Colorado Springs – Chuck Kniffin made the walk from the Colorado Springs Sky Sox dugout to the mound with no visible effects from the 6,000- plus-feet elevation.
There was no stop to rest, no huffing and puffing, just a sure and confident walk.
Now, if he can get the Sky Sox pitching staff to take the same attitude about professional baseball’s most difficult place to pitch, he will be doing something.
Kniffin is starting his first year with the Colorado Rockies’ minor-league organization. He is the point man for keeping the Rockies’ pitching depth primed and ready.
Kniffin, 55, comes to the Rockies’ organization with good credentials. He has managed or coached in professional baseball for 18 years, including three seasons as the pitching coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has an offseason home in Florissant, near Colorado Springs, but he hadn’t experienced baseball at 6,000 feet until this season.
But he has the right idea.
“I’ll explain to them that if they can pitch here, they can pitch anywhere,” Kniffin said.
And anywhere in the case of the Sky Sox pitching staff means Coors Field. If pitchers can handle the challenges of pitching at Security Service Field, which has a higher elevation than Coors Field, the young pitchers in the Rockies’ organization are a step closer to the big leagues.
Jason Jennings, Aaron Cook, Jeff Francis, Shawn Chacon and Jamey Wright, the latter two who have since been traded, got their indoctrination to pitching successfully in Denver at the Sky Sox’s ballpark.
Marc Gustafson, the Rockies’ director of player development, has watched the development of the organization’s minor-league prospects from the beginning. He agrees it takes a special pitching coach in Triple-A Colorado Springs.
“It’s a valid point that the pitching coach for the Sky Sox might be the most important and demanding job in minor- league baseball,” Gustafson said. “Most definitely pitching there prepares a pitcher for Coors Field. You have to have the mentality of a doctor. Pitchers have to learn to be tough- minded and to handle adversity.”
Frank Funk was called Dr. Funk in the early years because it seemed he was running a MASH unit, patching up pitchers physically and mentally and sending them back to Denver.
Jim Wright followed in much the same scenario and Bob McClure, now the pitching coach for the Kansas City Royals, continued the practice.
Kniffin made his first trip to the Sky Sox’s home mound in the fourth inning Friday night. Left-hander Zack Parker was making his first start at Security Service Field in the Sky Sox’s 2006 home opener.
It didn’t require experience at altitude to recognize the signs. After giving up a single to Tucson’s Scott Hairston to open the inning, Parker was behind in the count to Chris Carter. Kniffin made his march. Parker walked Carter as well as two of the next three batters. That ended Parker’s outing, but two runs were walked in and the Sidewinders tied the score at three.
Kniffin preached before the season of the dangers of giving opponents extra outs and extra baserunners. Parker’s walk in the second inning also led to a run.
Sky Sox manager Tom Runnells tried everything, even a suicide squeeze in the eighth inning. It didn’t work, and Tucson won 9-8 in 11 innings. Six of Kniffin’s pitchers allowed 14 hits and six walks.
“I didn’t like what I saw from some of the pitchers,” Kniffin said. “A couple pitched tentative. We need more innings out of our starters. We had to use the whole bullpen tonight.
“The walks were the ballgame. They’ll learn how to pitch here.”
Parker learned the hard way.
“I struggled with command within myself,” Parker said. “You have to throw strikes.”
Young looking for work
Right-handed pitcher Jason Young, a top Rockies prospect at one time after being selected in the second round of the June 2000 draft out of Stanford, was released by Cleveland in March and is unsigned. Young saw action with the Rockies in 2003 and 2004 but was slowed by rib injuries. He was 9-8 with the Sky Sox last year before moving to the Indians’ organization late in the season.
