Event before Colorado Rockies game highlights umpire goodwill, tensions

On Sunday, MLB umpire Chris Guccione hosted 13-year-old Josh Cordova at Coors Field before the Colorado Rockies faced the Los Angeles Dodgers. Cordova was the umpire at a game between 7-year-olds in Lakewood, Colo., a few weeks ago that ended up having an adult-fueled brawl.

Guccione, who’s from in Salida, Colo., which is about a two and a half hour drive southwest of Coors Field, invited Cordova to meet him at the home of the Colorado Rockies after he heard about his story a few weeks ago.

Cordova was the umpire in a game that had an adult-fueled brawl after a disputed call. Video was captured of the event at Westgate Elementary School in Lakewood and it went viral.

Guccione and Cordova spoke to the media, including Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry, before the game and Guccione said that his career got started much like Cordova’s. Both are from Colorado and they started umpiring at the age of 12, while they still continued to play baseball as well.

When Guccione heard of the story, he said that he was “shocked and saddened” so he wanted to reach out to Cordova to “encourage him to keep going forward [with his baseball career]”.