From Fan to Fifth Starter: Freeland's emotions running high heading into Rockies debut

“Coming into the stadium, the sights, the smells, the sounds and everything, I mean I can remember it like it was yesterday.”

It’s one thing for a diehard Rockies fan to echo the sentiment of being blown away by a ballpark in all its beauty, it’s another for your team’s fifth starter to be shouting the nostalgia to the media.

For good reason, Kyle Freeland is in a space emotionality right now that most of us only dreamt about being in when we were 12-years-old. Coors Field, the Colorado Rockies, the Los Angeles Dodgers, you’re stepping out of the first-base dugout just a few miles from your high school dugout. It’s the big stage, yet it’s occupied by the same audience who saw you toe the rubber at Cornerstone Park off Bellevue in Littleton.

Freeland, the 2011 Thomas Jefferson High School graduate and 2014 Rockies first-round pick, will make his MLB debut on Friday in his hometown of Denver, at the same ballpark that he can ‘remember coming to like yesterday.’ The lefty grew up a Rockies fan, he’s never rooted for any other big league team. He may never have to.

“It’s going to be really exciting,” Freeland said over the phone from Milwaukee. “It’s an honor to be able to be called upon to play for your hometown team. It’s been (a) really exciting few days.”

Many baseball fans just dream about going to Opening Day—heck I’ve been a fan for decades and last year was my first—Freeland has never been himself. His first Opening Day cheering on his team, he’ll get to experience that as his favorite team’s starting pitcher.

“I just kind of smiled and was extremely happy,” Freeland recalled first hearing the news. “It doesn’t happen too often, I had a ton of emotions hearing that’d I’d be pitching in the home opener in my hometown. I didn’t have words for it.”

Freeland will become just the fifth Coloradan to wear the purple pinstripes.

“My emotions are going to be running high,” the rookie said. “But for me, it’s going to be staying focused on the task at hand. I’m not letting any outside factors affect me. Control my breathing and take my breaths when I need them.”

Once an admirer of Todd Helton, Larry Walker, The Blake Street Bombers, Jeff Francis and Aaron Cook, he’ll be getting his name announced by Reed Saunders as he walks out of the dugout—the same person who announced the Rocktober club, who Freeland watched play as a freshman in high school—alongside Carlos Gonzalez, Nolan Arenado and others that Freeland once had to pay to see.

“It’s a rare opportunity to have and I’m very grateful for it,” the former TJ Spartan said. “The emotions on Friday I’m sure they’ll hit hard, it’s such a cool thing to be able to do, it really is.”

Freeland isn’t just stepping to the mound from a clubhouse that he always wanted to be in, he’s essentially going from catching batting practice homers in the left field pavilion bleachers to throwing the first pitch of 2017 at 20th and Blake.

“The concourse you walk out and see the field and you think it’s the biggest thing you’ve seen in your life,” Freeland said remembering his days as a fan.

Picture how Coors Field will look to him as he climbs the five steps up from the Rockies dugout to the dirt, paces from the warning track onto the grass, hops over the foul line and sets foot onto the infield grass then mound and subsequent rubber. How big will the ballpark on Blake look to Freeland on Friday in that moment, in front of 50,000?