We played the best we could in the World Series, but there's no way around the fact that the Red Sox played great, so we lost.

When Jonathan Papelbon struck out Seth Smith to end the game, then threw his glove in the air to begin the celebration, I stayed around to watch it for a second. It's tough to watch. It's tough to be on the other side of the fence. We made a lot of teams feel like we feel right now. But you need to be a gracious winner and a gracious loser.

Tonight, I am proud to be one of the Colorado Rockies. I'm proud to be a big league baseball player, just to be here. I wanted to win the World Series. But this was a good experience.

The fans have been great. They've really come out and supported us. They were proud of the great moments of this season, just like we were.

People ask me if I can think about next season, about going to Tucson, Ariz., for Spring Training and preparing for 2008. But that's the last thing I want to think about right now.

I just want to go home and be a dad right now.

We know we'll have to get it going to come back from two games down and win the World Series, but this team is resilient and has a lot of confidence.

It was a long flight. We had to stop and get gas on the way and landed at 6-ish. I think everybody was a little more tired than usual. But other than that, it was pretty much the same. The same guys played cards. The same guys watched movies. The same guys played video games.

I really appreciate the home-field advantage that we have at Coors Field. There's no doubt we're going to feel a lot more comfortable here. It's always been that way with the Rockies, that no matter what happens on the road, we can turn things around in a hurry. Down 2-0, history will tell you that it's a tough place to come back from, but we've got no choice. We've got to go out and play, and win a baseball game tomorrow.

I haven't really had a chance to sample the spirit of Denver. I just decided to get some sleep, then come to the ballpark and work out. I understand people are excited. Everyone is wearing Rockies gear, and I know the fans here are behind us. Hopefully, I'll see some of the excitement tomorrow. I know there will be a lot of it for Game 3, the first-ever World Series game at Coors Field.

It's been quite a while since we've lost two in a row, but here we are, down 2-0 in the World Series.

But I'm happy to be heading home to Coors Field.

Fenway Park has lots of little quirks, and the Red Sox have played really well here. They've pitched us tough. We pitched a lot better tonight than last night. Ubaldo Jimenez did a good job, and so did our bullpen. We just couldn't come up with timely hits. Our pitching has been carrying us the whole postseason, but before the World Series we got a lot of timely hits.

Curt Schilling had lot to do with that tonight. He used to throw a 97 mph fastball right by you whenever he got in trouble. He doesn't have that pitch anymore, but he's really smart. He can get you looking for something hard, then throw his changeup when you least expect it. He got us tonight, and they've got a really good bullpen.

But we're going home.

We have a bigger home-field advantage. We've got a big park, we play well there, and they're the team that's going to have to adjust. And I can't wait to get out on the field on Saturday night. I know our fans have waited a long time for this -- 15 years. It's hard to believe it's been that long. That's even longer than I've been playing. I just hope they're loud. I hope they're crazy.

We need to swing the bats better and play better overall, and our fans are going to help us.

Today was workout day at Fenway Park, before the World Series starts tomorrow night.

It's a great thrill to have my dad on the field with me today. With the history of this place, he said he always wanted to come here and see a World Series game, it's special. I'm excited for him. My mom and my dad are both going to be here.

It's going to be exciting. I think my dad will be more nervous than I am. I remember how he taught me to hit the other way. I'd hit in the garage, and he had a Fiberglas boat on the right side of the garage. If I pulled it, I'd hit the boat and then I got a whippin'. That'll make you stay inside the ball pretty good.

I talked to Peyton Manning last night, my good friend and old football teammate from Tennessee. He said, 'The best advice I can give you is to keep your same routine.' It worked for him in the Super Bowl last year, so that's good advice.

I'm just going to go take the family to dinner, go home, get a good night's sleep, then get up and get ready to play tomorrow. I'll hopefully sleep in a little bit tomorrow, so the day will be a little bit shorter. The game doesn't start until after 8 o'clock, and it can't get here soon enough.

The World Series.

It’s back to business today, with a workout at Coors Field.

After we clinched the National League Championship Series in Sunday night, we stayed up most of the night. So yesterday was a very slow day, to say the least. I knew we had some down time. We were off. So we sort of relaxed, enjoyed it, had a nice dinner. We didn’t to too much. So it’s nice to crank it back up today, get some blood flowing and start focusing on playing the World Series.

Has it sunk in? I don’t think it’s sunk in yet, to be honest with you. I’ve said it to myself a lot. National League Champions. It’s not easy to do. I think it’s so crazy, so surreal, because three weeks ago we weren’t in this frame of mind. Yet, we weren’t making offseason plans.

But I’ve always said I’m going to go out and play the 162-game regular season as hard as I can and just see what happens. I think that’s what we did as a team. We just went out and played hard. I think that’s the problem with some teams. They start talking, ‘I’m gonna do this after the season.’ ‘I’m gonna do that after the season.’ We didn’t have too much of that. I don’t think anybody wanted to go home. We wanted to keep playing, and I think that’s part of the reason we were able to pull off whatever you call what we did.

After the Division Series against the Phillies and the other night when we made it to the World Series, I brought my daughter into the clubhouse during the celebration. Tierney is five years old now. And, now she thinks that every time we win, we drink beer and pour it on our heads.

I hope she gets to see it one more time.

We’re going to the World Series!

At the end of the game, I was walking around the field with my daughter Tierney on my shoulders. I don’t know if you can describe it. It’s a dream come true. It’s tough to put into words.

Seeing the fans, seeing the look in my teammates’ eyes, knowing that we actually set goals that we were able to accomplish -- that’s the unthinkable, to come back from where we were at, most people would just pack it up and make plans for the offseason. We kept battling. Now we’re celebrating.

Every year, we make the goal to win the World Series, not to make the World Series. I mean, you want to believe it, but you know you’re up against some tough opponents. That’s everybody’s goal when the season starts. But to actually accomplish it, it’s crazy good.

I’m not an emotional guy. This is emotional.

I mean, just to see that “CR” on top of the “League Champs” when I got the hat and looked at it. … I’d never even seen the National League championship trophy before. I didn’t know. When I saw that and heard "National League Champs, going to the World Series," it just sounds so good going off the tongue, it’s ridiculous.

As I get ready for Game 2 at Chase Field, I think about all the games I’ve played in this ballpark. It’s a pretty good hitters' park.

They say there’s a difference whether the roof is open or closed. I don’t see it that much. The thing I like most about it is you can always see the ball. You pretty much know what you’re hitting. Some people say it looks like it could be hard to see, but it’s not. It’s a great, dark background, a good place to see the baseball. That’s all you can ask for. If you see it, you have a chance.

The other thing is you don’t have a wind. If you have a wind blowing in your face, it’s tough. It’s like if you’re playing golf and there’s a stiff breeze, it makes it tougher mentally.

People saw what happened with the fans in the seventh inning last night. They didn’t like a call at second base, and some people threw things out onto the field. Let me tell you something: I never thought that would happen here. But you can’t paint everybody because of the actions of a few. They’ve got really good fans here. Hey, Cubs fans did it twice when we were there, and they’ve got the best fans in the world. The Diamondbacks have every reason to be proud of their fans.

Posted courtesy of MLB.com during the game.

We’ve won Game 1, but there’s still a ways to go. We can’t get ahead of ourselves. The hardest thing about tonight was just the wait. We had four days off, and it makes you anxious. You just want to get out there. You want to go.

It’s almost like you’re too rested. It was about the eighth or ninth inning, when I felt my body was hurting just as much as usual. Then I was ready to go.

Not a lot of teams have a lot of success against the Diamondbacks’ Brandon Webb. I think we just battle. If you notice, we didn’t go out tonight and just crush the ball all over the field. We just got some timely hits and we were able to string some good at-bats together.

That’s the thing about playoff baseball. You watch them every year. Every run is big in the playoffs.

Thinking of the playoffs makes me think back to when I was a kid. I think the first World Series I could remember was in 1981. I would come back from football practice and go to a friend’s house to watch on his TV. It was the Dodgers and Yankees. I can remember watching it on a small, black-and-white TV. We didn’t get the station at my house, so I had to go over to my friend’s house to watch it.

You know, I don’t remember any players or anything like that. It was just the teams, the Dodgers and the Yankees. It was exciting. I had already decided that I wanted to grow up to be a baseball player, so it wasn’t because of that. My dad was a baseball player in the Twins organization, but he came home when my older brother, Rodney, was born.

Of course, the playoff games start pretty late and kids might not be able to stay up and watch them. As a player, you think back to when you were a kid and you think about the kids and hope they can enjoy the game the way you did. Believe it or not, we’re kind of worried about the actual game, but you’re always conscious of the kids. You want to make a good impression so they’ll grow up loving the game, too.

Posted courtesy of MLB.com during the game.

Hitting-wise, I felt I was seeing the ball well at the end of the regular season. As for now, we’ll see.

We’re still facing some really good pitchers. I’m not concerned with my numbers or any of the stats right now.

Actually, I could care less. It’s all about wins and losses. If I had gone 1-for-12 against the Phillies and we’d have lost those games, that would have been an issue.

Now I can wipe that slate clean and think about the games coming up.

I take a lot of pride in my defense at first base, doing all the little things right and hopefully helping the team win. Was this my best season with the glove?

Well, it was as good as I have had. I’m not tooting my own horn or anything like that. I don’t like to do that. But I felt I’ve been adequate.

You can work every day on defense and still find something more to work on. You never stop working because you can always get better. Especially when you’re struggling with the bat, to me the best thing you can do is go out and focus on your defense. That’s what I’ve done.

There aren’t any stats for it. We don’t sit there and count how many games we’ve won with our defense. It’s true that we led baseball in fielding, but we don’t care how we win. As long as we win, it doesn’t matter how. When you lose, that’s how you get into a bunch of trouble -- everybody starts analyzing why you lost. But when you win, you’re just happy. Just go enjoy the win.

A lot of people may feel we’re going to lose some momentum because of the four-day layoff between beating the Phillies in the Division Series and the start of the National League Championship Series on Thursday.

But I think it’s cool. It’s nice to get a little break, nice to relax and heal up all the nicks and bruises.

You know, one day off, like we get during the regular season, really doesn’t help your body heal. Two days makes a big difference.

When it gets into three or four days, the question is our momentum. But the Diamondbacks have the same momentum. We’ve played the same number of games in the playoffs, so we’ll see how it affects each team.

You couldn’t get a more familiar opponent than the Diamondbacks. We see them a lot every year in Spring Training in Tucson. We play those guys so much during the regular season. We play a lot of games in that park.

Heck, with half the guys, we’re out there talking about hunting. We know where one another are going after the season. We play so much. That’s a good group of guys that wants to win just as badly as we do. It’s going to be a good challenge for us.

Wow. A 2-1 win and we’re going on to meet Arizona in the National League Championship Series.

To get where we’ve always wanted to go, I knew we had to win at least one of these close, low-scoring games. I’ve watched the playoffs on TV for years. You always have close games like this in the postseason.

When we weren’t going on, that’s one of the things I always liked to do, watch the postseason on television. I wouldn’t say I played along with the players in my mind. I didn’t manage along with the manager and second-guess moves. I watched just for the excitement.

You can tell how everybody’s into each pitch, the intensity of it. I’ve always dreamed of doing it myself, with the Colorado Rockies.

Now, I don’t have to watch the NLCS on TV.

No, sir.

Playoff games are a little different. During the regular season, the clubhouse is open to the media 3 ½ hours before the game. It’s part of the normal routine. But in the playoffs the clubhouse is closed during the pregame.

So how is that time leading up to the game? In high school, you might have speeches from coaches or teammates screaming and getting fired up. Here?

It’s guys sitting in their underwear watching college football, getting ready to play or listening to music. It’s as relaxed as it gets in there.

Come an hour before the game, you start getting focused, thinking about what you’ve going to do. We always have the opposing pitcher, in this case it’s Phillies left-hander Jamie Moyer, on the TV, a DVD of what he’s done in the past.

I’m relaxed before the game and like to have fun. But there’s a time when the game starts getting close that I really get focused. People don’t realize that there’s always something going on, people wanting to talk to you about something. But there comes a point where you’ve got to be selfish about it and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got to focus on the main thing, which is getting ready to play the ballgame.’

Even right before we go out, there are no last words from the manager or teammates. Nothing. We’re just ready to play.

I’m asked about the fact that every time I’m at the park, before and after every game, the reporters gather around me and the cameras are on me. So what are my thoughts? What image am I trying to project?

I’m just trying to get it over with. No, I don’t use it as a vehicle or anything like that. Look at me. I’d actually shave or get a haircut if I was trying to portray something.

I’m just trying to tell the truth.

I am what I am. I spent a large part of my life trying to please other people. But then you come to realize that people are going to dislike you no matter what you do or like you no matter what you do.

It was another big win for us today, but we’re not going to let up. We know we can’t.

To win in the playoffs, all the way through the lineup, you have to have guys coming through. That's what we've had, especially the last couple of weeks. That’s what guys did today.

It helps to have just played the Phillies in September. We were pretty familiar with the team. It always helps to be familiar with the relief pitchers. I think it helped us today.

When we get back to Denver in front of the crowd at Coors Field, I'm going to step back and enjoy it. But I'm going to focus on the game, too.

I was asked if this compares to anything from when I was in college playing football at Tennessee. Maybe in atmosphere, but that's about it. That was once a week. This is every day. It's crazy, isn't it?

After we won yesterday, I just relaxed, went to dinner, went home and went to bed.

There were a few people at the restaurant that recognized me, but everybody was very cordial. They didn’t want to have any deep conversations. It was basically, "Take it easy on the Phillies." They were nice.

During the game, it was nice being at the ballpark among the fans. It was so loud that you didn’t get to hear anybody individually saying the bad stuff at you.

My teammates didn’t kid me too much about the triple yesterday, but I have speed. I was flying. … Yeah, right. I hit it to center field and it ended up in right. That’s how I got my triple.

Posted courtesy of MLB.com during the game.

It’s after the press conference, on the big stage. Did I do OK?

Monday night was wild. I got a bunch of calls -- and 52 texts -- on my phone. I haven’t answered, at least not yet.

The last few weeks have been exciting, and maybe at times I was a little nervous. But sometime during the last game, I just came to accept it. I just kind of relaxed a little and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to go out and play and see what happens.’

It was a roller coaster, no doubt about it. When [the Padres’ Scott] Hairston hit the home run, the bottom kind of fell out. I knew we were going to come back and put a fight up, but I knew the odds were against coming back and beating one of the greatest closers of all time. But Matt [Holliday] did a great job and Tulo [Troy Tulowitzki] did a great job, and it made it that much more special the way we won.

It’s been a long time getting to the playoffs, but we’re here now.