With the baseball season upon us, I must admit that I struggled to find the positives when it came to writing about the Colorado Rockies. The team had gotten off to another slow start, the pitchers were getting shelled, and Kris Bryant was again, a virtual no-show. So, I cheated. I sat down at my computer, then asked ChatGPT to write me an 800-word article about the Colorado Rockies and all that was good. Within minutes, there it was. The words Cold Beer repeated 400 times. So, here it is. My annual story about the Colorado Rockies, written before they become too irrelevant, which is roughly... Read More

The baseball season is ridiculously long. Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in early February. Opening Day is at the end of March, and with 162 games to be played, the regular season lasts all the way to the end of September. And now that Major League Baseball has expanded their Playoffs to include six teams in each league, it is fair to believe that your favorite team may be playing in October – or even Game Seven in November. The point being – baseball lasts forever. Even the worst of teams can hover just below .500 for months, go on a decent winning streak sometime after... Read More

When the San Diego Padres signed Manny Machado to a 10-year/$300 million contract last week, Joel Wolfe, the agent of Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado, must have been smiling.  The contract was the most lucrative in major league baseball history as the Padres set the price it takes to secure a young, talented, gold-gloved superstar. The only problem is that Colorado has one that is even better.  And now it’s time to pay. In the last four years, Nolan Arenado has averaged 40 HRs, 40 2Bs, 125 RBIs, grabbed 4 gold gloves (6 total), and played in 4 all-star games, all while leading... Read More

Former baseball great Don Baylor passed away on August 7, 2017 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Baylor was best known to Rockies fans as the first manager in the franchise’s history as he led Colorado to the playoffs in 1995, and was named the NL Manager of the Year. As a teenager I was fortunate enough to see Baylor close up and personal in a locker room following an Angels game many years ago. Baylor was a mountain of a man, literally and figuratively. With quads and arms the size of tree trunks, Baylor would crowd the plate and dare a pitcher to throw inside, and throw inside they... Read More

The story is familiar. The powerful, young, first baseman reaches the major leagues by swinging for the fences on every pitch. The big league team sacrifices a high strikeout rate and low batting average for long term potential, and tape measure home runs. But Father Time catches up to the powerful first baseman as the strikeout rate continues to rise and his production declines. At 33 years of age, Mark Reynolds should probably be out of baseball, but instead, he may start at first base in the All-Star game as he is currently hitting .302 with 17 homers and 55 RBIs, and the Colorado Rockies... Read More

Starting at Third Base – I Don’t Know It was known as the classic Abbott and Costello comedy sketch, confusingly funny as the ballplayers included names like Who at first, What on second, and I Don’t Know at third base. But as the Rockies enter the month of June in second place in the NL West, life seems to be imitating (comedic) art. I recently took an informal poll of my friends and relatives, all with decent baseball knowledge, and asked the simple question. Who plays third base for the Colorado Rockies? The response included many wrong names, plenty of mispronunciations, and lots... Read More

Almost forty games into the season and the Colorado Rockies are sitting in first place in the NL West. First baseman, Mark Reynolds is on fire (.331, 12 HR, 31 RBIs), Nolan Arenado is still the best third baseman in the game, and the young pitching staff is throwing well. This could be the year…. I want to believe that too. But as you sit there with your purple shaded glasses on, my job is to explain to you the harsh reality of how the rest of the season will sadly progress. 1) Injuries. Pitchers just can’t make it through a season anymore. Tyler Anderson and Jon Gray are already on the... Read More