Editor’s note: In the Colorado Classics series, The Denver Post takes a weekly look at individuals who made their mark on the Colorado sports landscape and what they are doing now.
The best way to remember the days of minor-league baseball in Denver is to listen while Tony Muser tells of one of the most memorable games of the era.
It’s a quiet Sunday morning in the third-base dugout at Coors Field recently, and Muser, the bench coach for the San Diego Padres, talks about a game played 15 years ago as if it were yesterday.
The year was 1991, two years before the Colorado Rockies took Denver into the major leagues, and Muser was the manager of the Triple-A Denver Zephyrs.
As with most baseball aficionados, Muser sets the stage with crisp details, noting that the Zephyrs were 14 games behind at one point during the American Association season. He fast-forwarded to the fourth game of the league’s playoffs, with the Zephyrs trailing Buffalo 2-1 in the best-of-five series. After losing the first two games at Buffalo, the Zephyrs won the third game at Mile High Stadium and were leading 9-0 after eight innings in what looked to be a certain victory on the way to evening the series.
“We won 9-8, with the potential tying run thrown out at the plate,” Muser said. “It was unbelievable. I looked at (Zephyrs hitting coach) Lamar Johnson and said, ‘Did we really win this game?”‘
The Zephyrs not only won that game, they went on to win the American Association title and advance into the Triple-A championship series against Columbus of the International League.
Then, on Sept. 16, 1991, the Zephyrs beat Columbus 5-4 in 11 innings to win the seven-game series in five games. William Suero scored the winning run and reliever Chris George set down the Clippers in order in the 10th and 11th innings to preserve the victory.
“Cal Eldred won the last game of the season here in Denver, and we won the division by a game to get into the postseason,” Muser said. “I think Eldred was 1-9 in the first half of the season. Don Rowe was my pitching coach. He taught me more about handling pitchers than anyone else I know. He went to Eldred and said that he could go back to Double-A or stay with him and work on some pitches. Eldred was 9-2 in the second half and in Milwaukee in September.”
Muser managed the Zephyrs in 1992 as the Denver minor-league era ended. The 1992 Zephyrs missed the postseason in the regular-season finale, losing 7-6 in 10 innings to the Iowa Cubs on Sept. 6, 1992, in Des Moines. The last minor-league game in Denver was played five days before, and fans sent off the team on the last road trip with a verse of “Auld Lang Syne.”
In the finale, two errors by shortstop Jose Valentine were critical, and Muser found Valentine slumped in his locker with a towel over his head.
“I went over and took the towel off of his head,” Muser said, “and told him to get out of that locker because we all had made a heck of an effort to win the game.”
Third baseman Jim Tatum won the league’s batting title by going 5-for-5 in the last game.
Muser was among the finalists for the initial manager’s job with the Rockies. When Don Baylor was chosen, Muser joined the Chicago Cubs’ coaching staff, became manager of the Kansas City Royals in 1997 and joined the Padres’ coaching staff in 2003.
Padres manager Bruce Bochy calls Muser a “baseball rat.”
“He’s always talking baseball,” Bochy said. “He does a great job helping me and working with players. The players like him because he has a lot of energy and a great sense of humor. He can make you laugh.”
In his 39th year in professional baseball, Muser, 59, likes where he is. The job with the Padres is close to home. He would consider managing again in the big leagues in the “right situation,” but thinks his future is in player development. Muser is a baseball encyclopedia, and when he opens up the information pours out like a ticker tape. He’s a player’s coach and manager.
“Good players can be vulnerable,” Muser said. “There are times when even the good ones don’t exactly believe in themselves.”
In 1987 while on the Brewers’ coaching staff, Muser went to Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, who needed encouragement as he came off the disabled list at the all-star break.
“I told him he was going to hit .400 and he said I was crazy,” Muser said. “He started a 39-game hitting streak on his first day back.”
Muser stuck by his players. He remembered wanting outfielder Jim Olander and infielder Pat Listach, two players going nowhere in the Brewers’ organization, for the 1991 Zephyrs. Olander went on to win the league batting title at .325, and Listach was rookie of the year. One year later, Listach was the American League’s rookie of the year with the Brewers.
As the years go by, the achievements of Muser and the Denver Zephyrs and the Denver Bears before them become more faded as the Rockies’ history grows.
“In reality, it was a long time ago,” Muser said. “There was a good history of minor-league baseball in Denver and there were a lot of loyal fans. I’ll never forget the 1991 and 1992 seasons, especially 1991.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
