In the contest of “Worst Rockies Loss of the Year,” you are going to be hard pressed to find a more qualified entry than Thursday night’s 8-6 loss to the Giants. The Rockies jumped out to a 6-0 lead thanks to home runs from Todd Helton, Nolan Arenado, and Wilin Rosario, three players who had all been struggling mightily in the month of May (as documented on the Thursday edition of “CJ & Kreckman” by Show MVP and Most-Handsome-Sports-Talk-Radio-Host-In-Denver Nate Kreckman). With “staff ace” Jhoulys Chacin on the mound for the Rockies, it looked like a certainty that the Rockies’ nine game losing streak against the defending World Series champs was coming to an end. But Chacin melted down in the the 4^th after being staked to the six run lead, an inning in which he gave up 5 runs, 4 hits, 2 walks, and threw a wild pitch. The exclamation point of futility came in the form of a Brandon Crawford three run double (after Chacin had already walked in a run).

 

Going into Thursday night, Rosario was hitting .100 in May with no home runs or runs batted in. Helton had one extra base hit the entire month. Arenado was mired in a 6 for 32 slump. All three simultaneously broke out with a bang, only to see the starting pitching fail them. The Rockies 13-4 start was fun, but the club is 8-16 over their last 24 games, a bigger and thus more reliable sample size. The players in the clubhouse talked of renewed confidence and swagger with the hot start, but that is becoming a further and further distant memory. The reality is that despite a strong start and some brief flirtations with hope, the 2013 Colorado Rockies are not very good.

 

Charles Woodson just makes a ton of sense: The word from Charles Woodson is that his visit with the Broncos went “very well” earlier this week, but nonetheless he left town without a contract. News has come Friday that Woodson plans to visit with the Raiders on Tuesday. For Woodson, the Broncos make a ton more sense than any of his other suitors if winning another Super Bowl is the top priority for him at this point. For the Broncos, a playmaker like Woodson is a boon to a defense that has not forced nearly enough turnovers in recent seasons. Last season, the Broncos were led in interceptions by Chris Harris and Wesley Woodyard with 3 apiece. The team picked off 16 passes altogether on the year (good for 13^th in the league). The weaknesses in the secondary were glaring in the playoff loss to the Ravens, when Joe Flacco went to the air 34 times and was not picked off once, despite several up-for-grabs heaves that often fell into the hands of his receivers (I’m talking about you, Rahim Moore). Enter Woodson, who had 7 interceptions in his last healthy season in 2011, and has 55 for his career. The Broncos need a ballhawk, not to be a starter, but to be the guy that comes in on those sure passing downs and goes and gets the football. A player like that would have really helped back on January 12.

 

The Office finally ended Thursday night: And I didn’t watch it. In fact, I’ve barely watched the show since Steve Carell left. Michael Scott was one of my favorite characters on TV, but I liked the ensemble cast and tried to give it a chance after Carell’s departure. Unfortunately there was no magic left, and the thin peripheral characters fell flat without the star. “The Office” was a great show, but without Carell, it was like watching the 1993-94 Bulls try to win without Michael Jordan. Yes, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, BJ Armstrong, and Toni Kukoc formed a nice nucleus that could win 55 games and make it to the second round of the playoffs, and all four players were integral parts of Bulls championship rosters. But they needed Jordan. He made everyone around him better and elevated the crew to a championship level, just like Carell.

 

And one more thing: I shared that Bulls-without-Jordan analogy when discussing the last few seasons of “The Office” with my girlfriend last night, and she informed me that the conversation was better off without the forced sports analogy and I was only making things more confusing. She’s probably right. Such is life.