BSN Exclusive: Wolters goes from "scared to throw to second" to Wild-Card hero

MILWAUKEE – The game of baseball demands people like Tony Wolters exist.

A professional ball club can begin to feel like a giant machine, the players, coaches, and front office staff at times seeming as cogs who push the wheel ever forward.

But in reality, it is far messier and chaotic than all that. Disparate motivations and egos and lots in life can pull at the fabric of the idea behind the word team.

Someone has to be the glue that holds it all together.

For most of 2018, Wolters has struggled to hit, to put it mildly. He ranks near the bottom in most categories at the plate but has endeared himself to (some) fans and teammates with his excellent glove work and dirtball demeanor.

He bleeds baseball and plays not for himself but for his pitchers. He has become symbolic of everything this rag-tag group that has mostly stayed the same for two years has come to be known for.

They are gritty, competitive, and hungry to win… for each other.

In a one-on-one conversation with BSN Denver, Wolters said he has always been the type of person who finds joy in helping others.

” I want to be so prepared,” he says. “I want to be there to help the pitchers out. It makes me feel good because I’m helping our teammates out, and I like that. I’ve always been that guy to where I want to help guys out. I don’t want to just help myself out. I want to help other people out. It gives me a good feeling of, ‘I did my studying, I’m super prepared, I feel really good. I’m excited. I’m going to help you guys as much as I can. I’m going to keep everything in front of me. I’m going to throw guys out. I want to do my job to the best of my ability, and I’m passionate about it.’ I like it a lot.”

So it only makes sense that he would abandon (for the most part) his home on the middle infield and don the tools of ignorance.

He took the time to reflect on the moment the seed was planted that he might just be a catcher now.

“When I got told, “Hey would you be a catcher? The one thing that came to mind was “I don’t know if I can throw it down to second.” he laughed. “That was the first thing. ‘I don’t know if I can make it down to second.’ I was like, ‘Shoot, I can’t make it down to second.’ So I asked them – I said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to give me a day to think about it.’ Actually, I went to a field and threw down to second in the squat, to see if I could do it, and I did it. It made me a little more confident.

But there was an anticipation of good things to come as well.

“I was excited because with catching, you’re always touching the ball. I have major ADD when it comes to that. But when I’m catching the ball all the time, it kind of slows it down and I love being in the game. I love being a part of creating the tempo of the game and I’m really passionate about catching.”

He certainly seemed to have a slow heart rate on Tuesday night. Though it wasn’t behind the plate but at it where he gave us one of the single most memorable moments in team history.

From being afraid of throwing the ball to second base to delivering the clutch hit and catching the final out in the biggest game for his club since 2009. Quite the journey.

With his name firmly etched into Rockies lore, all of the squabblings about his bat dissipates for a moment in the realization that it took every man who suited up for Colorado this season to get them where they are: the National League Division Series.

The Wild Card game came down to the very last man on the Rockies’ bench. Lucky for them, the last man was Tony Wolters.