HARDBALL - 04-26

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I almost want to start by asking about Coersfield thirtieth
birthday this year for Coersfield, give me your recollection of
your first maybe hearing about Course Field and seeing Corsefield.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, it was interesting Before coming out here. I worked
in Memphis, Tennessee. The commercial appeal was the newspaper. There
was a man who was the original president of this franchise.
His name was Steve Earhart. He's still running the Liberty
Bowl actually, but Steve lived in Memphis while while helping
put the Rockies franchise together. So we talked a lot

(00:32):
about how do you build a ballpark out here? And
there was already concern about the light air, so yeah,
there was that. Now my first time it was I
think it was December of nineteen ninety nine and Dan
old Doubt had taken over a couple months earlier as
the general manager. Well, my first assignment actually meeting people.
Tom Goodwin signed with the Rockies, so I come here.

(00:55):
The field is covered in snow, but they have burned
the CR logo onto the yautfield. If you ever find
the old pictures of good when he's standing in one
of the suites and behind him is a snow covered
baseball field, but with the cr logo behind it, so
that that was my introduction here. I got to meet
a lot of the people with the franchise for the

(01:15):
first time, a lot of the local media, and it
was a good time.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
I'm guessing you get this from other writers, but when
other broadcasters come into town and see this place these days,
after thirty years, they all say the same thing, Thomas,
it is it looks like the day that it opened.
You get that too.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I do get that. And I even go back to
when Clint Hurder was the manager, and obviously there were
some hard times leading up to the two thousand and
seven World Series, but Clint would talk about the ushers
in the stadium, the cleanliness of the place, and there
was that effort to make sure, hey, no matter what
happened on the field at that time, and the Rockies

(01:51):
were trying to build something, no matter what happened on
the field, you were going to get a good experience
here at the ballpark. And I think that is held
up over the years.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
This place is of a little bit. The rooftop came
in existence several years ago, and it always seems to
me full, even like a game like last night where
there weren't many people here. That rooftop is full. You
like the rooftop edition?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
I do like it. And let's face it, if you
were here last night and I got a text from
a fan today who used to go to games of
Candlestick Park, he said that it was every bit as
nasty as Candlestick. Hey go up there and let's say,
enjoy the beverages. I guess you know. Obviously people talk
about it and they almost try to equate it with
what's going on. They have a rooftop, but they don't

(02:31):
have a good team or whatever. You should do everything
you can for your fans. I remember learning this business
that covered every level of the minor leagues, and at
that level where you have no control over your players,
they actually go into it as if they're not going
to win a single game. How do we entertain our fans? Now?
Obviously that would not be the way the Rockies would

(02:53):
would draw it up, although this year they have won
a few single games, let's say four of them at
this point. But you want to give your fans the
best experience no matter what position you have, whether you're
the pitcher, the catcher, or the usher or bartender here,
you want to give your best effort, and so I'm
fine with that.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
All right, Let's get to this team, and I gotta
start my asking about Jordan Beck. I don't know if
anybody saw this power surge coming, but this has been
kind of fun the last couple of days.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yes, it has been. It's really interesting because I remember
writing about Jordan Beck a number of times before he
got here. I'm sure there are fans out there saying,
you wrote about this guy and he's hitting one sixty seven. Well,
when I watched the film of him in the minor
leagues and also in college and started talking to people,
this swing has always been in there. He told me

(03:42):
that he had looked at some video and had discovered
something that he had not been doing. He was very
stiff in his batting stance, and all he did was
before the pitch kind of tip the bat a little bit,
just to get some movement there. The rhythm came back,
and it is funny because if you looked at some
of the minor league numbers and some of the tears

(04:03):
that he went on, it was just confidence and relaxed hitting,
and we're seeing that the last few days now can't
he keep it up for a while. If he does,
then the Rockies have justified making him the thirty eighth
overall pick back when they did draft him out of Tennessee.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Last night, two other young players had good offensive nights,
Michael Tolia and as well Hunter Goodman, three young guys.
When you throw Beck in there is it give you
a little bit of promise and hope for the future.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
With his team offensively well, if you look at the
last ten games, Hunter Goodman has performed quite well. Not
as many home runs as Jordan Beck, obviously, but who
hits five home runs in two days. But he's performed well.
You're seeing his aggression instead of working against him, working
for him. He went through a dry spell where he
was swinging early in counts and getting himself in bad counts.

(04:50):
He's picking better pitches to hit Michael Tolia. You hope
this is the start of something, because certainly the strikeouts
were really vexing early in this season, all the way
up to about this week. But he is also capable
of those big power surges where for a month or
two he hits a bunch of home runs. He's capable
of struggling, but he is capable of putting home runs

(05:11):
and RBIs on the board.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Last thing for you, Antonio Senzatela starter for game two today.
Very good outing last time out, maybe his best of
the season. You expect good things from him going forward.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
You would hope so. I mean, the way he performed
in spring training and at the start of the season
you saw a lot of the old Antonio Sensatela with
a little bit more experience and savvy. That kind of
dipped a bit. But the pitchers, I think were trying
to do too much in trying to carry this team
last time out last Sunday, in that second game of
the doubleheader against the Nationals, you saw him give up

(05:46):
a run in the first inning and some bad things
happen out there, But he was the one that pulled
the entire team together by just attacking the strike zone
and getting people to hit ground balls. And that's what
Antonio Senzetela has to do.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
All right, sounds good as always, Thomas, Thanks for the insight,
Thanks for having me