The Colorado Rockies were the hottest team in baseball winning 21 of their last 22 games heading into the World Series but they were still swept by the Boston Red Sox for the championship. I think the Rockies were meant to lose the Series and I have five main reasons why.

1 - PUTTING WILLY TAVERAS BACK IN THE LINEUP.  During the Rockies amazing run to the post season Willy Taveras was absent from the active roster with an injury. As a result Kaz Matsui was hitting in the leadoff spot followed by Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Holliday, Todd Helton, Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawpe, Ryan Spilborghs/Cory Sullivan, Yorvit Torrealba, and the pitcher. The Rockies swept the Phillies in the N.L.D.S. and did so with power and authority. At the start of the N.L.C.S. manager Clint Hurdle added Taveras back to the active roster. That was a smart move. But then he inserted him back in the starting lineup. That was a dumb move. Taveras was in the leadoff spot and it completely shifted the entire batting order. Matsui was now second and Tulowitzki was sent to the seventh spot in the order. The result was a domino affect. The Rockies still won the Pennant but did so with defense, not with the bats.  After game two of the World Series, Hurdle finally went back to the lineup that had been working for him during the team's late run, but it was too little too late.

2 - BRIAN FUENTES... PERIOD!  Fuentes lost the closer role early in the season after his poor performances in the late innings of games where he was called upon to finish off a team and secure a win. He became the setup man where he had done a decent job setting the table for the new closer Manny Corpas. In game three of the World Series the Rockies trailed by only one run after Matt Herges pitched a perfect seventh inning by striking out the side in order. In the eight inning Hurdle removed Herges and went to Fuentes. Herges had six strikeouts and only two hits in seven innings pitched in the post season. There was no need to bring Fuentes into the game in this situation. He was not in a "hold" situation with the team trailing by one. As a result, Fuentes walked a batter, gave up three hits and three earned runs as the Red Sox secured the win. Then in game four, Hurdle went back to Fuentes after his poor performance in the previous game and on his very first pitch Bobby Kielty hit a solo homerun that proved to be the difference in the 4-3 loss.

3 - CLINT HURDLE.  Poor decisions by the Rockies skipper in the post season cost the team a chance at the World Series title in their first ever trip. (i.e. see the above two reasons.)

4 - ROCKIES MANAGEMENT/OWNERSHIP/FRONT OFFICES.  What were Rockies management thinking when they decided to sell World Series tickets only to fans on the internet? We all know by now about the jammed up servers and the near impossibility of fans in Colorado to secure tickets to the games. The result of this fiasco allowed fans on the east coast (primarily Red Sox fans) to scoop up tickets with no wait time online whatsoever. NOTE TO ROCKIES:  Take lessons from the Red Sox. Allot a certain amount of tickets to internet sales, to ticket office sales in person and by phone, and to game day sales at the stadium. This puts more tickets in the hands of YOUR fans, not the opposing teams fans. Give your team all the boost they can get from the home crowd. I could hear the cheers every time Boston did something good at Coors Field.

5 - THE RED SOX WERE THE BETTER TEAM ALL TOGETHER.  Sure Colorado was the hottest team in baseball entering the Fall Classic, and sure the two teams are very comparable on paper. But the Red Sox have experience, composure, and had just come back from a 3-1 deficit to the Cleveland Indians in the A.L.C.S. Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Jason Veritek and others were all a part of the 2004 World Champion Red Sox. Curt Schilling was also a member of that team, but he also won a World Series title with the Arizona Diamondbacks over the New York Yankees in 2001. Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell both won the Series with the Florida Marlins in 2003 over the Yankees. The experience was there and they knew what it took to do it again.

It was a good run, but the Rockies were out managed, out played, and out smarted as they were swept away by the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox.