How the Colorado Rockies Became #3
I was 16 years old in the Summer of 1991.
I have distinct memories of sitting at my Grandfather's cabin that Summer, reading the newest edition of USA Today's Baseball Weekly. The issue was covering the recent decision allowing the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies to join the National League, starting in 1993.
By no means was I bored with baseball, but the addition of two new teams gave me so much more to follow. Both teams would spend the next year and a half hiring staff, finalizing stadium plans, developing logos and uniforms, signing their first players, setting up their minor league systems and a whole host of other things that would be written about and summarily devoured by my insatiable need to read about baseball. Not to mention that I'd soon be seeing cards for two teams I never collected before. Yeah, I was excited by the news. Probably a lot more than any other fan my age. Or any fan that lived outside of either Miami or Denver.
I also didn't know O.C.D. existed in 1991...
When the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays entered Major League Baseball in 1977, I was 2 years old. I was also not a baseball fan. So I didn't get to experience the massive change in all aspects of the game that time around. From what I've read (which isn't a whole lot) about the 1977 expansion, it wasn't nearly as big of a deal as 1993 was. (In comparison, when 1998 rolled around, I had relatively little interest in the Arizona Diamondbacks or Tampa Bay Devil Rays...) Money, media coverage and everything else involved was a much bigger deal in 1993, than 1977. (1998, even more so...)
The 1992 card sets started coming out in late 1991. There wasn't a whole lot of coverage that could be given to the new expansion teams. Donruss was first to recognize, printing a single card for both. It was just a simple logo with a basic summary of each on the back. That's cool... There wasn't a whole lot else you could do at that point...
Bowman released their awesome sleeper set that summer to zero fanfare. (That set would catch fire a couple of months after it's release, changing the hobby forever, but that's another story for another day...) The set included a single card for the first player signed to a contract by the Rockies (Ryan Turner) and Marlins (Clemente Nunez) organizations. Both were signed to minor league deals, and played for the class A ball teams both ran in 1992. Neither Turner or Nunez played a game in the major leagues for any team.
This was a lazy effort... They couldn't have even found a black CR hat for Ryan to wear for the photo? Just so he didn't look like every guy leaning on his knee ever? 1992 Bowman was a legendary card set for the junk wax era. But even as cool as it was, with all the cards of people in their street clothes, it seemed like they forgot to try...
Upper Deck did a better job of saluting Turner (and Nunez) in their teams colors, they got Ryan a Rockies T-Shirt! Then wiped some dirt on it!
Understandably, the card scene lacked any real drama in 1992. However, coverage on TV, newspapers and magazines was turning me into an expert on both franchises, well before any games were played. Going into expansion neutral, I had no loyalties to either the Rockies or Marlins. 1992 would swing the pendulum either way for who would win the #3 position on my favorite teams list...
Colorado hired Bob Gebhart from the Minnesota Twins, to become their General Manager. Gebhart would be in charge of setting up the team...
Hey! I know Bob Gebhart! I once got his autograph after a Twins game!
I accidentally insulted him by calling out Twins broadcaster Herb Carneal's name as he walked by. (He laughed it off and signed my ticket stub, then went on his way.) Well, they looked very similar...
Gebhart staffed the team with a few of the higher-ups from the Montreal Expos organization. Many of them were directly responsible for scouting the current foundation of rising stars in Montreal.
The Marlins were owned by the Blockbuster video guy... Who hired the Expos General Manager to run the team...
Point: Colorado.
The Florida Marlins chose a color scheme of black, silver and teal. Their uniforms were nice and traditional looking, with pin-striping for home and basic road grays, with a fish on them. I liked it. The teal was a little obnoxious, but it was very 1993.
Colorado chose a black, silver and purple palate for their logo, pinstriped home and basic road grays. With a mountain embroidered in place of the fish. I leaned Colorado, but the interlocking CR reminded me too much of my home town... And I bought and wore both hats over the course of 1992.
Point: Ehhh... It's a wash...
The next point and deciding factor came on November 17, 1992. That was the date the expansion draft was going to take place. ESPN was actually going to televise the whole thing! This was better than Christmas! Unfortunately, I had senior year economics class getting in the way of watching it...
Bear in mind this was 1992, so I didn't have a cell phone to keep me current. All I had was the VCR at home, set to record the first hour that I was going to miss before school let out. And since it was 1992, there were no text messages to be sent... We had to amuse ourselves by passing hand written notes. Irritated by whatever we were doing in class that day, my friends and I were passing notes back and forth again that afternoon. At one point, I expressed my disgust to my friend Mike:
Sorry for the profanity, it's Mike's fault...
I raced home as soon as the bell rang and was relieved the VCR had indeed recorded. I missed each of the first five picks for both teams, but was quickly caught up by the ticker at the bottom of the screen.
Colorado had previously won the coin flip, giving them the first pick in the draft. They chose starting pitcher, David Nied, from the Atlanta Braves. This was known before the draft started. Colorado had flown Nied to Denver to be on hand at the official expansion draft party.
Both teams employed different strategies in choosing the players that would make the new teams an actual team. Florida was drafting players that weren't so much to build a team around, but to flip to other organizations for the players they wanted. They were also more active in signing free agents with all that sweet video rental late fee money... Colorado was operating more on a budget, and many of the players they took in the expansion draft had a multi-year stay in the organization.
When the 1993 card season was in full blast, Topps' Stadium Club brand included a card honoring both teams expansion drafts. I love cards that cover significant events in baseball that aren't necessarily linked to a single player.
With the draft over and the calendar flipping over to 1993, I was gearing up to see how the new teams would develop. Eating up as much coverage as I could get my hands on. Without a clue that I'd be some day be living in Denver, (not even four years after buying this magazine) I clipped out this picture from The Sporting News 1993 Yearbook, then threw the rest of the magazine away long before I moved to Colorado. Now I recognize those buildings in the background...
By the end of 1992, I'd pretty much chosen the Colorado Rockies to be my number three team to follow in baseball. After Montreal and Minnesota, in that order, of course. I liked the moves they made at and after the draft, I found the market more appealing, and purple goes with black and silver better than teal does.
It didn't hurt that this was going to happen... I was going to get to watch a Colorado Rockies game (albeit an exhibition game) before anyone in Denver?
Yeah, that rules...
Trying to catch pop flies against the dingy dome roof, always a challenge for opposing outfielders. #17 is David Nied.
Granted, technology of 1993 definitely didn't allow for the instant gratification that we have today, but I wanted real Rockies cards! And this doesn't count either...
Scott Aldred is ready to play baseball alone in a dark creepy forest...
Or this...
Eric Young plotting to take out various innocent cactuseses...
Colorado started the 1993 season in New York, playing the Mets. They wouldn't play in Denver until the next weekend (against the Expos). Finally, the games were underway for real. So it wouldn't be long before cards with actual game photographs could be printed and flooded on the public.
Stadium Club put out a nice record of official team firsts.
Fleer put out a box set to update the 1993 season player transactions. Inside were full team seats of the Rockies and Marlins, all in their correct uniforms. At 25 cards, it did a good job in representing the inaugural teams. It also featured game photos that were in-season and not from Spring Training.
The Rockies signed Andres Galarraga as a free agent after a spending the 1992 season with the St. Louis Cardinals. His career had been on the decline over the past few seasons, after a strong start in Montreal. Galarraga was signed to a modest one year contract to re-establish his value, which he did and then some... Hitting 172 home runs with a .944 OPS in 5 years as a Rockie.
As happy as I could be with Stadium Club as a card brand at times, they would then put out stuff like this to ruin my good faith... In 1993 and 1994, they put out a separate set (branded "Team Sets") that were a full 25-30 cards of a team. But not all of the teams... Only the MOST POPULAR teams... So as much as I would have loved to purchase them, there are no team sets for the Twins or Expos in Stadium Club Team Sets...
Thanks...
With their #5 pick in the expansion draft, the Rockies took Kevin Reimer from the Texas Rangers. Gebhart had worked out a pre-draft trade with Milwaukee for left fielder Dante Bichette, who had been spinning his wheels with the Brewers after starting hot with the Angels. Reimer was out of baseball a year later, while Bichette would hit 201 home runs with an OPS of .892 in 7 seasons with Colorado.
Pinnacle came out with a box set in late 1993 highlighting perspective Hall of Famers. Murphy is the only card of the set I have. Just because of the novelty of Murphy as a Rockie.
Longtime Atlanta Braves star Dale Murphy was signed for "star power" for the new Rockies team, after getting released by Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Murphy's star had burned out and he retired less than two months into his stay in Denver.
Stadium Club's main set included 23 Rockies cards, spread over the last 2 series of the 3 series set. Featuring all photos shot during Spring Training, they presented a nice mix of a new team actually playing baseball. Some good pictures, some bland...
Andy Ashby made it out of the Metrodome safely, but couldn't make it out of Denver without posting numbers that were downright terrifying. 89 hits allowed and 32 batters walked in 54 innings pitched? This performance earned him a trade to the Padres, where he developed into a capable pitcher who last 14 seasons in the major leagues...
Pinnacle's base brand included 18 Rockies cards. I liked Pinnacle's simple, yet elegant design, but was disappointed in most of the photos being posed head shots, against a fake puffy cloud background... Though this photo of Reed is pretty cool... And I really liked that Pinnacle included that sweet expansion draft logo on all Rockies and Marlins cards in their set.
It didn't take too many games of watching Rockies baseball to know that their pitching was going to be a rough spot. (And always has been...) Pitchers with a distinct gimmick, like submarine sinkerballer Steve Reed, could do okay here. Pitchers with average or below stuff isn't going to play well, and they got hit hard...
During their run of producing baseball cards (1989-2010), I don't think Upper Deck made a nicer set than what they put out in 1993. They gave the Rockies 28 cards of Series 2, with some great Spring Training action and poses. They found some really unique photos to use throughout the set, for all teams... 1993 Upper Deck is just fun to look at.
For example here's Alex Cole chatting with fans. He played center field for the Rockies in 1993, then signed a two year contract with the Minnesota Twins. He didn't do anything notable, I just really like this card...
(Fleer) Ultra had a very sharp looking 25 Rockies cards in series 2 of their set. Also taken during Spring Training, they chose a good mix of posed photos and action shots, like this one of Vinny Castilla yelling at a baseball.
Vinny Castilla was another expansion draft pick. Deemed expendable by Atlanta, Castilla became a star in Denver. Hitting 239 home runs for the Rockies, with an .870 OPS in 9 seasons. After retiring in 2006, Castilla has worked for the Rockies in the front office.
There were many more 1993 Rockies cards that I wanted to highlight, but I think this is good enough for now...
As I mentioned earlier, I chose to follow the Rockies before the 1993 season with no clue that I'd be living in Denver in time for the start of the 1997 season. I can't say that the team has lived up to my hopes back in 1993. There have been far too many years of watching some really bad baseball out here. The highlights over my days as a Rockies fan are pretty much limited to their 2007 "deal with Satan" run to the World Series and the 1998 All Star Game.
That said, Coors Field is still my favorite stadium I've ever seen a game...
I also still have the VHS tape with the Expansion Draft on it. I last watched it shortly before the 1997 season started, to psych myself up for my new home team. I'm keeping it even though I doubt it will ever be played again...
I have distinct memories of sitting at my Grandfather's cabin that Summer, reading the newest edition of USA Today's Baseball Weekly. The issue was covering the recent decision allowing the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies to join the National League, starting in 1993.
By no means was I bored with baseball, but the addition of two new teams gave me so much more to follow. Both teams would spend the next year and a half hiring staff, finalizing stadium plans, developing logos and uniforms, signing their first players, setting up their minor league systems and a whole host of other things that would be written about and summarily devoured by my insatiable need to read about baseball. Not to mention that I'd soon be seeing cards for two teams I never collected before. Yeah, I was excited by the news. Probably a lot more than any other fan my age. Or any fan that lived outside of either Miami or Denver.
I also didn't know O.C.D. existed in 1991...
When the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays entered Major League Baseball in 1977, I was 2 years old. I was also not a baseball fan. So I didn't get to experience the massive change in all aspects of the game that time around. From what I've read (which isn't a whole lot) about the 1977 expansion, it wasn't nearly as big of a deal as 1993 was. (In comparison, when 1998 rolled around, I had relatively little interest in the Arizona Diamondbacks or Tampa Bay Devil Rays...) Money, media coverage and everything else involved was a much bigger deal in 1993, than 1977. (1998, even more so...)
 |
| 1992 Donruss |
The 1992 card sets started coming out in late 1991. There wasn't a whole lot of coverage that could be given to the new expansion teams. Donruss was first to recognize, printing a single card for both. It was just a simple logo with a basic summary of each on the back. That's cool... There wasn't a whole lot else you could do at that point...
Bowman released their awesome sleeper set that summer to zero fanfare. (That set would catch fire a couple of months after it's release, changing the hobby forever, but that's another story for another day...) The set included a single card for the first player signed to a contract by the Rockies (Ryan Turner) and Marlins (Clemente Nunez) organizations. Both were signed to minor league deals, and played for the class A ball teams both ran in 1992. Neither Turner or Nunez played a game in the major leagues for any team.
 |
| 1992 Bowman |
This was a lazy effort... They couldn't have even found a black CR hat for Ryan to wear for the photo? Just so he didn't look like every guy leaning on his knee ever? 1992 Bowman was a legendary card set for the junk wax era. But even as cool as it was, with all the cards of people in their street clothes, it seemed like they forgot to try...
 |
| 1992 Upper Deck |
Upper Deck did a better job of saluting Turner (and Nunez) in their teams colors, they got Ryan a Rockies T-Shirt! Then wiped some dirt on it!
Understandably, the card scene lacked any real drama in 1992. However, coverage on TV, newspapers and magazines was turning me into an expert on both franchises, well before any games were played. Going into expansion neutral, I had no loyalties to either the Rockies or Marlins. 1992 would swing the pendulum either way for who would win the #3 position on my favorite teams list...
Colorado hired Bob Gebhart from the Minnesota Twins, to become their General Manager. Gebhart would be in charge of setting up the team...
Hey! I know Bob Gebhart! I once got his autograph after a Twins game!
I accidentally insulted him by calling out Twins broadcaster Herb Carneal's name as he walked by. (He laughed it off and signed my ticket stub, then went on his way.) Well, they looked very similar...
Gebhart staffed the team with a few of the higher-ups from the Montreal Expos organization. Many of them were directly responsible for scouting the current foundation of rising stars in Montreal.
The Marlins were owned by the Blockbuster video guy... Who hired the Expos General Manager to run the team...
Point: Colorado.
The Florida Marlins chose a color scheme of black, silver and teal. Their uniforms were nice and traditional looking, with pin-striping for home and basic road grays, with a fish on them. I liked it. The teal was a little obnoxious, but it was very 1993.
Colorado chose a black, silver and purple palate for their logo, pinstriped home and basic road grays. With a mountain embroidered in place of the fish. I leaned Colorado, but the interlocking CR reminded me too much of my home town... And I bought and wore both hats over the course of 1992.
Point: Ehhh... It's a wash...
The next point and deciding factor came on November 17, 1992. That was the date the expansion draft was going to take place. ESPN was actually going to televise the whole thing! This was better than Christmas! Unfortunately, I had senior year economics class getting in the way of watching it...
Bear in mind this was 1992, so I didn't have a cell phone to keep me current. All I had was the VCR at home, set to record the first hour that I was going to miss before school let out. And since it was 1992, there were no text messages to be sent... We had to amuse ourselves by passing hand written notes. Irritated by whatever we were doing in class that day, my friends and I were passing notes back and forth again that afternoon. At one point, I expressed my disgust to my friend Mike:
Sorry for the profanity, it's Mike's fault...
I raced home as soon as the bell rang and was relieved the VCR had indeed recorded. I missed each of the first five picks for both teams, but was quickly caught up by the ticker at the bottom of the screen.
Colorado had previously won the coin flip, giving them the first pick in the draft. They chose starting pitcher, David Nied, from the Atlanta Braves. This was known before the draft started. Colorado had flown Nied to Denver to be on hand at the official expansion draft party.
 |
| 1993 Upper Deck |
Both teams employed different strategies in choosing the players that would make the new teams an actual team. Florida was drafting players that weren't so much to build a team around, but to flip to other organizations for the players they wanted. They were also more active in signing free agents with all that sweet video rental late fee money... Colorado was operating more on a budget, and many of the players they took in the expansion draft had a multi-year stay in the organization.
 |
| 1993 Stadium Club |
When the 1993 card season was in full blast, Topps' Stadium Club brand included a card honoring both teams expansion drafts. I love cards that cover significant events in baseball that aren't necessarily linked to a single player.
With the draft over and the calendar flipping over to 1993, I was gearing up to see how the new teams would develop. Eating up as much coverage as I could get my hands on. Without a clue that I'd be some day be living in Denver, (not even four years after buying this magazine) I clipped out this picture from The Sporting News 1993 Yearbook, then threw the rest of the magazine away long before I moved to Colorado. Now I recognize those buildings in the background...
By the end of 1992, I'd pretty much chosen the Colorado Rockies to be my number three team to follow in baseball. After Montreal and Minnesota, in that order, of course. I liked the moves they made at and after the draft, I found the market more appealing, and purple goes with black and silver better than teal does.
It didn't hurt that this was going to happen... I was going to get to watch a Colorado Rockies game (albeit an exhibition game) before anyone in Denver?
Yeah, that rules...
Rockies in the outfield.
|
Trying to catch pop flies against the dingy dome roof, always a challenge for opposing outfielders. #17 is David Nied.
Fungo hit...
Hey, Andy Ashby!
Hey, Bruce Ruffin!
Hey, Willie Blair!
I can not tell you who won that game... And I couldn't find anything about it on the usual sources...
Either way, now all there was left to do was wait for the first real Rockies cards of 1993 to come out of packs. I was getting tired of seeing "Rockies" cards like this:
 |
| 1993 O Pee Chee |
Yay!! It's a Rockies card of a Houston Astros pitcher, who had been traded to the Expos by the time this card hit the market...
Granted, technology of 1993 definitely didn't allow for the instant gratification that we have today, but I wanted real Rockies cards! And this doesn't count either...
 |
| 1993 Topps |
Scott Aldred is ready to play baseball alone in a dark creepy forest...
Or this...
 |
| 1993 Topps |
Eric Young plotting to take out various innocent cactuseses...
Colorado started the 1993 season in New York, playing the Mets. They wouldn't play in Denver until the next weekend (against the Expos). Finally, the games were underway for real. So it wouldn't be long before cards with actual game photographs could be printed and flooded on the public.
 |
| 1993 Stadium Club |
Stadium Club put out a nice record of official team firsts.
 |
| 1993 Fleer Final |
Fleer put out a box set to update the 1993 season player transactions. Inside were full team seats of the Rockies and Marlins, all in their correct uniforms. At 25 cards, it did a good job in representing the inaugural teams. It also featured game photos that were in-season and not from Spring Training.
The Rockies signed Andres Galarraga as a free agent after a spending the 1992 season with the St. Louis Cardinals. His career had been on the decline over the past few seasons, after a strong start in Montreal. Galarraga was signed to a modest one year contract to re-establish his value, which he did and then some... Hitting 172 home runs with a .944 OPS in 5 years as a Rockie.
 |
| 1993 Stadium Club Team Sets |
As happy as I could be with Stadium Club as a card brand at times, they would then put out stuff like this to ruin my good faith... In 1993 and 1994, they put out a separate set (branded "Team Sets") that were a full 25-30 cards of a team. But not all of the teams... Only the MOST POPULAR teams... So as much as I would have loved to purchase them, there are no team sets for the Twins or Expos in Stadium Club Team Sets...
Thanks...
With their #5 pick in the expansion draft, the Rockies took Kevin Reimer from the Texas Rangers. Gebhart had worked out a pre-draft trade with Milwaukee for left fielder Dante Bichette, who had been spinning his wheels with the Brewers after starting hot with the Angels. Reimer was out of baseball a year later, while Bichette would hit 201 home runs with an OPS of .892 in 7 seasons with Colorado.
 |
| 1993 Pinnacle Cooperstown |
Pinnacle came out with a box set in late 1993 highlighting perspective Hall of Famers. Murphy is the only card of the set I have. Just because of the novelty of Murphy as a Rockie.
Longtime Atlanta Braves star Dale Murphy was signed for "star power" for the new Rockies team, after getting released by Philadelphia. Unfortunately, Murphy's star had burned out and he retired less than two months into his stay in Denver.
 |
| 1993 Stadium Club |
Stadium Club's main set included 23 Rockies cards, spread over the last 2 series of the 3 series set. Featuring all photos shot during Spring Training, they presented a nice mix of a new team actually playing baseball. Some good pictures, some bland...
Andy Ashby made it out of the Metrodome safely, but couldn't make it out of Denver without posting numbers that were downright terrifying. 89 hits allowed and 32 batters walked in 54 innings pitched? This performance earned him a trade to the Padres, where he developed into a capable pitcher who last 14 seasons in the major leagues...
 |
| 1993 Pinnacle |
Pinnacle's base brand included 18 Rockies cards. I liked Pinnacle's simple, yet elegant design, but was disappointed in most of the photos being posed head shots, against a fake puffy cloud background... Though this photo of Reed is pretty cool... And I really liked that Pinnacle included that sweet expansion draft logo on all Rockies and Marlins cards in their set.
It didn't take too many games of watching Rockies baseball to know that their pitching was going to be a rough spot. (And always has been...) Pitchers with a distinct gimmick, like submarine sinkerballer Steve Reed, could do okay here. Pitchers with average or below stuff isn't going to play well, and they got hit hard...
 |
| 1993 Upper Deck |
During their run of producing baseball cards (1989-2010), I don't think Upper Deck made a nicer set than what they put out in 1993. They gave the Rockies 28 cards of Series 2, with some great Spring Training action and poses. They found some really unique photos to use throughout the set, for all teams... 1993 Upper Deck is just fun to look at.
For example here's Alex Cole chatting with fans. He played center field for the Rockies in 1993, then signed a two year contract with the Minnesota Twins. He didn't do anything notable, I just really like this card...
 |
| 1993 Ultra |
(Fleer) Ultra had a very sharp looking 25 Rockies cards in series 2 of their set. Also taken during Spring Training, they chose a good mix of posed photos and action shots, like this one of Vinny Castilla yelling at a baseball.
Vinny Castilla was another expansion draft pick. Deemed expendable by Atlanta, Castilla became a star in Denver. Hitting 239 home runs for the Rockies, with an .870 OPS in 9 seasons. After retiring in 2006, Castilla has worked for the Rockies in the front office.
*****
As I mentioned earlier, I chose to follow the Rockies before the 1993 season with no clue that I'd be living in Denver in time for the start of the 1997 season. I can't say that the team has lived up to my hopes back in 1993. There have been far too many years of watching some really bad baseball out here. The highlights over my days as a Rockies fan are pretty much limited to their 2007 "deal with Satan" run to the World Series and the 1998 All Star Game.
That said, Coors Field is still my favorite stadium I've ever seen a game...
I also still have the VHS tape with the Expansion Draft on it. I last watched it shortly before the 1997 season started, to psych myself up for my new home team. I'm keeping it even though I doubt it will ever be played again...
Oh yeah, and in 1993 they were managed by this guy...
Who only helped the Twins win the 1987 World Series...
This was a fascinating perspective on expansion. Like '77 for you, when the Rockies and Marlins came to be, I was only 3 years old, so that definitely didn't register on my radar. However, when the Devil Rays and the Diamondbacks were announced, while I was still in the single digits of age, I had already been collecting cards for a few years. I vividly remember begging my grandfather to buy me packs so that I could get my first cards of these mysterious new clubs. Of course, I never ended up moving to either of those locales, but this was a tale I felt I could relate to, at least a little bit. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI felt really disappointed with the cards that came out for Tampa and Arizona in 1998. They kind of got shafted in the smaller sets of the day. It would have been nice if the multiple brands would have given the 25-30 cards the expansion teams in 1993 got. Funny how drastically the card market changed in only five years...
DeleteThough, 1998 Upper Deck did a good job, even though the set was way bloated!