DENVER – On a cool summer evening in one of the most beautiful places to take in a baseball game anywhere in the world, a divisional bout between the Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants suddenly hung in the balance like a tightrope walker over the Grand Canyon. Tie game. Bottom of the ninth. After blowing a 9-1 lead, allowing to the Giants to tie it late, Mark Reynolds started the all-important inning with a single and the pinch-hitter was announced.
In that moment, it didn’t matter what the stat sheet read. There was a “clean slate” to quote Bud Black.