Tony DeMarco

Opening Day at Coors Field this season wasn’t exactly a festive one. The Rockies slapped around Diamondbacks’ ace Brandon Webb, only to see their bullpen give up three runs in the eighth inning of an 8-6 loss.

But the real head-shaking occurred around the stadium and especially in the press box with the announcement that both general manager Dan O’Dowd and manager Clint Hurdle had been given two-year contract extensions.

O’Dowd, on the job since late in the 1999 season, had produced only one winning year in his tenure — and barely at that — 82-80 in 2000. Since Hurdle was promoted from hitting instructor to manager in late-April of 2002, the Rockies’ biggest win total was 76 in 2006. And these two get two-year extensions? What happened to proving yourself in a lame-duck year, especially after a long track record of mediocrity?

Fast-forward six months, and all the justification needed for those extensions is unfolding in one of the most compelling and dramatic late-season runs in the game’s history. The Rockies have been rolling through the rest of the National League since mid-September, and there is no reason to think they will stop now.

After an overwhelming 10-5 victory on Thursday, they return home with a 2-0 lead in the division series over the Philadelphia Phillies, and does anybody think it won’t end this weekend in a sold-out Coors Field, where the energy and electricity is reminiscent of the Rockies’ last postseason appearance in 1995?

The Rockies have won 16 of their last 17 games — 13 of 14 in the regular season to erase a 5½-game deficit in the wild-card race, another in the memorable 13-inning play-in game to win the wild card, and two more over the Phillies, who now know they have run into an unstoppable force. Everything is going right for the Rockies, right down to the coin flip that gave them home-field advantage for the play-in game.

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The 1960 New York Yankees won their final 15 regular-season games to reach the postseason. The 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers ran off a 14-1 late-September stretch that pushed them to a pennant. And now you can throw the 2007 Rockies into that equation. So in the midst of the wild-card-clinching celebration in the home clubhouse at Coors Field, owner Charlie Monfort was asked about that justification.

“Yes, there is some, but that’s not the reason why we did it,’’ Monfort said. “We wanted to take the focus off Dan and Clint. We have a young team. We didn’t want them worrying about whether Dan and Clint would be here tomorrow if we weren’t playing well.

“We believe our organization is as strong as it can be, and Clint has made great strides. If he’s not manager of the year, I will question the reasoning. We have stability here.’’

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But even Hurdle admitted a few days ago, “I was caught off-guard (by the extension). When it was offered, it didn’t take me long to agree to take it. I’m not that good in math, but I thought two more years was a pretty good idea.’’

And so Hurdle remains in place as a nice, building-block of a season (the Rockies were 76-72 when their run began) has spiked sharply upward since mid-September, and become something entirely different and franchise-changing. This run is about a team coming together at exactly the right time, propelled by an inspiring walk-off home run by Todd Helton — the longtime face of the franchise — to beat the Dodgers on Sept. 18th.

But in truth, the proper framework from which this remarkable run has emerged has been in place for quite awhile. A rebuilding process began in 2003, and by 2005, core players Matt Holliday, Jeff Francis, Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawpe and Brian Fuentes were beginning the process of becoming established stars.

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An off-season decision not to deal Helton to the Boston Red Sox has kept the team’s icon player in place, even at the cost of his $16.6-million contract that puts a strain on a $55-million payroll.

“It would kill me if Todd wasn’t here for this,’’ Monfort said.

And then there is the inspiring and stunningly good-so-soon play of rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, the poster boy for a farm system ranked at the top of the game that also has sent Ubaldo Jimenez, Franklin Morales, Seth Smith, Ian Stewart and Joe Koshansky to the big leagues in the past few months — all of whom made key contributions down the stretch.

That the Rockies are as talented as any team in the National League isn’t a surprise to anybody who has watched all season. But this run of epic proportion has taken on a life of its own, and the Rockies are smart enough to just keep playing, and not to ask how or why. Not that they don’t think it can continue.

“Nobody wants to mess with us right now,’’ Monfort said.

He’s got that right.

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