Today is better than your birthday. Today is better than being a kid on Christmas morning. Why? Because it's Opening Day for your Colorado Rockies! That's right, at 2:10 p.m. MT your 2011 Colorado Rockies will begin another quest to capture their first NL West crown.
For the first time since 2007, the Rockies will open up the season at home in Coors Field for a three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2007, the Rockies dropped the Opening Day Game to the Diamondbacks, but took the next two. This time around, let's see a sweep, right?
But today will be a very different game than the one played four years ago. Several of the faces are the same, but this Rockies team enters the season with legitimate aspirations for the postseason. In 2007, the Rockies clicked at the end of the season and brought us Rocktober. Four years later this is a Rockies team that still features Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki, but also emerging, if not already, stars in Ubaldo Jimenez and Carlos Gonzalez.
Before the game there will be an Opening Day Fest that starts at 9 a.m. MT that will feature food, music and plenty more. There will also be pregame ceremonies for Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki to receive their 2010 Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards.
And remember, you can catch the pregame show and the game on ROOT Sports, formerly known as FSN Rocky Mountain. You can expect plenty of Drew Goodman, George Frazier, Jeff Huson and Alanna Rizzo today and throughout the rest of the season.
But we're all interested in what will happen on the field once the guys take the field. Not to belabor the point on the Rockies, but they failed horribly at the end of last season, going into a deep funk the last two weeks of the season. The Diamondbacks never seemed to be able to get out of theirs, finishing the season at 65-97. Today, however, the Rockies have Ubaldo Jimenez on the mound, while the Diamondbacks put Ian Kennedy out there. This better not turn into a David v. Goliath matchup today.
Here are the projected Opening Day Lineups:
| Diamondbacks | Rockies |
| 2B Kelly Johnson | CF Dexter Fowler |
| 3B Melvin Mora | RF Seth Smith |
| RF Justin Upton | LF Carlos Gonzalez |
| 1B Russell Branyan | SS Troy Tulowitzki |
| CF Chris Young | 1B Todd Helton |
| C Miguel Montero | 3B Ian Stewart |
| SS Willie Bloomquist | 2B Jose Lopez |
| LF Gerardo Parra | C Chris Iannetta |
| RHP Ian Kennedy | RHP Ubaldo Jimenez |
However, as Troy Renck notes, the Rockies' lineup could change if Jonathan Herrera starts at second base. That would likely move Smith to the seven-hole and Herrera up to No. 2 in the lineup.
See you at the ballpark!