Longtime GM O'Dowd quiets critics with NL pennant

GM Dan O'Dowd, the modest architect of the revitalized Rockies, has slowly allowed himself to enjoy the club's World Series ride. AP

World Series Coverage   Monday John Donovan: Rox, Sox built to last Albert Chen: Ellsbury an unlikely hero Joe Sheehan: Scenes, notes from clincher Red Sox celebrate World Series victory Sunday Sox clip Rockies 4-3 to win World Series John Donovan's Report Card for Game 4 Jon Heyman's 15 Greatest Mr. Octobers Lowell takes home Series MVP honors Dynasty in the making for Red Sox? Clock strikes midnight for Rockies' ride Time.com: Red Sox are the new Yankees Saturday Red Sox down Rockies 10-5, take 3-0 lead John Donovan's Report Card for Game 3 Tom Verducci: The Sox are superior John Donovan: The Coors Field factor Jon Heyman: Four keys to Game 3 Friday Melissa Segura: Corpas gets his wish John Donovan: Rockies' lumber slumber Jon Heyman: How the Sox got Beckett Joe Sheehan: Electric night at Fenway Thursday Schilling, bullpen shut down Rockies 2-1 John Donovan's Report Card for Game 2 Tom Verducci's five cuts for Thursday Albert Chen on the Red Sox's bullpen John Donovan: Rockies turn to a rookie Joe Sheehan: Postseason drama lacking Tale of the Tape: Rockies vs. Red Sox World Series Fungoes Joe Lemire on Rockies-Red Sox Schedule/Box Scores Game 1: Red Sox 13, Rockies 1 Game 2: Red Sox 2, Rockies 1 Game 3: Red Sox 10, Rockies 5 Game 4: Red Sox 4, Rockies 3

DENVER -- Rockies general manager Dan O'Dowd, criticized for years in his adopted hometown, isn't wasting time with any "I-told-you-sos.'' Instead, he is doling out only "thank yous.''

Thank you to his players for putting together the most amazing 22-game streak in baseball history.

Thank you to his trusty assistants, the Bills, Geivett and Schmidt, the latter being the scouting savant who nabbed shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and most of the other new Rocktober heroes.

But thanks mostly to his club president, Keli McGregor, and the club-owning Monfort brothers, who kept giving O'Dowd extensions when some critics said they should be showing him the door. O'Dowd took just a few minutes away from marveling at the fantastic run to sit down and talk about why he's still here and why the Rockies are where they are.

"If they're not patient, I'm fired,'' O'Dowd said of his bosses in an interview with SI.com about an hour before the Rockies completed their four-game sweep with a 6-4 win over Arizona and moved to a place many predicted they'd never be -- the World Series. "Ninety-nine percent of people would have been fired by now and never would have had the chance to be sitting here in this chair today.''

O'Dowd's office is beautiful and spotless, an organizational how-to. It's almost as perfect as this run by the amazing Rockies, which now includes 21 wins in 22 games. If O'Dowd has shocked folks by keeping his job, the Rockies have done the same by stealing the spotlight and going on a winning streak that has folks -- even in their own offices -- shaking their heads in disbelief.

Many of them have lived through the rough times, though few have suffered like O'Dowd, who takes the defeats personally. And there were quite a few of those. The impossible ballpark, the failed free-agent picks, and ultimately the tightening of the budget to next-to-nothing meant many lean years and led to O'Dowd becoming a personal punching bag in a surprisingly tough newspaper town. He doesn't take defeats well but handled the criticism and has no interest in lashing back. "I'm not like that,'' he said. "I feel good for our people. It was tough in the beginning. But I got immune to it by the end.''

Now should be a time for rejoicing. But O'Dowd, who will tell you reflexively that there's a long way to go, isn't going against the team's clichéd but successful "one day at a time'' mantra. Although in a rare moment he did admit, "If we pull this thing off, I'll be pretty happy.''

Meantime, O'Dowd will continue to wear his game face. And he'll fret about what isn't going right in this unfathomable streak. Yes, the perfectionist in him has found a few things. "The only constant is that we're playing pretty good defense,'' O'Dowd said. If by "pretty good,'' he means the best in baseball history, then yes, he's right about that. Their fielding percentage set the alltime record.

He's done a pretty good job, too, and that's about as big an understatement. O'Dowd's one of the smartest people in baseball, and one of the best prepared. But he suffered a lot for seven years. Part of it was the park, which the club ingeniously neutralized with the humidor. But part of it was also an early attempt to spend to win that went awry when Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle weren't what they hoped. The reaction to those mistakes was to cut back, way back. And while it's working, O'Dowd isn't taking bows yet. "We had gotten to the point where we were so far underwater with our revenue model, we had no choice but to do it.''

While O'Dowd's bosses were patient with him, O'Dowd needed patience in spades to wait for the talent to blossom. The Rockies have not lost a draft choice through a free-agent signing since 2001, and the ones they have, they use wisely. The calls of O'Dowd and Geivett to promote Matt Holliday and Tulowitzki paid off, and Holliday will be first or second in MVP voting and Tulowitzki will be first or second in Rookie of the Year balloting. O'Dowd should get support for Executive of the Year, as well. Meantime, he's barely smiling. Though in the end, on the field, surrounded by family and adoring fans, he broke into a smile. And he finally conceded, "I do feel pretty good about what we've done.'''

Tulo pays homage to Cal

Tulowitzki was thrilled to meet one of his heroes, Cal Ripken Jr., on the field before the game. Tulowitzki is a big shortstop at 6-foot-2, but Ripken, 6-4, dwarfed him. "Oh my God, he's huge,'' was Tulowitzki's response to seeing Ripken, reports Rockies coach Mike Gallego, the 5-foot-7 former major league shortstop.

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