May 12- Colorado Rockies

The Colorado Rockies are on of the youngest teams currently playing in Major League Baseball and unfortunately with that there isn’t much of a history between them and anyone who has served their country in the United States military. By this I mean that none of the players who have ever donned the black and purple were ever enlisted in the service. For the past two nights this has become a bit of a road block, one of which will fade away as time goes on and when I start talking about the teams who have been around prior to 1950. As it stands now I merely have to work with the games the Rockies have played which happen to fall on Memorial Day.

Two moments in the Rockies’ past have shown a great tribute to the troops who served in the past and present. On May 28, 2007 the Rockies gave away free to anyone who served in the armed services that showed up in uniform, which was also met with a pre-game celebration of their patriotism. On May 31, 2010 the Rockies hosted and recognized distinguished hero Donald G. Stratton, one of 22 USS Arizona survivors, guests of the Freedom Service Dogs organization, and Military Order of the Purple Heart. Stratton, born outside Inavale, Nebraska on July 14, 1922, graduated in 1940 and joined the U.S. Navy that October. After training, he was assigned aboard USS Arizona BB39 as a member of the 6th Division, which set sail for Hawaii on January 23, 1941. On December 7, 1941 he was on board as torpedoes, dive bombers and high altitude bombers pummeled the ship. After Arizona was hit by an 88-KG armor-piercing bomb that blew off 100 feet of the bow, he and five other sailors completed a 70-foot hand-to-hand crawl across a line connected to a sister ship, The Vestal, in order to survive. Stratton had been badly burned - 70 percent of his body - and he was taken to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Pearl Harbor. Eventually medically discharged in September 1942 and having returned to Red Cloud, Nebraska, he re-enlisted and went to sea aboard U.S.S. Stack (DD406) for a tour on the South Seas. In short, Stratton is kind of an American badass.

As of 2012 the Rockies’ record on Memorial Day sits at 13-8. This last season they played and won both ends of a doubleheader against the Houston Astros at Coors Field which will help make better sense as to why they’ve played 21 games in their 20-year existence. While they truly haven’t played enough years in the league to show any real patter of note I can only piece together and interesting tale based on my own findings and conclusions which pertain more to the game the Rockies played against the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon in their 8-2 victory.

4-3: As I mentioned a moment ago the Rockies played the Cardinals this afternoon, at which Rockies pitcher Jorge De La Rosa had a no-hitter going through 6 1/3 innings until David Freese smoked a hard grounder by Rockies first baseman Jordan Pacheco. De La Rosa had a high pitch count going for him and he was removed shortly after giving up a second hit to John Jay. At the time the Rockies were up 5-0 thanks in part to a Troy Tulowitzki three-run homer in the third inning. With the win under his belt De La Rosa’s record moved to 4-3 on the season; however, this, oddly enough, is not why I marked my cap with that record. Come to think of it until I started writing this piece I never realized what De La Rosa’s record was, which makes this article all the more interesting.

In the 21 games that the Rockies have played on Memorial Day the one team they played the most has been the Cardinals. Their first meeting came on May 29, 1995 in which the Rockies fell to the Cardinals in 11 innings by the score of 6-5. Over the next three seasons the Rockies would come out the victors, winning handily by at least two runs in each contest. It would be another seven years (2005) before the teams met up again on Memorial Day, this time with the Cardinals, once again winning by one run (5-4). In 2007 the match went back to Colorado by a score of 6-2, and in 2011 the Cardinals once again beat the Rockies by a one-run differential (4-3).

Now, if you’re playing at home and tallying up the numbers you’ll see that the Cardinals can only beat the Rockies by one run on Memorial Day, but more important, the overall record is 4-3 in favor of the Rockies. 4-3, once again is Jorge De La Rosa’s record as of today after beating the Cardinals. Pretty weird if you ask me.

March 21- Colorado Rockies

During my baseball related travels of 2012 there were unfortunately three stadiums that I never had the opportunity to visit (Tuner Field, Target Field and Coors Field), but more importantly, there was only one team I have still yet to see play live at home or one the road… the Colorado Rockies. I didn’t really put two and two together until one night when I had a two hour layover in Denver International Airport. DEN is one of the few airports that still have smoking facilities on the inside so I made sure to pay a visit to relax having just been stuck on a plane that had left Kansas City, Missouri a few hours prior. It was September 10, and not exactly a particular day that I wanted to be flying, especially considering I hate flying. I was in the bar watching the Oakland Raiders versus the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night Football with the Rockies game tucked in the back corner on a significantly smaller television. What I didn’t realize until that moment was that the Rockies were playing at home against the San Francisco Giants. It was also in that moment that I realized that moment was the closest I had ever been to seeing the Rockies play in person.

It’s kind of a weird personal stat for me to carry around, especially when considering that I’ve had so many opportunities to catch them when I was living in Bakersfield, California. The Los Angeles Dodgers were two hours away from me, and the Giants were four hours away. But even with such proximity, I always blew the Rockies off. It’s really kind of sad how much love the Colorado Rockies never seem to get. Granted, they’ve only been in Major League Baseball since 1993; however, there are a lot of stats the team compiled in a short time frame which may be unbreakable, at least for the rest of my lifetime. For instance, did you know that the Rockies set the single season attendance record in their inaugural year? Yup! 4,483,350 people went to go see an unproven ball club play in Mile High Stadium. Granted, it did help their figures on account that they played in a NFL stadium, but it’s still impressive nonetheless.

I think one of the things that’s even more impressive is that in the upcoming 20 years the team has been around they managed to hang on to this one baseball cap. The all black with a purple button and purple/white interior “CR” has been one of the few hats to last the test of time. I’ll admit, I don’t give this hat much love, but it is still considered to be one of the best looking hats in baseball by fans and critics. Hell, this was actually the hat the high school (Columbia River) I attended in Vancouver, Washington for my senior year repped the most. It also helped that we had the same colors.

With the Rockies celebrating their 20^th birthday this season I figured I had to do something really special to mark this cap up with. I doubt I’ll get much of an argument. I should also point out that the order in which I threw these numbers on was not by accident. I’ll explain at the end.

#26- Ellis Burks is one of those few guys that many know the name, but very few remember what kind of a career he had despite the fact he played for 18 seasons. He was drafted by the Boston Red Sox with the 20^th overall pick in 1983 and made his debut in Bean Town in 1987. His best year came in 1990 when he went .296/21/89 which was good enough for his first of two trips to the All-Star game, 15^th on the American League MVP list and he even got himself a Gold Glove that season. Through 1992 the rest of his Red Sox career was mediocre at best; the same could be said about his one year with the Chicago White Sox in 1993. At the end of ’93 the Rockies came knocking and signed Burks to a five-year deal. He got off to a great start his first season, but the players strike cut it short. 1995 didn’t pan out all that wonderful; however, it was 1996 when Burks make his mark in MLB history. That season he finished third in the National League MVP vote after slugging a career high 40 home runs, a career high 128 runs batted in and even a career high in runs scored at 142. Oh, and he also had a .344 batting average which led the NL that season. Yah, Burks really got hosed that year. Thanks a lot Ken Caminiti. Burks never quite mustered anything even close to the same season he had in ’96 for the rest of his career. His finished at .291/352/1206.

#9- Vinny Castilla is arguably one of the greatest players in MLB history to be born in Mexico. The only other guy I might put ahead of him is Fernando Valenzuela. Castilla’s career began in 1991 with a two-year stint with the Atlanta Braves. He only played 21 games in that time frame so it made the decision easier for the Braves to allow him to get picked up by the Rockies in the 1992 Expansion Draft. From 1993-2000 Castilla was, and still is, one of the most beloved players in Rockies history. His time from 1996-1997 was especially magical as he went .304/40/113 both years. Yes! He posted the exact stats back-to-back years! What are the odds on that happening? I have no clue, and I sure as hell won’t try to figure it out either. In 1998 he went .319/46/144 which was somehow only good enough for 11^th in the NL MVP voting that season. Ludicrous!!! For his career Castilla made only two All-Star game appearances and won three Silver Slugger awards. Should have been more.

#14- Andres “The Big Cat” Galarraga was hands down one of my favorite players growing up, especially during his time on the Montreal Expos (1985-1991 and 2002), but it was his time with the Rockies that he truly shined. From 1993-1997 Galarraga finished in the top 10 in NL MVP voting every season except 1995 when he finished in 16^th. His two best years in that stretch, statistically that is, came in 1996 and 1997. In ’96 he went .304/47/150 which put him three spots behind Birks in the voting that season. In ’97 The Big Cat went .318/41/140 which was good enough for seventh in NL MVP voting. Granted, the man did hit a career/League high .370 in his first year with the Rockies, but give the guy a break. Back-to-back 40 home run and 100 RBI seasons, are you kidding me!? (More on Galarraga’s accolades in a future post)

#33- Larry “Booger” Walker, like Burks, was another long term contract signing for the Rockies, but this time right before the start of the 1995 season. From 1989-1994 Walker was a member of the Expos and one of the key offensive factors in their storybook season that was cut short by the players strike. He also had a pretty solid glove, winning two Gold Gloves with the ‘Spos in 1992 and 1993. In 1997; however, Walker played out of his mind batting .366 while crushing a League high 49 home runs and raked in 130 RBI; all good enough for his one and only MVP that season. Walker then went on to win three batting titles in 1998, 1999 and 2001. He finished his career going .313/383/1311 while making five All-Star game appearances and winning seven Gold Gloves. He also served as one of the coaches for the Canadian World Baseball Classic team.

Now, as I mentioned above, there is a particular order in which I put their jerseys numbers on my hat which pertains to a record in MLB history which has only occurred twice. In 1996 Burks, Castilla and Galarraga became the first set of three teammates to record 40+ home runs and 100+ RBI in a season (26-9-14 jerseys). In 1997 Castilla, Galarraga and Walker became the second set of three teammates to go 40+/100+ in a season (9-14-33 jerseys). So, from start to finish, the numbers all line up.

Now, while I probably should have given a bit more focus to the 1995 season in which they became the first NL team to win the Wild Card that season, I didn’t find it to be as impressive, especially considering that the 2007 Rockies made the World Series. One last thing that should be pointed out is that 1997 was also the third time in which four teammates hit 100+ RBI in a season. The four: Castilla, Galarraga, Walker and Dante Bichette.

February 13- Casper Ghosts

Today has been an especially unusual day, and I feel that the hat I’m wearing has some partial blame to it. I’ve always been a pretty superstitious guy, especially when it comes to baseball. I always jump over the chalk, I furiously brushed my teeth before every game like Turk Wendell and I always find patterns in the things that I do/wear when things seem to be amiss. Today is only the third day that I’ve worn this Casper Ghosts cap since I bought it back in August of 2011, and all three days have been especially trying.

The first day I wore it I ended up doing poorly on a photography assignment. Specifically, all of the photos I took were over or underexposed. The second day I wore was during Game 4 of the American League Championship series. The entire day I had been wearing my Detroit Tigers home cap in the hopes that the Tigers would tie the series with the Texas Rangers. It was going really well too; the Tigers and Rangers were tied at the end of the seventh inning. My friend Benji, a huge Tigers fan from Lansing, Michigan had been riding me the whole game for me to go home and grab my Ghosts hat for him to look at, but I wasn’t quite in the mood; at least until the Tigers came back from blowing a 2-0 lead in the top of the sixth. I lived about a 9-iron shot away from the bar I work at, Max’s Tavern, so I ran home to grab it for the remainder of the game. Over the next three innings the Tigers had an effort to score a few times, but came up empty every time. Finally, in the top of the 11^th inning, the Tigers turned to Jose Valverde to put a stop on the Rangers offense. He failed. The Rangers won the game 7-3 and I went home and threw the cap across the room. Today, the MLB Fan Cave Top 30 was announced and two of my friends (Tom Bentley- Mariners and Evan Wansbrough- Blue Jays) didn’t make the cut despite garnering a lot of attention over their campaign. I feel partially responsible for them not making the cut, but not because of the hat. The hat merely aided in the depression that followed.

For those who don’t know too much about this hat, let alone the team, the tale is quite interesting. The team was first established in 2001 when the Butte Copper Kings from Montana had relocated after the 2000 season. From 2001-2007 the Rookie League team was known as the Casper Rockies in honor of their Major League affiliate, the Colorado Rockies. Wanting to bring in new fans and revenue the team held a contest for fans to chime in and rename the team. This process had proved successful in 2003 when the Calgary Cannons had relocated to Albuquerque Dukes had moved to Portland to become the Beavers at the end of the 2001 season. (If you haven’t noticed yet the Beavers and Portland come up frequently in my Minor League hat posts) By an overwhelming 67% majority the fans had chosen the Isotopes as their team name. But I’ll go into more detail in a later post. Unsurprisingly, the fans had chosen the Ghosts as the new team name for the Casper Rockies to start the 2008 season. The team name stuck from 2008-2011, but the team itself did not as they relocated to Grand Junction for the 2012 season. Bad luck all around for everyone it seems.

Keeping with the bad luck theme I did some research and found some interesting choices for my marks. Just a heads up; trying to find jersey numbers for big names in one day in Rookie Leagues is not an easy task, but I think you’ll all approve.

#17- If you know the Rockies, then you certainly should know this number. In 2010 Todd Helton made a rehab trip to Casper for three games: two against the Orem Owls and one against the Ogden Raptors, both of whom have pretty sweet hats. It’s not uncommon for players to do rehab stints, but very few go as far down as Rookie League. In this case the Ghosts were the only nearby affiliate of the Rockies to be playing at home for Helton to get some practice in. Luckily for his sake, he did pretty well. In the three games he played Helton went 5-10 with a double, five RBI and two walks. Just imagine if he had a bad showing.

#40/50- I’ve kept this open for a moment until I can get confirmation of the jersey number, but back in 2009 the Rockies had signed free agent and four-time World Series champion Mike Timlin to a Minor League deal. Guess where he had to start out? Timlin played in two games and threw two scoreless innings for the Ghosts before immediately jumping up to their AAA affiliate the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. Unfortunately the 43-year-old was released two weeks later. As far as the 40/50 is concerned, I’m pretty much making an educated guess as to which number he used since those were the two numbers he wore during his time in the Majors. He wore #40 from 1991-2000 and #50 from 2001-2008. Based on logic I would assume he rocked #50, but I’d rather play it safe until I get confirmation. So, if anyone knows the answer, it would be more than appreciated.

February 2- Colorado Rockies

When I woke up this morning the last thing I expected was to spend over an hour doing research on this hat. For the most part I always go into marking up my hats with a pre-set knowledge of what era the hat came from and a list of players and stats that within. But today, I met my match. The Colorado Rockies are the only team still in existence who has not changed their logo. The reason I say “still in existence” is because from 1969-2004 the Montreal Expos had stayed true to their original logo. At it stands now, the Rockies have been going strong with the “CR” since 1993. Today is also the first day where I’ve truly felt that this blog serves some kind of benefit to baseball fans. I’m not in any way putting myself or my previous posts down, but they were mostly for entertainment with a little bit of education to it. What’s really interesting about most Web sites dedicated to uniform and hat history is that the Rockies hats are not isolated by year and use. By this I mean that the premier Web site run by the Hall of Fame does not have each hat used by the Rockies marked by color or separated out. Every style they have listed is the all black style. That’s hardly helpful. On top of that, every other Web site I tracked down had the logo and the proper color schemes listed, but nothing to indicate what color the hat’s bill is. Seriously, check them out some time.

I was able to track down the information on this hat after combing through the entire financial history of the Rockies organization. On January 19, 1999 the Rockies introduced the all black panel cap with the purple bill along with two additional jerseys to their arsenal. While the Rockies have maintained the same logo for the last 20 years, they certainly have mixed it up quite a bit with their hat, pant and jersey combinations like the University of Oregon football team. But at least when marking this hat up, there were two easy choices to stick with.

#17- Todd Helton is one of the few guys left in Major League Baseball who is still playing for the same team that drafted him. More specifically, a guy who has been with the same organization for over 15 years. Helton’s story is quite interesting as he was given athletic scholarships to the University of Tennessee for both baseball and football. On the gridiron Helton played quarterback and served as the backup to Heath Schuler, who later went on to play in the NFL. Going into Helton’s junior year, he was once again #2 on the depth chart behind Jerry Colquitt (yah, I never heard of him either). During the season opener versus UCLA Colquitt tore ligaments in his knee, thus passing the starting job down to Helton. Helton lasted three weeks in the position until suffering a similar knee injury as Colquitt against Mississippi State. Tennessee then had no choice but to turn to their third string quarter back, some no-namer named Peyton Manning. And the rest as they say is history. The rest of the school year wasn’t a total wash; Helton still won the Dick Howser Trophy (Nations to collegiate baseball player) following his junior year, and was still scouted to play in the NFL by the Houston Oilers and the Jacksonville Jaguars, but… baseball was his calling. Helton was drafted eighth overall in the 1995 draft and has gone on to have a solid career: .320/354/1345 with 2420 career hits, three Gold Gloves and five All-Star appearances. Another cool fact about Helton is that he and Derek Jeter are the only two players to hold the franchise record for hits and still be active.

#33- Larry Walker at one point in his career was a first ballot Hall of Famer, primarily because of his time in Denver. Walker started out with the Expos from 1989-94 and was a member of the team when they were on the verge of winning their first World Series in franchise history. But, the strike happened and Larry Walker was a free agent at year’s end. The Rockies, wanting to add some pop to their lineup, signed Walker to a multiyear deal as the strike came to a close and helped the team make the postseason for the first time as the first ever Wild Card winner. In his first season Walker went .306/36/101. Walker then went on to win three batting titles (1998, 1999 and 2001) and an MVP in 1997 with .366/49/130 and an OPS of 1.172. Boom! Walker’s last season with the Rockies came halfway into the 2004 season when he was dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals and put out to pasture. For the 10 years he rocked the house in Denver, he was clearly one of the best in the game.