Mixed Signals

THE ROCKIES may be playing in the NLCS (page 38) while the Broncos are scuffling at 2--3, but Denver is still a football town. And the Rockies know their football: Manager Clint Hurdle, bench coach Jamie Quirk, outfielder Matt Holliday, first baseman Todd Helton and pinch hitter Seth Smith were all big-time high school and/or college quarterbacks. Hurdle ( Miami), Quirk (Notre Dame) and Holliday (Oklahoma State) accepted Division I football scholarships before eschewing college for baseball's minor leagues. Helton played (mostly as reserve) at Tennessee, starting three games as a junior in 1994 before injuring his knee and losing the job to Peyton Manning. Smith also backed up a Manning—Eli at Ole Miss.

THE GLUT OF FORMER QUARTERBACKS, the Rockies say, is coincidental, but Helton (as a Volunteer, left, and a Rockie) believes that having coaches and players with a quarterback's mindset has helped during Colorado's run. "When you're getting ready for a football game, that's it—you only have one game to get the job done," he says. "That's what playoff baseball is like."

Smith's rise to playoff prominence is even more improbable than the Rockies'. On Sept. 15 the 25-year-old outfielder had never played a big league game. He'd also dislocated his shoulder two weeks earlier in Triple A. But called up for the stretch, he went 5 for 8 as a pinch hitter, including a triple in the play-in game against the Padres, and then had a key single in Game 2 of the NLDS.

The 6'3", 215-pound Smith says he never quite had the head to be an NFL quarterback—"Eli's grasp of the game was incredible," he recalls of his days as Manning's backup. "His arm strength and accuracy were better than mine, but not by leaps and bounds. But it was baffling sitting in meetings and seeing the stuff that he'd pick up on." The rookie does, however, have a great QB's cool—"We put him in pressure situations, and he came through every time," Quirk says, explaining the decision to include him on the playoff roster. Says Smith: "I brought that focus from football. A quarterback can never get caught up in his emotions. You have to have an even keel and just play the game."

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