The World Series may have ended for the Colorado Rockies on Sunday night, but their faith continues. Even though the Rockies were swept in four games by the Boston Red Sox, the number most important to the team will always be 64.
The number 64 was worn by a Kyle Blakeman, a brave young man who started playing football at age 7, but never had the opportunity to suit-up for a high school football. In August, he died at age 15 from a rare kidney cancer.
Earlier in August, the Rockies had a mediocre record of 66-64 and it looked as though the team would miss the playoffs for a 12th straight season until the team’s manager, Clint Hurdle, had a chance-encounter in a suburban Denver grocery store.
A family friend of the Blakeman’s recognized Hurdle and shared Kyle’s story with him. Hurdle soon contacted Kyle and a special friendship ensued.
After another Colorado loss, and the hopes of making it to the playoffs growing dimmer by the day, the Rockies’ manager visited Kyle in the hospital and asked him if he could change the team’s luck. Hurdle asked Kyle for his lucky number. Kyle offered his jersey number, 64.
That night, Clint 
Hurdle wrote that number on the lineup card. In the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Rockies trailing by four runs, Matt Holliday hit a key homerun that ignited a late-inning comeback. Colorado won 6-5. Hurdle took the lineup card to Kyle and thanked him for providing the good luck.
Four days later Kyle Blakeman died.
After Kyle’s death, the Rockies started winning on a torrid pace. The team managed to win 21 out of 22 games to secure a place in baseball’s post season. All lineup cards for those games had the number 64 circled, and prominently displayed on them by Hurdle.
This isn’t a story about baseball or one team’s unlikely run at a championship – it’s a story about miracles; and having the belief that miracles can and do happen.
The fuel and energy to create and sustain miracles is our faith. Often times, we tend to get caught up in the details of life, and fail to step-back and see the more important things.
In this story, the more important things are health, family and life. Baseball is only a game. When we surrender what we think we want and need to what is truly important and meaningful, miracles have a way of finding us.
Yes, winning baseball games, and the like, is important. But at the end of the day, the final score is irrelevant if we are not focused on what the real lessons are that life is trying to teach us: Life is precious. Our time to live our lives is precious. Believe you are worthy and capable. And when you don’t know how to change or do things differently in order to begin seeing different results, surrender to faith and believe it is possible.
Kyle reminded Clint Hurdle of these important life lessons. And the Rockies have reminded all of us – the improbable can happen when we believe. By the way, the Rockies advanced to the World Series by defeating Arizona 6-4, scoring all six runs in the fourth inning.
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