The MLB All-Star Game and Home Run Derby birth new generation of Colorado Rockies fans

When did you first fall in love with baseball? Can you remember?

Was it a singular glorious moment that brought it all into focus? A deep drive, the crowd rising to their feat, and the thunderous roar for a walk-off win? An exhilarating pitching performance that glued you to your seat?

Was it a weekend or couple of weeks of games that got you hooked? Was it a big win or a milestone or maybe even just a special trip you took with family or friends that ended up being far more life-changing than you were expecting?

Was it early mornings from far away from home, dialing in to TV or radio to feel a part of a community you claim as your own but cannot always be surrounded by?

When did you first fall in love with baseball?

Hold that thought, that feeling and those memories at the surface as you think upon the last week at 20th and Blake.

The next generation of great baseball fans are now falling asleep every night with crystal clear images of Pete Alonso slashing laser line drives deep into the night.

Of Shohei Ohtani crossing cultural and linguistic barriers to speak the universal language of love for the game, spurring tens of thousands of people to chant his name simply for the pure joy of getting to watch him toe the rubber and step in at the dish.

Of Juan Soto playing the most fun spoiler we’ve seen in a long time and hitting a ball 520 feet. (Allegedly!)

Of Trey Mancini reminding us all that life can drag you down, but human beings are capable of incredible things with dedication, hard work, and belief in themselves.

Of Nolan Arenado being moved, nearly to tears, by an overwhelming outpouring of support from Colorado Rockies fans… but also just baseball fans.

Whether it was one of his several formal introductions, his first at-bat in the Midsummer Classic, or perhaps most profoundly when he went through the simple act of bringing Trevor Story some water during his Home Run Derby break, we will all remember where we were when the people in the park those nights serenaded one of the greatest to ever play.

And they’re still dreaming of German Marquez, for some of them maybe the first time they’ve seen a Rockies pitcher take his talents to the All-Star Game.

Maybe, they’re even sleeping in their newly-minted Marquez jersey, a beautiful thing even if the jerseys themselves were pretty terrible.

The derby stole the show. The game was still a delight. The best moments were all the ones in between where we took time just to appreciate it all. But the biggest moments didn’t take place on the field. They maybe didn’t even take place consciously.

The big moment was a million small ones as thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of mostly young people fell in love with baseball for the first time.

As I walked through the newly-located Tattered Cover in McGregor Square, thumbing through what I was told is the largest collection of baseball books “anywhere ever,” I see a family of four wandering through the outside courtyard taking in the sites.

Dad is clad in black Colorado Rockies garb, sleeveless jersey, the No. 17 and name “Helton” proudly emblazoned on the back. Mom is wearing white with pinstripes; No. 19 “Blackmon.”

The son, who appears to be a little older than the daughter, is also in white and rocking No. 27 for Trevor Story. The daughter, perhaps just a bit too small for the full jersey treatment or perhaps as her choice, is sporting all purple Rockies gear that is non-player specific.

I overhear (thanks to mild eavesdropping) a simple history lesson about how mom and dad moved to Colorado years ago but used to keep cheering for their own respective teams from back home. It took years for them to adopt the Rockies as their own, and still somewhere deep in their hearts, have always felt torn between two teams.

These kids, though? “You’re Rockies fans,” mom says with a smile. “This is your team.”

I have to wonder which jersey the daughter will eventually pick. Ryan McMahon? Raimel Tapia? German Marquez?

And this week was a crash course, not just in the history of the hometown team but of the entire wonderful tapestry that they belong to.

Right alongside books like “If These Walls Could Talk,” an exploration of Rox history by Drew Goodman, you can find autobiographies of Buck O’Neil and Hank Aaron. There are literally over a thousand different books to expand your hardball mind.

Just a few steps away, these kids weren’t just hearing about or reading about history, they got a chance to see it. Everything from an infamous Micky Mantle card to old jerseys and bats and gloves used by some of the greatest to ever play the game, were on full display.

Speaking of the greatest to ever play the game, many of them were in attendance as well.

How many kids, or even full grown adults, are never going to forget the time they got to meet these legends of the game?

Anyone who has ever been to a concert knows it’s a whole different experience from listening to an album. Anyone who has been to a live comedy show knows it’s completely different from watching the exact same act on TV.

Hearing a song or joke you love on a recording can turn you into a fan. Seeing it in real life can blossom a lifelong obsession.

When you share the same physical space as the very best in the world, the profoundness of it all seeps deep into your soul in a way that there is simply no replacement for.

The best in the baseball came to Denver, Colorado.

The best ballplayers in the world played the most beautifully imperfect game in the world at the highest level.

And the people of Colorado, who have a rich and deep yet checkered history with the game of baseball, drank it in, ate it up, and were rewarded for years of faith with a lifetime memories.

Baseball is a business. But it’s also an artform.

The Picasso’s and Mozart’s of baseball applied their craft to a canvass known as Coors Field.

Wins and losses are the currency of professional sports but indescribable moments are their lifeblood and that is what the All-Star Game, Home Run Derby, and surrounding festivities bring to a city and state.

Well… that and also a whole lot of actual currency to the surrounding businesses who are more than happy for the relief after a long year. And that matters too. Let us not forget that the city of Denver and state of Colorado were also rewarded for doing the right thing on a much more important level than wins and losses.

After a year of no fans in stadiums and most places of work and learning closed, All Star Week in Denver Colorado was one of the first massive gatherings of people our country has seen in a long time.

“The fans here in Denver really showed up,” remarked Max Scherzer after he came out of the game.

Fellow Max, Muncy of the Los Angeles Dodgers, echoed those sentiments: “We kinds took for granted the fans being in the stadium. To be able to have them back… and they’ve done a really good job here [in Denver] it’s been a time I won’t forget.”

Muncy has long been a thorn in Rockies fans sides. In addition to regularly producing gut-wrenching clutch hits against them, he also represents the kind of reclamation project through analytics that the Colorado club so desperately needs yet so rarely produces.

But none of that mattered in this moment.

You know we’ve all witnessed something special when Max Muncy is grateful for Rockies fans and they for him even when booing him with all their hearts.

“That’s fun,” he says. It means they care.

Jul 13, 2021; Denver, Colorado, USA; National League pitcher German Marquez of the Colorado Rockies (48) during the 2021 MLB All Star Game at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY SportsWhen did you first fall in love with baseball? Can you remember?

I was so young it feels like the love has always been there. There isn’t one image that sticks out in my mind, more like a scattering of loosely tied together memories and guttural feelings.

I can recall being excited to sign up for T-ball. I remember having Rockies stuff before they had even played a single game. I remember Eric Young Sr. welcoming Colorado officially to Major League Baseball by blasting a homer in the first at-bat at Mile High Stadium.

I don’t remember going to my first game but have a myriad of disconnected images in my mind about driving over the Rocky Mountains, buying tickets out on the street, walking through LoDo before it was LoDo, and memorizing the walk-up music for the Blake Street Bombers.

In an excellent bit of cosmic timing, I began playing baseball the year the Colorado Rockies began playing baseball. This put me, as a Colorado native, in a relatively small group of people who could consider themselves lifetime, first-generation members of this new community.

A generation later, that group has grown exponentially and the more responsible among us are having children and introducing them to the game.

And this past week has been a veritable smorgasbord of opportunities to create the baseball fans of the future that will steward the game, and the local franchise, into a new era.

For whatever your take on the Rockies, from the most cynical to the most hopeful, the established “culture” surrounding the team is only as concrete as the people who comprise it… people who are constantly evolving.

The days when Coors Field was seen purely as a tourist attraction or “the nicest bar in Lodo” are coming to an end. The days when opposing fans outnumber the home faithful will soon be relics of the past as well.

Why?

Some of it was going to happen anyway. The local fans growing into adulthood now will soon take over the conversation and create a new set of standards for the team (and media) to follow.

This was going to happen naturally as the fan base matured but it was just given a massive shot in the arm thanks to an extraordinary week where the entire community came together in all the best ways for all the best reasons.

When did you first fall in love with baseball?

Soon, we will start hearing:

When Pete Alonso hit 35 home runs in under 5 minutes.

When German Marquez showed to the world just how good he is.

When Trevor Story represented the Rockies better at the derby than any before him.

When Vladimir Guerrero  Jr. hit one that hasn’t landed yet.

When Shohei Ohtani just stood there, a mile above sea level, thousands of miles from home, but completely at home.

When a community of baseball fans, mostly those who root for the hometown nine, took what is always a fun week of celebrating the game and turned it into an unforgettable experience for everyone involved.

Even if you fell in love with the game years ago, last week reminded you why.

If you hadn’t yet? Welcome to the family. Come in and make yourself comfortable. It’s the most beautiful/frustrating game in the world.

But if you bore witness to anything that took place at Coors Field in the last seven days, you don’t need me to tell you that in addition to it being a misery inducing “business” that requires teams to unload all-time greats in order to save money, or even at times try really hard to lose… baseball is also magic.

Your team probably won’t win the World Series this year or next. Regardless of who is reading this, the odds are against you. Your team will lose games they absolutely should not, and part ways with your favorite players and there’s decent chance a front office person or owner will throw out a quote that boils your blood.

Baseball is all of those things.

But it’s also magic. It’s also those moments where you forget about all that and just watch the ball fly 500 feet or pump your fist right alongside the pitcher with the inning-ending strikeout.

Baseball is a feeling. It is a religion. It is failure manifested. It is perfectly flawed. It’s just a game. It’s just the game.

Baseball is forever.

When did you first fall in love with baseball? Can you remember?