"Mile High Miracle, Mile High Magic, Rocky Mountain High, whatever you want to call it, but baseball in Colorado is spectacular again this year." So says Ken Shimada, a Japanese fan living in Denver who dumped the team but is now back at Coors Field as an avid supporter.
His reclaimed Rockies are in the National League playoffs following a spectacular comeback and a resurrection from the nearly dead under manager Jim Tracy, a former Japan pro baseball player with the Yokohama Taiyo Whales in 1983 and, very briefly, in 1984.
Shimada admits to being a "fair-weather fan," backing the team when it's winning such as in 2007 when it went to the World Series against the Boston Red Sox, but turning into a critic when times are hard and the club is losing.