Colorado Rockies Opening Night: Five Things We Learned

The Colorado Rockies took the field on Monday night. Yes, we can all take that long, sweet, collective sigh of relief. The greatest day of the year has finally arrived.
Your Colorado Rockies have officially opened their 2016 campaign. Monday night’s game in Phoenix marked the eighth time in history the “boys in purple” have faced off against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Opening Day. According to Baseball Almanac, with Colorado’s 10-5 win, they are now winning that Opening Day matchup 5-3 after the longest nine-inning game in Diamondbacks’ history and just over four hours. In fact, the Rockies are now 15-9 all-time on Opening Day.
And do you know the greatest thing about Opening Day? It’s baseball’s reset button, and here’s what we learned about the Rockies in the Opening Night victory.
1. A Rockies’ Rock-Star is Born Overnight
In easily the most exciting moment of the night, rookie Trevor Story took heralded Arizona pitcher Zach Greinke deep for a three-run home run. With one swing of the bat, we have officially moved into a new era in Colorado Rockies baseball. Oh, and by the way, it was his first major league hit. Story then followed it up with his second major league hit … which was a home run … off Greinke. Giving the starting shortstop job to a rookie was the boldest move the front office has made since, well, since they shipped the old shortstop to Canada.
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Story became the first player in Major League history to hit two home runs in an Opening Day debut, going 2-for-6 with four RBI. The Story move didn’t go without some criticism either as critics didn’t understand why the Rockies wouldn’t just wait a few weeks before calling him up. Waiting would have guaranteed the club one more year of control over Story. Story proved on Monday night he is the real deal, and the front office made the right move on this one.