​I spent last weekend at Coors Field covering the San Francisco Giants–Colorado Rockies series for Purple Row, and I was glad I did because a lot happened. Paul DePodesta, the Rockies’ president of baseball operations, took questions from the media, and with MLB draft preparations in full swing and the trade deadline fast approaching, there was plenty to discuss. Hunter Goodman was announced as the Rockies’ representative at the All-Star Game, and he fielded questions about earning that honor for the second consecutive year.
Over two days, Goodman’s father, Robert, threw batting practice to his son, who hoped to be invited to participate in the Home Run Derby on Monday. Goodman was ultimately not invited, but it was still pretty cool to witness a father–son BP session. That said, you had to be at Coors Field to see it in person. The clubhouse was open, and players, along with manager Warren Schaeffer, answered questions. Rockies’ 2022 first-round draft pick Gabriel Hughes (No. 12 PuRP) made his MLB debut.
Here’s Kyle Karros discussing his monster home run on Sunday. The controlled swagger on display was a beautiful thing. In the end, the Rockies took the series from a struggling Giants club. They’re becoming a better, more entertaining team. They’ve scored an MLB-high 132 runs in the eighth inning or later. For baseball fans, that’s the kind of late-inning drama that makes the sport special.
If the Denver Post had a reporter there to cover the series, I never saw them. Since Patrick Saunders left The Post, a rotating lineup of offseason sports beat writers has prowled the clubhouse, chasing material for scattered feature stories. For example, Nate Peterson spent an afternoon talking with Marlins fans at Coors Field about their experiences with a losing team. The Post now takes game recaps from the Associated Press. It isn’t unusual for those recaps to appear the next day, rather than immediately after a game, as they did before. I can’t speak to what happens on the road, but in Denver, the AP employs two sportswriters, each covering a Rockies game. When the game ends, the reporter heads to the winning clubhouse for comments.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m a big fan of The Post’s sportswriters, but writing occasional feature stories and farming out game recaps doesn’t seem like best practice. Besides, when the Denver Broncos report to training camp and the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche begin their early-season work, how much time will those beat writers devote to their occasional Rockies feature stories? Listen, I don’t blame them. These reporters are really good at their jobs, and that level of expertise involves spending substantial time with players, coaches, and front office staff to develop relationships. Those relationships build trust and yield off-the-record information that makes for more well-rounded, informed stories. But sometimes that comes at the expense of timely game coverage and consistent, on-the-ground reporting.