Jeff Bridich brings The CaRavan through Albuquerque

Baseball starts early this year. On January 26th, baseball kicked off in Albuquerque, NM as Rockies’ general manager Jeff Bridich, manager Walt Weiss, NL batting champ Justin Morneau, Rockies’ All-Star Charlie Blackmon and Dinger the Mascot invaded “The Lab” in Albuquerque.

The New Mexico baseball world was turned on its head when the Dodgers packed their things and headed for the newly Dodger-owned Oklahoma City Redhawks (now the OKC Dodgers) after 2 stints, combining 42 years, in Albuquerque.

More from Rox Pile

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?

The Isotopes have a contract with the Pacific Coast League so the city knew they would get a new parent club, but who?

The newly homeless Houston Astros seemed to make perfect sense, but they went to Fresno. Some had said the Texas Rangers were heading to Albuquerque because Nolan Ryan would turn his AAA owned team over to the Astros, but that was not the case either. Then a great surprise for nearly every baseball fan, The Colorado Rockies move out of Colorado Springs, Colorado and go a few hours south on I-70 to Albuquerque.

So that brings us back to now. The Rockies are doing something the Dodgers never did; they are bringing their “CaRavan” to Albuquerque.

Jeff Bridich, Walt Weiss, Justin Morneau and Charlie Blackmon visit Albuquerque as part of the Rockies CaRavan.

The Rockies kicked off the event by being joined by Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry at The Lab (more officially known as Isotopes Park) to accept a proclamation declaring January 26, 2015 as Colorado Rockies Day, bringing a new era of Rockies Baseball to Albuquerque.

The Rockies then visited local children at Eugene Field Elementary School and UNM Children’s Hospital before returning to The Lab for a Q&A and autograph session.

The Rockies provided some insight to the crowd, mixed with media and the general public, who asked whatever questions popped into their minds.

The question and answer session was kicked off by the voice of the Isotopes, Josh Suchon, who introduced the guests from the Rockies. GM Jeff Bridich kicked off the Rockies portion with a state of the Rockies.

Then the questions rolled. Bridich informed the crowd that, unlike the Dodgers, the Rockies will be sending their top players through Albuquerque, both pitchers and positional players. This received a loud round of applause. Charlie Blackmon says he loves the stadium and Bridich jokingly says he’ll send him back to AAA because the last time Blackmon was in Albuquerque he was 6 for 18 with 2 home runs and 5 RBIs.

Someone asked how Blackmon and Morneau plan to hit Kershaw’s curve. Morneau got the audience laughing with “I’ll hit the fastball before the curve, but I am 0-fer against him so I am the wrong guy to ask.”

Walt Weiss was asked about the new minor league pitch clock and how it will affect the major leagues.  He said, while he understands they need to speed up the game, he is very skeptical this is the right decision and doesn’t like when things get a “little weird.”

There was a rumor the Rockies had offered free agent pitcher James Shields a five year, $110 million contract and GM Jeff Bridich shut that down, saying the Rockies had not offered Shields any contract.

There were many questions about Charlie Blackmon’s beard, leading us to find out that Blackmon and his beard are a team and only highly trusted people can trim the beard. Having the beard featured on t-shirts ensured Blackmon would keep it for some time and he may eventually shave it for charity.

The fans also wanted to know the most important thing to any New Mexican: Red or Green (Chile). Everyone went green, which is my favorite as well but Charlie Blackmon had the correct answer: Christmas (Green and Red.)

The last question ended up being a very prudent one: Will the Rockies trade Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki? Bridich quickly informed the crowd he had no intention of trading either of them which made Justin Morneau excited since he likes hitting between the two.

(Hear all the audio here!)

Albuquerque has always been a Dodger town, but a new generation of baseball is coming.

This is an exciting time for Isotope and Rockies baseball and a great way to kick off the 2015 baseball season.

Next: Do the Rockies have the best infield in baseball?