Colorado Rockies podcast: Memories of the franchise’s early days

6 May 1997: Left fielder Dante Bichette of the Colorado Rockies high fives manager Don Baylor during a game against the New York Mets at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. The Rockies won the game 12-11. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bahr /Allsport
6 May 1997: Left fielder Dante Bichette of the Colorado Rockies high fives manager Don Baylor during a game against the New York Mets at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. The Rockies won the game 12-11. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bahr /Allsport

Jack Etkin has covered the Colorado Rockies since the franchise first began playing in 1993. He joined us on our latest podcast to talk about some of his favorite memories from the earliest days of the Rockies.

Etkin, along with Tracy Ringolsby, has covered the Colorado Rockies since the franchise’s first spring training at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson. Today, he writes about the Rockies for Forbes and is widely considered as one of the best sources of Colorado’s abbreviated but rich Major League Baseball history.

In our latest Rox Pile Rockies Report podcast, Etkin joined the show to talk about that very first spring training as well as the earliest days of the Colorado franchise. He shared a great story about Dale Murphy‘s short tenure with the team as well as what it meant to have Don Baylor as the first manager to ever guide the Rockies.

More from Colorado Rockies Podcast

There are plenty of other stories within the podcast (that you can listen to by clicking here or hitting the play button at the bottom of the article). In a time when sports fans are looking for a way to reconnect with their teams, we hope this walk down Rockies Memory Lane will help pass the time.

When you listen to these stories, you get a glimpse into some of the pre-game conversations that happen before Rockies manager Bud Black meets the media for his daily briefing. Baseball stories are often swapped in the dugout as we wait for the Colorado skipper, and that is one of the things that I personally am missing most about baseball’s delayed start.

We plan to have Etkin back for another episode and will be reaching out to Ringolsby about an episode as well. We believe it is important to remember the building blocks and some of the players who laid the groundwork for how the franchise looks today.

Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy hearing this episode as much as I did recording it with Etkin.

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