How the 2016 Hartford Yard Goats impacted the 2021 Colorado Rockies

3 of 4

273042 41: The skyline of a city is seen June 9, 1996 in Hartford, Ct. (Photo by Porter Gifford/Liaison) /

Take a look at the 2021 Colorado Rockies roster and you will see plenty of members of the 2016 Hartford Yard Goats. In and of itself, that’s not big news. After all, plenty of minor league teammates stick together and make their way to the Majors.

But there was something about that 2016 Yard Goats team that was … well … there are a lot of adjectives that can be used for that team, which endured an entire season on the road while Dunkin’ Donuts Park was undergoing construction delays in downtown Hartford.

Gritty. Tough. Determined. Overcoming. There are plenty of things you can say about a group of young men who head out on a bus trip to start the season in April and never play a home game that entire spring and summer. There wasn’t a choice. The Yard Goats, born after the New Britain Rock Cats moved roughly 12 miles to Hartford to start operations and continue the Double-A affiliation with the Rockies, had grand plans to start the home part of their schedule on May 31 inside Dunkin’ Donuts Park. It didn’t happen. Construction stopped in early June. By late July, the franchise knew it wouldn’t play a game at its new park until the following April.

More from Colorado Rockies History

“A lot of the grit we demonstrate was born that year,” said Mike Abramson, general manager of the Hartford Yard Goats. “Our willingness to stand up for our beliefs, stand up to detractors, was born that year. The voice of our brand … proud, strong, confident … all born that year.”

There was something else born that year on the road throughout all 141 games away from Hartford. A bond between players who endured that season-long road trip that still exists today.

Among those on that Hartford 2016 Opening Day roster were Kyle Freeland, German Marquez, Ryan McMahon, Antonio Senzatela, and Raimel Tapia. During Rockies spring training in Scottsdale, I sat down for exclusive conversations with Freeland, McMahon, and then-hitting coach Jeff Salazar (now assistant hitting coach for the Rockies) and asked them about that season and how it changed them.

DENVER, CO – AUGUST 6: Kyle Freeland #21 of the Colorado Rockies celebrates a 2-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates with assistant hitting coach Jeff Salazar #41 at Coors Field on August 6, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images) /

Salazar had been the hitting coach for New Britain the year before the franchise moved to Hartford. There was plenty of buzz about the new franchise and new stadium heading into the 2016 campaign, Salazar said, and that’s what made the year-long road trip an even tougher mental exercise for the team.

“The toughest part was probably leading into the season. Maybe the stadium will be ready. Maybe it won’t,” Salazar remembers. “You know what, we will spend the first two weeks on the road, then it will be ready, which turned into a month. They just kept extending it. That was probably the most difficult part was not really knowing.

“But you adapt. You say, ‘OK, we’re just taking a bus. We’re just on a Northeastern tour of the United States playing baseball.'”

That Northeastern tour included, among other places, Harrisburg, Pa., Manchester, N.H., and Binghamton, N.Y., where the Yard Goats played a July 4 “home game” in a completely empty stadium.

More from Rox Pile

“They wouldn’t sell tickets to the stadium, so there would be zero fans, kind of like what we went through last year,” Salazar remembered about those road “home” games. “It was just so empty. You could hear the ball hit the seats or you could hear conversations going on if anyone was in the park. Dick Monfort would come to a game, and I remember coming out with, maybe Jeff (Bridich) and (Zach) Wilson, and you can hear them like talking from the dugout.”

In all, it’s estimated that the team traveled around 10,000 miles during the season. And, despite all the team went through and the obstacles overcome, those Yard Goats finished with a 74-67 mark.

“I think baseball players maybe learn this lesson easier than other people,” Salazar said. “You really depend on the people around you and your start to embrace them as your family. No matter what the race, a religious belief, or whatever, it’s just a ‘we’re in this together’ bond. Let’s find a way through it and be strong.”

Abramson said that, while the team was on the road, he and his administrative team took on that same “together” bond as they prepared for the Yard Goats debut, whenever that would be.

For staff, it was patience and continuing to believe in the known outcome,” Abramson said. “There was never a time we doubted how successful we would ultimately be and with that came the courage to not strike back at those who were criticizing us at the time. We knew our day would come, and that the results would speak for themselves.”

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – FEBRUARY 19: Ryan McMahon #24 of the Colorado Rockies poses for a portrait during Photo Day at the Colorado Rockies Spring Training Facility at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on February 19, 2020 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Rob Tringali/Getty Images) /

Ryan McMahon hit an even .300 at Class-A Modesto in 2015 with 18 homers and 75 RBI. The statistics and progress were enough to earn him a promotion to Double-A Hartford.

McMahon said he looked back on not only the Hartford road trip but his first years in the minors as a huge time of learning and growth.

“That time was so good for me,” McMahon said. ” I mean, I was a sheltered kid from Orange County. I learned a lot about the world in the minors and made a lot of great friends along the way. That’s a great thing about the minor leagues, honestly. It’s a melting pot, right? There are guys from all over the world, from Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Florida, California, so you get everybody else’s kind of different perspective. Because we are around each other so much, we just got to learn so much more about each other and kind of how the world works.”

Colorado Rockies

Working together to stay entertained and upbeat while also becoming better baseball players was a challenge, McMahon said.

“It was a grind,” he smiled. “The things that happened on that road trip molded us. We’re driving in the bus 10-12 hours every three or four days. It was a whirlwind, but we all got really close because we were around each other all of the time. We leaned on each other a lot.”

Kyle Freeland was in Modesto with McMahon and made the jump to Double-A with him as well. However, Freeland made just 14 starts for the Yard Goats before being promoted to Triple-A Albuquerque.

While he may not have been on the entire road trip, Freeland still remembers how it impacted him.

“It was a different kind of grind in the minor leagues for us. There was so much unknown. We didn’t know when the ballpark was going to open, where we were going to play, everything like that,” Freeland recalled. “As players, you already had the minor league grind and then on top of that, all of that made it even tougher.”

DENVER, COLORADO – AUGUST 01: Starting pitcher Kyle Freeland #21 of the Colorado Rockies throws in the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Coors Field on August 01, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /

So what do you do on a road trip that lasts all season?

“A lot of card playing and stuff like that,” Freeland said. “Exploring the cities that we were going to be in because we didn’t have really have a home. We were living out of hotels constantly. There wasn’t ever that feeling of, ‘OK, we’re going back home and it’s going to feel good to be in our spot.'”

McMahon laughed when I asked him what kept him busy on the road.

“We did a lot of dumb things, pulled pranks on each other,” he said. “We had this other game where one person was the killer and you had to try to figure out who it was. We were just trying to have fun.”

Salazar was quick to remind me that technology has changed a lot in five years.

“There were guys with video game consoles in their suitcases,” Salazar said. “There was this one golf game we had where we could connect like eight to 10 phones together and guys were playing this race putt-putt type of game.”

Whatever it was, the team was doing it together … and was growing together as well. Maybe, just maybe, some of those lessons learned during tough times in 2016 can pay dividends if the Rockies hit more tough times in 2021.

Next. Trevor Story talks about his future, Nolan Arenado, and more. dark

“In baseball, you embrace challenges and you embrace them together,” Salazar said. “You’re not doing anything by yourself. You’re doing it as a team. You’re doing it as a family. That makes a difference.”

Home / Colorado Rockies History

More from Rox Pile

Colorado Rockies

Schedule