So this is how winter starts.
Until today, it had been with chilly evenings, fallen leaves and one last, luscious tease of Indian summer.
But now, as a child of 28, I know that the cold arrives on a long fly ball to the left field warning track and one, last stinging strikeout.
As I drove home on I-25 from watching the final Rockies game Sunday night, not because I was there or even got a whiff of buying two overpriced, lousy seats, I couldn't help but think I saw a snowflake fall against the fading glow of the lights of Coors Field.
There is and will be much written about the 2007 Colorado Rockies. Hopefully, in time, the totality of their remarkable run will dim criticisms including one pious Denver sports columnist who declared they "choked" on the national stage.
But I will credit the Rockies with forever changing the seasons in this state and, hopefully, I can make the argument without sparing you any more euphemisms built on Rockies and October.
I kept doting on all the things this month that I'd never done before like celebrating my birthday with a Rockies victory and carving pumpkins in anticipation of the big Rockies game, violently smacking my computer monitor in what the Rockies would call a "malicious attack” and wondering how I would reschedule trick-or-treating for my daughter if we got to a game 6.
And then, just like that, it was all over.
Does the air feel a little colder this week? The grass a little less green. I caught myself in a moment of despair thinking about the bleakness of the winter ahead.
And then I understood.
Cubs fans weren't so crazy anymore.
And now the thought of all that shoveling ahead (please not as much as last year) and those dreary days give way to one thought: spring.
Spring training won't just be glorified practice next year. It is now a beacon – a light of hope guiding us through the changing of seasons.
And there are no guarantees of World Series visits every year. With these owners, we'll just pray we have three out fielders.
But, from now, this is how winter really starts. I didn't know what I was missing.
