The Rockies’ home opener is Denver’s Mardi Gras.
LoDo comes alive with baseball fans, school kids playing hooky, office workers calling in sick, and party animals who don’t know the difference between a double play and a double cheeseburger.
Libations flow and the good times roll.
On Friday, they’ll be serving purple croissants and baseball-themed drinks at the Dairy Block. There’s a watch party at McGregor Square where fans can see the game on a 66-foot outdoor screen.
Former Rockies manager Clint Hurdle summed it up well.
“I’ve been fortunate to be a part of some special opening days in baseball in infectious cities,” he once told The Post. “But opening day in Denver will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the event that annually reignited the love affair of a football town with its baseball team.”
Oh yes, the baseball team. It plays a game on Friday at Coors Field, hosting the Philadelphia Phillies and Bryce Harper, an All-Star Colorado fans love to hate.
Friday officially marks the Rockies’ 34th home opener, but it’s really only the 33rd because the 2020 opener was fanless due to the pandemic. And while the Rockies are not a winning franchise — they own an all-time record of 2366-2822 and just five playoff seasons — they are 17-16 in home openers.
From walk-off home runs to walk-up songs, from pitching gems to offensive fireworks, the Rockies have produced memorable games inside the ballpark. Here are the 10 best Rockies home openers:
Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Kyle Freeland pitches against the Washington Nationals in the 7th inning at Coors Field during the Rockies home opener on April 06, 2023. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
No. 10, April 10, 2023: Left-hander Kyle Freeland, a Denver native, pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings in the Rockies’ 1-0 victory over Washington.
“The butterflies were going for sure, and we’ve talked about how much this means to me, to be able to pitch in front of my home state and get a win. It means the world to me,” Freeland said.
The victory marked the first time the Rockies won a 1-0 game at Coors since July 4, 2018, vs. San Francisco.
Jorge De La Rosa pumps his fist after striking out Scott Hairston of the San Diego Padres in the 4th inning during the 2010 Colorado Rockies home opener April 9, 2010 at Coors Field in Denver. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
No. 9, April 10, 2010: Left-hander Jorge De La Rosa dominated the Padres in Colorado’s 7-0 shutout. “De La” allowed one hit and one walk and struck out nine in a game that took just 2 hours, 28 minutes. It was a prime example of De La Rosa’s ability to slay the pitching beast that is Coors Field.
“I guess I just feel more comfortable at home,” De La Rosa told The Post. “I just feel like I have control there, especially with my changeup. I feel like I can throw it in any count.”
No. 8, April 3, 2006: In the Rockies’ second straight walk-off win in a home opener, they beat the Diamondbacks 3-2 in 11 innings on Brad Hawpe’s game-winning RBI to drive in Matt Holliday. Right-hander Jason Jennings threw seven innings of one-run ball.
The Hawpe-Holliday combo was a precursor of the magic that became Rocktober a year and a half later.
Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Kyle Freeland #31 pitching against the Los Angeles Dodgers on opening day at Coors Field April 7, 2017 in Denver. Rockies won 2-1. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
No. 7, April 7, 2017: Freeland made his major league debut against the Dodgers and took the mound to thunderous applause from the sellout crowd of 49,169. The Thomas Jefferson High graduate received a standing ovation when he departed after six innings, having allowed just one run on four hits, walking two, and striking out six.
“What an outing for Kyle,” first-year Rockies manager Bud Black said after the Rockies’ 2-1 win. “I think the people of Denver should be very proud of their native son.”
Freeland’s debut was the first of its kind in nearly 51 years. Before his start, the last major-league pitcher to make his debut as a starting pitcher in his team’s home opener in the state of his birth was Chuck Dobson for the Kansas City Athletics on April 19, 1966, vs. Minnesota.
Colorado Rockies starter Mike Hampton delivers a pitch to St. Louis Cardinals’ Jim Edmonds in the first inning in Denver, Monday, April 2, 2001. The start was the first for Hampton in a Rockies uniform since signing in the offseason with Colorado. The Rockies beat the Cardinals 8-0. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)
No. 6, April 2, 2001: Left-hander Mike Hampton made a sensational Rockies debut, pitching eight-plus shutout innings and allowing five hits as Colorado blanked the Cardinals 8-0. It was the Rocky Mountain high point for Hampton, who had signed a then-record eight-year, $121 million contract the prior offseason.
He finished his two-year stint with Colorado with a 5.45 ERA, including a 5.73 ERA at Coors Field. Hampton became a cautionary tale about shelling out big bucks for starting pitchers in Colorado.
No. 5, April 7, 1997: The Rockies and Larry Walker walloped the Reds and Deion Sanders, 13-2. Walker, with Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” accompanying him to the plate, gave fans a preview of his MVP season.
Walker went 2 for 5 with a double and a triple on his way to batting .366 with a career-high 49 homers and 130 RBIs. Coach Prime went 0 for 4 from the leadoff spot.
As for his iconic walk-up song, Walker told The Post’s Troy Renck: “I hope the pitchers were scared … that when they were messing with their rosin bag and heard Ozzy come on, they had that feeling of, ‘Oh (crap)!’ ”
Clint Barmes #12 of the Colorado Rockies is swarmed by his teammates after hitting a walk-off game-winning home run against the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the ninth inning at Coors Field on opening day on April 4, 2005 in Denver. The Rockies won 12-10.
No. 4, April 4, 2005: With the score tied 10-10 in the bottom of the ninth, shortstop Clint Barmes launched Hall of Fame closer Trevor Hoffman’s first-pitch fastball into the left-field seats for a walk-off two-run homer, capping a four-hit day in Colorado’s 12-10 victory.
“I remember running the bases thinking this can’t be real,” Barmes recalled. “The next game, I was still on cloud nine, but the game slowed down for me after the home run.”
Before he was injured, Barmes had an amazing spring. On May 13, Barmes went 3-for-6, hitting two home runs with five RBIs, raising his batting average to .400.
Charlie Blackmon #19 of the Colorado Rockies hits a two RBI double against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the eighth inning during the home opener at Coors Field on April 4, 2014 in Denver. Blackmon went 6 for 6 as the Rockies defeated the Diamondbacks 12-2. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
No. 3, April 4, 2014: This was the day that Chuck got Nazty. Sporting the beginnings of his famed beard, Blackmon hit 6-for-6 with one home run, three doubles, two singles, and five RBIs in Colorado’s 12-2 rout of Arizona.
And to think he wasn’t sure he would be on the Opening Day roster coming out of spring training.
“That one game, you could almost say, single-handedly turned my career around,” said Blackmon, who became a four-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger.
Eric Young hit a leadoff homer at Mile High Stadium against Montreal in the Rockies’ first home game April 9, 1993. (File photo by Karl Gehring/The Denver Post)
No. 2, April 9, 1993: In the first home plate appearance in the first home game in Rockies history, Eric Young took Expos’ starter Kent Bottenfield deep to left-center in front of a record crowd of 80,227 at Mile High Stadium. Colorado won its inaugural home opener, 11-4.
“I had chills going through my body like crazy as I was circling the bases,” Young later told The Post. “But that home run was not just a moment that was for me — it was for the Colorado region and all the people who were excited about baseball finally being in the state.”
You think? The Rockies drew 4,483,350 fans to Mile High that season, a major league attendance record that will likely never be broken.
The Blake Street Bombers at Coors field during the 1995 baseball season. Clockwise from bottom, Andres Galarraga, Dante Bichette, Larry Walker, Vinny Castilla. (File photo by Dominic Chavez/The Denver Post)
No. 1, April 26, 1995: The first game in Coors Field history was instantly iconic. Dante Bichette hit a walk-off, three-run homer in the 14th inning off the Mets’ Mike Remlinger for an 11-9 victory. The seesaw game that began with icy rain and 42 degrees at first pitch lasted nearly five hours.
The phrase Blake Street Bombers didn’t catch on until later that season, but Bichette’s blast planted the seed.
“With the Blake Street Bombers, what we were legendary at was, no lead was safe in our park,” Bichette said. “That homer probably was the hit that set that tone. We would go into the sixth or seventh inning down three runs, and we knew we could win that game. That was the personality of our team and what we became.”
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