a two-run homer to make it a 14-12 game. Eric Young followed with a single and his sixth stolen base of the game. However, he was stranded by Weiss.

Reliever Bruce Ruffin came on in the ninth to shut it down but he blew the lead by allowing a RBI single to DeShields and a two-run home run by Mondesi to make it a 15-14 game.

Dodgers closer Todd Worrell came on in the bottom of the ninth to record the save but he also failed as he gave up singles to Bichette and Castilla. Jeff Reed pinched hit for Owens and he got an RBI single to score Bichette and tie the game. The next batter was Quinton McCracken and he got an RBI double to score Castilla and win by the score of 16-15.

Final Thoughts

With Hideo Nomo pitching and with the slow delivery he had, it’s not surprising to see that the Rockies were able to steal 10 bases off of him. His next two starts against the Rockies were much different from this game though as just four days after this game, he went against the Rockies again (this time in Los Angeles) and he went eight innings and he only gave up five hits and one run. His next start against the Rockies was on September 17, 1996…and the Rockies were no-hit. If you want to see that game (which would definitely not be a highlight of the Rockies), you can find it on YouTube (with Vin Scully broadcasting it). If you want to see some highlights of this game that we’ve been talking about, this video on Rockies.com takes a peek at it.

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The fourth inning

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