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Tulowitzki Class of 2005
by Woody Paige, Denver Post
June 7, 2007
Two years ago today, in the (nontelevised) Major League Baseball draft,
the first player chosen was a shortstop.
Justin Upton is now an outfielder in Mobile.
Five more players were picked before another shortstop’s name was
announced.
Troy Tulowitzki is the shortstop today in Denver.
Two years later, on Thursday, Tulowitzki continued to become a major-league
luminary.
At this moment, Tulowitzki is the class of 2005.
In the tradition of Stan The Man, Troy The Boy drove in the winning run
in the Rockies’ 7-6 victory over the Houston Astros on Thursday
afternoon. Tulowitzki accomplished his feat a couple of hours after the
Rox made their first 2007 draft selection — a relief pitcher.
The club certainly doesn’t need a shortstop, now or maybe for the
next 15 years.
Troy Trevor Tulowitzki is a keeper. Let’s hope the Rockies don’t
let him get away.
He is worth patrons of the game buying tickets at regular price at the
box office rather than paying 10 cents on the dollar to Blake Street scalpers.
Tulowitzki plays short like Spiderman 3-T. He has an arm like John Elway.
He has the range of an Irish tenor. He approaches every game as Gunther-Gebel
Williams approached a cage of lions and tigers. And he has a grin that
every mother loves and a fiery demeanor every manager finds irresistible.
Tulowitzki was in a deep 0-2 hole against Houston’s Dan Wheeler
in the bottom of the ninth Thursday. But he dug himself out and stroked
the baseball into left field to score Jamey Carroll.
Troy — “You The Boy!” — has five game-winning
hits. He had a single, a double and an opposite-field home run for three
runs batted in and two runs scored as the Rox battled back in the final
game of a long homestand that could have gone bad. (They finished 6-4.)
Troy has lifted his batting average to .275 after it hovered south of
the border for more than a month. He has been brilliant at shortstop.
He has caught everything, including the admiration of his teammates.
“I feel like I need a tape recorder for this question,” Matt
Holliday said of the shortstop he plays behind in left. “He’s
exciting. He loves the spotlight, and he loves the big situation and thrives
in it. He’s done well for us. There’s not much else you can
say about him.”
But we can.
Did you hear about Tulowitzki’s unassisted triple play April 29?
Actually, if there were four outs in an inning, Tulowitzki would have
had been responsible for three putouts and an assist on one play. He threw
to first baseman Todd Helton just to make sure he hadn’t miscounted.
In the ninth Thursday, Helton recounted a situation in which previous
Rockies had failed.
“One out there, with guys on first and third, and we would hit into
a double play, and the inning would be done, but you see that it’s
Tulo coming up, and he’s come through so many times, you just expect
he would do it,” Helton said.
Because only 12 other players had recorded unaided triple plays in the
history of the game, the Hall of Fame requested Tulowitzki’s cap
and jersey. If he plays as he has lately, Troy will be rejoining his uniform
in Cooperstown one day.
Teammates say Tulowitzki’s style is infectious.
“That’s just the way I play, and I’ll play like that
as long as I’m in the league,” he said.
He wants to win. The 22-year-old Tulowitzki still hasn’t recovered
from a loss 10 years ago that prevented his team from advancing to the
Little League World Series.
The kid lives in Sunnyvale , Calif.
Figures.
In the fifth grade, Tulowitzki told the teacher he wanted to be a big-league
baseball player. The teacher said Troy should aim lower. Like being president?
On June 8, 2005, six teams passed on Tulowitzki. Justin Upton’s
brother, B.J., had been a No. 1 draft pick, and he seemed a natural. Justin
is a great hitter, but Arizona already has moved Upton to the outfield,
in the minors.
The Rockies have drafted approximately 8,000 pitchers in 16 drafts. But,
even though they had a previous pick, Clint Barmes, already in Denver
as the shortstop of the future, the Rockies scarfed up Tulowitzki.
And Tulowitzki is the leading candidate to be rookie of the year, ranking
first among National League rookies in runs, hits and walks and is second
in RBI and multihit games. He leads all major-league shortstops in total
chances, assists and putouts. Don’t tiptoe through the Tulowitzki.
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