The history of the Colorado Rockies began in 1991 when a Major League Baseball (MLB) expansion franchise for Denver, Colorado was granted to an ownership group headed by John Antonucci. In 1993, the Colorado Rockies started play in the National League (NL) West division. Since that date, the Rockies have reached the MLB postseason five times, four times as the National League wild card team. The team has been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs three times: in 1995, 2009, and 2017. In 2007, the Rockies advanced all the way to the World Series, only to be swept by the Boston Red Sox.
Creation of the Rockies
Although Denver has a rich baseball history in the minor leagues dating to 1885, there had been several previous attempts to bring Major League Baseball to Colorado that had failed. In 1958, New York lawyer William Shea proposed the new Continental League as a rival to the two existing major leagues. In 1960, the Continental League announced that play would begin in April 1961 with eight teams, including one in Denver headed by Bob Howsam. However, the new league quickly evaporated, without ever playing a game, when the National League reached expansion agreements to put teams in New York City and Houston, removing much of the impetus behind the Continental League effort. Later on, the Pittsburgh Pirates were rumored to be relocating to Denver following the Pittsburgh drug trials in 1985, but that move did not happen. Repeated rumors of a move to Denver by the Oakland Athletics also proved false. Nonetheless, by the late 1980s, an MLB team seemed to be a possibility in Denver.
The Colorado Baseball Commission, led by banking executive Larry Varnell, was successful in getting Denver voters to approve a 0.1 percent sales tax to help finance a new baseball stadium. Also, an advisory committee was formed in 1990 by then-Governor of Colorado Roy Romer to recruit an ownership group. The group selected was led by John Antonucci, an Ohio beverage distributor, and Michael I. Monus, the head of the Phar-Mor drugstore chain. Local and regional companies—such as Erie Lake, Hensel Phelps Construction, KOA Radio, and the Rocky Mountain News—rounded out the group. On July 5, 1991, the National League approved Denver and South Florida as the sites for two expansion teams to begin play in 1993; with this, MLB now had teams in all four time zones in the contiguous U.S.; the Rockies were the league's first Mountain Time Zone-based team. The name "Rockies" was chosen due to Denver's proximity to the Rocky Mountains, which is reflected in their logo; the name was previously used by the city's first NHL team (who are now the New Jersey Devils). With the arrival of the Rockies, they displaced the Milwaukee Brewers-affiliated AAA American Association club, the Zephyrs, who had represented the market since 1955, to New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Rockies' first pick in the expansion draft was pitcher David Nied from the Atlanta Braves organization. Nied pitched 4 seasons for the Rockies.
Ownership issues After a 1992 accounting and embezzlement scandal at Phar-Mor tarnished Monus' reputation, both Monus and Antonucci were forced to sell their stakes in the franchise. For a time, no credible offers surfaced from Denver interests, and it looked like the franchise might move to Tampa, Florida before even playing a game. Finally, trucking-company executive Jerry McMorris became head of the ownership group and served as the initial public face of management. His relationship with the other partners was somewhat poor, and his role in the leadership of the franchise diminished over time. His situation was not helped by the 1999 failure of his trucking firm and subsequent related legal issues.
Finally, in 2005, McMorris was forced to sell his stake in the team to Charlie and Dick Monfort. The Monforts were former executives with ConAgra, which acquired their family's meatpacking and distribution firm in 1987. Charlie had been CEO of the team since 2003, and Dick had been vice chairman since 1997. In 2011, Dick succeeded Charlie as chairman and CEO.
Inaugural season
The first game in Rockies history was played on April 5, 1993, against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. David Nied was the starting pitcher in a game the Rockies lost, 3–0. The franchise's first home game at Mile High Stadium, and first win in franchise history, came four days later with an 11–4 win over the Montreal Expos. The winning pitcher was Bryn Smith who beat his former team for the win. One of the most memorable plays in the game, and in team history, occurred in the bottom of the first inning when 2nd baseman, Eric Young of the Rockies hit a leadoff home run. The game was played before 80,227 fans, to date the largest crowd to see a single regular-season Major League Baseball game.
As is the case with many first-year expansion teams, the Rockies struggled in their first year. During one stretch in May, the team went 2–17. The team did not experience its first winning month until September, when they went 17–9. Still, the team finished the season with 67 wins, setting a record for a National League expansion franchise. In addition, despite the losses, the club saw a home attendance of 4,483,350 for the season, setting a Major League record that still stands and is not likely to be broken. Rockies first baseman Andrés Galarraga won the batting title, hitting .370 for the season after Manager Don Baylor persuaded Galarraga to change from a standard batting stance into an open one in which he squarely faced the pitcher, allowing him to see incoming pitches properly.
The mid-1990s
On April 17, 1994, the Rockies beat Montreal 6–5, moving the team's record to 6–5—the first time in franchise history that the club had a winning record. However, that was the only time during that season that the club had a record over .500, finishing at 53–64 and in last place in the National League West when the strike ended the season that August. Despite the club's poor record, several Rockies hitters gained notoriety for their exploits at the plate, assisted by the thin and dry air of Denver, which purportedly allows balls to carry farther than at sea-level ballparks. Andrés Galarraga, a year after winning the batting title, hit 31 home runs, and teammate Dante Bichette hit 27; projected over a 162-game season, the two would have hit 43 and 37 home runs, respectively. The park's characteristics did not affect just home runs either: 33-year-old outfielder Mike Kingery, a career .252 hitter who did not play in the majors in 1993, batted .349 in 301 at-bats. The club once again led the majors in attendance, drawing 3,281,511 fans for the season. Had it not been for the strike that ended the season, they were on pace to break their own season attendance record.
1995 playoff run and the opening of Coors Field
Prior to the 1995 season, the Rockies acquired free-agent outfielder Larry Walker, previously of the Montreal Expos. He was one of the four Rockies known collectively as the "Blake Street Bombers" -— named after the street on which the new ballpark (Coors Field) was located—along with Galarraga, Bichette, and third baseman Vinny Castilla, who had played sparingly with the Rockies during the previous season. The quartet combined to hit 139 homers—each hitting 30 or more—in the strike-shortened and late-starting 1995 season, with Bichette leading the way with 40. The team debuted in its new ballpark on April 26, 1995, in an 11–9 win over the New York Mets, and proceeded to win seven of their first eight games in the new season. The season ended with a 77–67 record, good for second place in the West division and the club's first playoff appearance as the Wild Card winner. Although most of the attention focused on the power-hitting lineup, much of the club's success was due to a strong bullpen, as relievers Darren Holmes, Curt Leskanic, Steve Reed, and Bruce Ruffin all posted earned-run averages below 3.40. The pitching staff's ERA of 4.97 was the lowest in club history until the 2006 team had a 4.66 ERA. The Rockies lost in the NLDS to the eventual 1995 World Series champion Atlanta Braves, 3 games to 1. The Rockies once again led the league in attendance for the season.
Post-1995 In 1996, with all four Blake Street Bombers returning, the Rockies expected to contend, but an injury to Walker hurt the team. Walker played in only 83 games and batted .276 with 18 homers. However, outfielder Ellis Burks picked up the slack with an All-Star season, batting .344 with 40 homers and 128 RBI—one of three Rockies to hit forty or more homers that season, along with Galarraga and Castilla. The four Blake Street Bombers—now consisting of Bichette, Burks, Castilla, and Galarraga—once again hit at least 30 home runs each. The team set a major-league record by scoring 658 runs at home on the season, and Burks and Bichette became the first pair of teammates since Darryl Strawberry and Howard Johnson of the 1987 New York Mets to both steal 30 bases and hit 30 homers in the same season. However, the pitching staff—a strong point for the team in 1995—was beset by injuries: Bill Swift, who went 9–3 in 1995, started just three games, and the staff ERA ballooned to 5.60. As a result, the Rockies fell back to third place in the West with an 83–79 record.
A healthy Walker became the first player in club history to win the NL Most Valuable Player award in 1997, batting .366 with 49 homers and 130 RBI. Walker came very close to winning the Triple Crown that year, leading the league in home runs but finishing second to Tony Gwynn in batting average and third in RBI (teammate Galarraga led the league.) Once again, three Rockies (Walker, Galarraga, and Castilla) hit 40 or more homers; Walker also won the first Gold Glove in franchise history. As in 1996, though, the team's pitchers struggled and had a 5.25 ERA, and the Rockies could not improve upon their finish from the previous season.
The beginning of the Helton era
The Rockies were broken up after the 1997 season when an aging Galarraga signed with the Atlanta Braves as a free agent. His replacement was Todd Helton, who had been the club's first-round draft pick in 1995 out of the University of Tennessee. After a 4–1 start, the club lost its next eight games and struggled to a 77–85 record, finishing only ahead of the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West. Pitcher Darryl Kile, signed as a free agent in the offseason, struggled in Colorado, going 13–17 with a 5.20 ERA—a far cry from his numbers the prior year as a member of the Houston Astros, when he went 19–7 with a 2.57 ERA. Kile became one of a long line of free-agent pitchers who struggled after signing with the Rockies. The team's struggles led to the firing of manager Don Baylor, the only manager in franchise history, following the season.
Jim Leyland, a two-time NL Manager of the Year who had won the World Series with the Florida Marlins two years earlier, was expected to bring the Rockies back into contention in 1999. Instead, the Rockies dropped even further, finishing 72–90 and in last place in the West as the Diamondbacks won the division in just their second year of existence. Helton was blossoming into a young developed hitter, batting .320 with 35 homers and 113 RBI; Castilla, Walker, and Bichette also hit more than 30 homers each. Once again, though, the team's pitching was a glaring weakness, as the staff had an ERA of 6.02. Kile, who was being paid over $8 million for the season, struggled mightily, going 8–13 with a 6.61 ERA, and he wound up being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals following the season. Kile finished fifth in voting for the Cy Young Award the following year, as he had in 1997 (the year before he joined the Rockies). The Leyland era lasted just one year, as a frustrated Leyland retired following the season, not to manage in the majors again until 2006, when he won an AL Pennant with the Detroit Tigers.