“Imperfect people can have perfect moments.” ~ Brandy Halladay  It may not have been to the level of the eight-part series “The Last Dance” on Michael Jordan’s career and the 1998 Chicago Bulls, but ESPN’s “Imperfect: The Roy Halladay Story” was something for baseball fans, albeit a bleak depiction of the superb starting pitcher. The E:60 series’ one-hour documentary spent…

After his fourth season in the big leagues, Carlos González was already a known commodity around MLB. He had earned a Gold Glove Award, a Silver Slugger Award and finished third in the National League Most Valuable Player Award, all from the same dominant 2010 season. The fact he had yet to make the All-Star Team was of minimal concern, but…

The first star of the Colorado Rockies simply never was. With 398 career home runs and multiple National League MVP Awards, Dale Murphy entered 1993 as a strong candidate to become only the 25th player to reach 400 homers and secure a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Yet, when we think of all of the long balls that have…

When Hideo Nomo signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995 to become the first Japanese player in Major League Baseball since San Francisco Giants’ reliever Masanori Murakami (1964-65), he opened the proverbial door for all ballplayers in the Land of the Rising Sun. Naturally, it was a trickle at the start for Nomo’s compatriots: one more player in 1996,…

Following a magical Major League debut that saw the rookie hit two home runs, few could have expected Trevor Story to keep relative pace with prodigious power totals throughout the start of his career. Yet, when one looks atop the leaderboard of all-time shortstop for least amount of games needed to hit 100 homers, Story’s name is highest among the…

On May 16, Major League Baseball presented the players’ union with a 67-page report outlining the new safety protocol for a potential 2020 season. The report, obtained by The Athletic, focused on four primary areas to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus: testing, travel, procedures at the baseball facility and Spring Training. While many of these recommendations – such as…

Nolan Arenado is good at baseball. There. It’s been said. Following his well-earned eight-year, $260M contract extension in the offseason, the five-time All-Star picked up where he left off to begin the 2019 season. Arenado aided Colorado’s 5-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates and starter Chris Archer with two singles that begin a streak of seven consecutive multi-hit games, the fourth…

The link between the Montréal Expos and Colorado Rockies is substantial and will forever be strongest when discussing the relative impact of the recently elected Hall of Famer Larry Walker. Considering the last active member of Montréal – Ian Desmond, a 2004 3rd round pick of Les Expos – plies his trade in the Centennial State, numerous connections between the…

Before Game 163, when Matt Holliday hustled home on a shallow sacrifice fly ball to help clinch Colorado’s first spot in the postseason in eight years, the star left fielder did a lot for his club in 2007 leading up to the controversial play. Holliday’s value that season was prevalent through the 162 games leading up to the critical matchup…

The 2010 Colorado Rockies may not have been able to become the first squad to reach consecutive postseasons, but staff ace Ubaldo Jiménez certainly pitched in a fashion befitting of a playoff performance each time he took the bump at 20th and Blake during that lost season. Jiménez put together the most dominant six months of any purple pitcher with…

Depending on one’s standpoint, the baseball idiom regarding a “cup of coffee” can be positive or negative. The career of Archibald Wright Graham lasted all of one game on June 25, 1905 for the New York Giants. He entered late as a defensive replacement and did not get a plate appearance. Forgotten for decades, author W.P. Kinsella included “Moonlight” Graham…

May of 2000 was the month Todd Helton officially planted his flag on first base at Coors Field to stake his claim as one of the finest ballplayers of his generation. After two consecutive seasons of incredible offensive production, the entirety of MLB turned its eyes to Denver during the fifth month of the new century. A pair of multi-hit…

Before the age of analytics, our eyes were the only tools in evaluating players across all sports. While its easy to identify talented players like Mike Trout, Nolan Arenado and Max Scherzer as the current greats of the game, it’s players on every tier below that become hard to quantify. The advent of wins-above-replacement (WAR), a measure with no exact…

The Miami/Florida Marlins have been one the most spoiled franchises in Major League Baseball. Consider the San Diego Padres have never won the World Series nor experienced a no-hitter, the only remaining team in MLB, since their birth in 1969. Following the 1993 expansion that brought the Marlins and the Colorado Rockies into existence, the Fish won their first World…

No matter what happens during his playing career, whether it’s multiple All-Star Game selections, Cy Young Awards or a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the biography of Antonio Senzatela will have a large section that focuses on his mother. Before signing with Colorado as an international free agent out of Venezuela, Senzatela was raised on baseball…

Jorge De La Rosa’s journey to become a LoDo legend took more twists and turns than the Elitch Gardens’ Mind Eraser. Signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks out of high school in Guadalajara, Mexico, the left-hander would flame out after 23 games as a professional before returning to his homeland to pitch for the Monterrey Sultanes of the Mexican League. The…

It’s hard to believe the heart of Eddie Butler’s run with the Colorado Rockies was five years ago already. Coupled with the third overall selection of Jon Gray in the 2013 MLB Draft, it seemed the Rockies had a tandem of starting pitchers to lead the organization into the next decade. If we’ve learned anything from Aesop and the fable…

In the 1994-95 offseason, two clubs in the National League West spent top dollar on bolstering their starting rotations in completely different ways. The Colorado Rockies gave a 33-year-old veteran Bill Swift $13.150M over three years to lead a starting rotation looking for its first bonafide ace. The Los Angeles Dodgers gave a 26-year-old Hideo Nomo a minor league contract…

It’s not often the Colorado Rockies trade a player at the height of his value. While Troy Tulowitzki was notably traded to the Toronto Blue Jays at age 30, it followed three consecutive seasons of missing substantial time on the injured list and over $100M remaining on his contract made him less than a top commodity. Jason Jennings, the 2002…