If the Rockies qualify for the playoffs again in the near future – and let’s be honest, that’s a pretty big “if”‘ – Hal Grandchamp’s going to be faced with a daunting choice.
More than a decade ago, this Aurora resident retired from his job of 43 years with United Airlines.
Then he was bored to tears.
So when professional baseball first hit town, a friend and former co-worker at Stapleton Airport called Grandchamp, a lifelong baseball fan, to let him know about opportunities with the Rockies: “You know you have to come down here; they’re looking for some guest relations people.”
Initially, Grandchamp wasn’t sold. He’s restless, sure, but not crazy. Working 81 days? Why? He went down for an interview nevertheless.
Needless to say, Grandchamp’s been at the ballpark for 12 straight seasons. He fondly recalls that snowy opening day when Dante Bichette smacked a game-winning three-run homer in the 14th inning against the New York Mets. He also vividly remembers Hideo Nomo’s improbable no-hitter at Coors Field.
Sure, sports fans can be a bit melodramatic, but why should he apologize for having a great time at work? The only problem as far as Grandchamp was concerned was that infuriating period they call the off-season.
“When I got done with the baseball season in 1995,” he explains, “I was sitting around for four or five months, thinking: ‘What am I going to do?’ That’s when I spoke to my daughter who had worked down in Antarctica.”
Apparently, Arizona and Florida are for suckers. “Basically, I just got bored,” claims Grandchamp, who celebrated his 65th birthday – the first of many in deep freeze – that year not far from the South Pole. “I am one of those people that has to get up and be doing something.”
Grandchamp hangs near the South Pole from early October (playoff time) to February and drives pilots, mechanics and scientists to various landing strips. It’s not a job for the weak. And it may have saved his life.
“They fly you out to L.A., from L.A. to Auckland, from Auckland to Christchurch, New Zealand. And that’s where you report in, just as if you’d been in the military, and they issue cold weather gear. Then you jump on a military jet. But before all that, you get your contract; you have to take a serious physical.”
So, while Grandchamp was getting comfortable with his bifurcated existence, in 2003, a colonoscopy revealed some bad news. “They found a tumor the size of a lemon in my upper colon,” he recalls.
Three days later, he was on the operating table. Incredibly, Grandchamp bounced back from the operation so quickly that the next year he was ready to head south – far south – once again.
And it was close call. A mere two weeks before the station’s main population deployed for Antarctica, Grandchamp had secured a medical waiver from the National Science Foundation.
What is the appeal, I wondered, of driving a bus in the most desolate places on Earth?
“You get off the treadmills,” Grandchamp tells me. “You get down there and you have time to get in touch with yourself. We work 12 hours on and then 12 hours off. So, there is plenty of time to think, but there is also plenty to do.”
Grandchamp claims he’s seen some of the most beautiful things in the frozen desert. “Even just driving out to the airport in snowstorms and stuff – the pristine snows, like a million diamonds shimmering.”
Yet, this beauty doesn’t stop Grandchamp from catching opening day.
So I ask: If the Rockies were to make the postseason? Where would he choose?
“Baseball always comes first … because you’re home with your family,” he says. “The great thing is I get out. I get my exercise. I walk that ballpark three or four times a game. And I love watching the game.”
Somehow, that answer didn’t really surprise me.
David Harsanyi’s column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
