The wait is finally over for the amazing Rockies, who, after enduring the longest-ever layoff between playoff series, face their most formidable opponent yet in the Red Sox

Holliday has been hot in October (four homers) but 15 days off out of 22 could have a cooling effect. Tim DeFrisco

The Colorado Rockies spent the sixth of eight consecutive days off frolicking in the snow on Sunday in Denver, hardly the schedule or climate you would associate with the hottest team ever to reach the World Series. In an upside-down baseball world in which the Boston Red Sox have become the New York Yankees and just about anybody can go to the World Series -- one third of the 30 franchises have done so in just the past six years -- the Rockies entered the Fall Classic like no other club in history: riding a 21-1 run. Talk about your freak storms.

"I think there are a lot of words you could use to describe it," says Colorado ace Jeff Francis of the run. "I don't know if it's unprecedented, unbelievable... I've thrown out ridiculous before. If you tell someone they have to win 21 out of 22 games to get to the World Series, you would probably count yourself out right at the beginning."

For the Rockies to get to the Series they needed not one but two of the greatest final-week collapses in baseball history (the New York Mets went 1-6 while the San Diego Padres lost their last three games despite holding a lead in all of them); a winning run in the final at bat of their 163rd game (even though the player who scored was called safe despite failing to touch home plate); and two fewer losses than the Denver Broncos over a 38-day span. Ridiculous? Even that description seems inadequate. In fact, only one team in history had close to this kind of end-of-season surge. The 1935 Chicago Cubs went 23-1 after Aug. 31 to win the NL pennant, but they lost their final two regular-season games, then bowed to the Detroit Tigers in the Series, four games to two.

The question being asked before this Fall Classic is one never before posed in the Rockies' 15-season history (unless you count the hundreds of millions they wasted on veteran free-agent pitchers in the pre-humidor days): Can anybody stop Colorado? Forget the Red Sox, who on Sunday defeated the Indians in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series 11-2. The answer just might be the Fox network. Says Boston general manager Theo Epstein, "We can hope all the off days slow them down."

Baseball has scheduled every World Series since 1991 to open on a Saturday. Fox, noting that Saturdays drew the smallest viewing audience, asked baseball to start this one on a Wednesday, which had the added benefit of lining up potential Games 6 and 7 for weeknights as well. Baseball agreed to the switch, which forced it to add three off days to the postseason calendar. With sweeps of the Philadelphia Phillies and the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado earned its trip to the World Series with the maximum 15 days off in 22, including a record eight days of inactivity before the Fall Classic. Which raises another question: Are the Rockies too good for their own good?

Working around the occasional snowstorm, Colorado held simulated games at Coors Field to try to maintain its edge. Francis was scheduled to start the World Series opener on 13 days of rust, er, rest. "We were asked the same question when we had three days off in between the DS and the LCS, and it didn't seem to make too big of a difference for us," first baseman Todd Helton says. "So I think once the game starts, we'll be right back in the same mind-set that we have been the last three weeks."

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