But the end of the article talks about how they emphasize tolerance and don't write off people who have made mistakes in the past.  I'm Jewish, but I don't see anything wrong with organizing your team around Christian values, as long as no one is made to feel excluded or uncomfortable.

Scrappy is a religious figure.

(I wonder if sports figures who claim their success is God given ever think that their failures are God given too.)

I didn't see you arguing in 1995 when Joey Cora did that....twice!

and feel obliged to set the record straight on this misperception: The article, aside from being factually incorrect (Playboys and Maxims are not banned, nor is any particular brand of music) is entirely misleading. It displays the attitudes of the front office and a minority of the players, none of whom pressure or ostracize others.

Even the supposedly religious people say that there is no schism among the guys whatsoever; as Aaron Cook puts it, "I've never even seen a Bible out in the open in the clubhouse." Holliday, who is religious, likes to keep it quiet and doesn't think it has to do with baseball. The guys in the clubhouse love each other and pull for each other hard. The religion thing may be true in the front office, but not with the players. And we look for players with character as well as talent, just so we don't end up with Kyle Farnsworth-like @$$holes on the team (Jose Mesa an exception). Not necessarily religious. There are a few guys who are, as there are on any club, but it's by no means the "Team Jesus" certain bloggers would have you believe.

We're not sanctimonious holier-than-thou missionaries, we're a diverse blend of young guys having fun. Jason Hirsh, who is Jewish, was asked about the supposed Christianity bias in an interview with MLB Trade Rumors a while back, and said he hadn't noticed a thing, and had never played with a nicer and more welcoming group of guys. He was excited to be a Rockie, and this was well before our fairy tale run, so all the more power to him...

Nobody was pleased with the USA Today article and said it gave the wrong impression. Holliday, one of the "religious" squad, said that he was completely misrepresented, and the other guys said they were only questioned in general terms about the clubhouse, not religion specifically. You should wikipedia the Rockies and read their response to the article, published in the Denver Post. So basing your account of them off this is entirely factually incorrect, really.

And then there's this: The Rockies players, on their own accord, just voted a full playoff share to the widow of Mike Coolbaugh, which, if they win the Series, totals to almost $362K. For comparison, Garrett Atkins makes $400K - that's almost doubling his salary.