Strike One: It was the summer of 2018 (I think) and I was leaving a youth baseball tournament game on a Sunday evening when I flipped on the radio to hear some Sunday Night Baseball. Between pitches, the discussion between announcers was about the most beautiful ballparks in MLB.
No one mentioned Coors Field.
I jumped on Twitter and shot one off to Jon Scambi, one of the announcers in the discussion. A few minutes later he read it on the air. And he admitted that even though he was a prominent national baseball broadcaster, he’d never been to Coors Field. Astonishing.
That changed later in that same year because I saw him at a game between the Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers. And with the Rockies making the play-offs that season for the second straight year and hosting a play-off game against the Brewers, most of the Jon Scambi’s of the sports world finally made to 20th and Blake. (They just went to Mile High Stadium and made a left.)
I don’t know how follow up discussions about the most beautiful ballparks went now that Scambi could include his trip to Denver. But that’s not the point.
The point is that the Rockies irrelevance on the national scene was keeping national media away from Denver, and thus robbing the team of valuable exposure. There was that two year window when Colorado was a play-off contender, but that closed in a hurry. And there was the Nolan Arenado trade that drew a lot of national attention on Zoom, but again, that ended quickly and didn’t put the team in a favorable light.
They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but the pub Colorado got for the botched Arenado trade didn’t help the cause.
Now the All-Star game is in town, and Coors Field is under the spotlight, finally. The third oldest park in the National League (which is still very hard to wrap your head around) remains one of the jewels of the game. And our jewel will shine brightly both nights. This time, all the publicity will be all positive. There are a lot of baseball big wigs in town, like Commissioner Rob Manfred and Players’ Union boss Tony Clark, who are spending extended time here (but not together) for the first time. A player’s alumni gathering this weekend featured Dan Winfield and Steve Garvey, among others.
So, can the Rockies cash in on what will undoubtedly be favorable publicity and good baseball vibes? Will the positivity from hosting the All-Star game give the organization more than just a financial boost?
Strike Two: Speaking of broadcasters, it appears that at least some of them probably won’t be traveling at all this season.
Covid protocols have dramatically changed how the media can cover all sports. While life is returning to semi-normal in most places, ballpark press boxes are not among them just yet. Media access to players remains strictly on a ‘remote’ basis – “Zoom” press conferences, etc – and only the home team’s broadcasters get to watch the games they’re broadcasting in person.
Most of us have thought that things would be changing back about now – at the All-Star break – and that may happen in some places. But Colorado does not appear to be one of those places. Looks very much like the Rockies game broadcasters will be calling road games off a monitor at Coors Field for the rest of the season.
The reason isn’t about potential virus transmission anymore. Almost everyone involved on both sides has been vaccinated by now. Safe interaction between media and players is possible now.
However, when teams sat down to plan out their budgets for the 2021 season, they didn’t know if or when media could safely travel with the teams. So they decided to take the cautious approach and plan as if the 2021 season would be played under the same conditions as the 2020 season. No media traveling with the team.
Oh, and it saved the teams a good deal of money, too. There’s that.
Apparently, the Colorado Rockies did not include any broadcaster travel in their 2021 budget. So the Rockies broadcasters will very likely be stuck at home all season.
There are advantages for the broadcast crew, personally. Not leaving on road trips and sleeping in your own bed every night can be very comforting, especially if you’re still able to work your normal schedule and still get paid for doing so. So there’s that, too.
But the downside remains pretty significant.
Calling a baseball game off a TV monitor is far different than doing so in person. TV now offers a bunch of different camera shots and angles, but it’s still lacking in terms of seeing the entire field. Announcers have to rely on TV directors and which camera shots they are offered and still try to call the game as if they were there. Long time Yankee’s broadcaster John Sterling got fooled recently and accidently called a replay of a home run by Aaron Judge another home run. Oops.
One of my former teammates, Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster Bill Schroeder, recently tweeting out a photo of himself kissing the turf at American Family Field in Milwaukee. It was the first time he was allowed to set foot on that field since 2019. Game broadcasters also rely on interaction with the players before and after games for important game info and anecdotal stories that are integral to quality game broadcasts. Billy is one of those guys who is used to spending batting practice talking with the players and coaches and getting the lowdown on the current state of the team. Those interactions remain missing from 2021 broadcasts as well.
Does it have to remain this way? Teams adjust budgets to add middle relief pitchers at the trade deadline with no issues. You have to wonder what it would take for that budget to be adjusted so broadcasters can get back on the road and be allowed to do their jobs the way they’re supposed to do them.
Strike Three: The Rockies German Marquez has become the staff ace, and after his first All-Star appearance, he will resume that role with a 99.5% chance he remains in purple pinstripes the rest of this season – and next. No impending contract issues with this righthander. He remains under team control for a couple more seasons.
Jon Gray on the other hand, is very likely in his final days as a Rockie.
Gray has been equal parts staff ace and staff enigma during his Rockies tenure. The former first round pick has had a roller coaster of a career, and as he churns toward the end of his current contract, he sits at .500 on the season….6-6 with a solid ERA of 3.77.
The thing is…his stuff is better than that.
Gray won his last start in San Diego against a World Series contending team after an unusual start in Arizona against the lowly Diamondbacks that saw him allow four consecutive doubles to start the game before settling in and posting a quality start in a 4-3 loss. It was his fourth start this season against the D-backs and he’s…you guessed it – 2-2 against the Rockies rivals this season. Gray must be sick of pitching against Arizona, and vice versa.
Against everyone in baseball, Gray’s 162-game average record for his seven big league seasons is… 13-11.
The stuff is better than that.
Stuff like Gray possesses should not equate to being a .500 pitcher, even on a bad team.
It’s very possible – likely even – that Jon Gray will benefit greatly from a change of scenery. He’ll be a free agent at the end of this season if the Rockies don’t trade him first. They’re paying him $6 mil this year, and if Colorado tries to resign him, it would cost them close to triple that. With Colorado in cost cutting mode (see, Arenado, Nolan) they aren’t about to commit that kind of money to a guy who’s about to be on the wrong side of 30.
A fresh start in a new location will allow Gray, who turns 30 in November, to wipe the slate clean. If he lands with a contender, perhaps a return to the post season is just what the doctor ordered. Either way, expect the Jon Gray who gets traded to outperform the Jon Gray who’s spent seven seasons in Colorado. That doesn’t mean Colorado would be making a mistake in trading him away. It just means that sometimes a change is needed for both sides. As Bud Black is fond of saying, “That’s baseball.”