Rockies Review: May 2, 1999 - Walker wins honors to punctuate wonderful week

A decade in purple pinstripes is a lot longer than most players are privileged.

When you’re Baseball Hall of Famer Larry Walker, those ten seasons in Denver weigh more like an eternity to a championship-starved fan base.

Though a National League Most Value Player only once (1997), Walker was a perennial threat to take the top honors whenever he was healthy; regardless, he still garnered MVP votes five times in years he played 136 games or less.

Breaking down the season into smaller increments, the British Columbia born slugger won the NL Player of the Month Award twice with Colorado, named to the NL All-Star Team four times, in addition to winning the NL Player of the Week Award on four occasions.

His final POTW came in 1999 in the midst of a 21-game hit streak, Walker’s longest with the Rockies. (A span of 20 consecutive games in 1998 makes him the only player in franchise history with multiple streaks of 20 games or more.)

With a 2-for-5 afternoon at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh during an 8-5 loss to the Pirates, Walker finished the week batting .500 (12-for-24) with two doubles, six home runs and 18 RBI.

A base hit in all six games, not to mention a three homer game, all on the road away from Coors Field, was all the voters needed to see for Walker to win the NL POTW for 4/26-5/2.

Two-hit Thomson

John Thomson took a no-hitter into the 7th inning at Coors Field before Armando Ríos hacked up history with a one-out single as a trio of Colorado pitchers combined for a rare two-hitter against Pittsburgh in 2002. Despite only two singles, Thomson gave up two earned runs before Kent Mercker and Dennys Reyes got the final six outs.

Built to Spill

Ryan Spilborghs blasted the second pitch of the game over the left field wall at AT&T Park before adding his second home run off San Francisco Giants starter Matt Cain in Colorado’s 5-1 win in 2009.

Fun Fact

Atlanta’s Mark DeRosa had a heck of a game during the Rockies 13-4 win at home in 2004. The 29-year-old third baseman made four errors on this date, more than anyone against Colorado. To make matters worse, Marcus Giles (2) and Jesse Garcia added to defensive woes and Atlanta recorded seven errors for the game, the most errors by an opponent against Colorado.

On This Day In Baseball History

One hundred years ago today, the first game in the history of the Negro National League is played as Oscar Charleston’s Indianapolis ABCs defeat the visiting Chicago American Giants and manager Rube Foster, 4-2.