On Saturday morning at the breakfast table, Frank and Marco Gonzales were spooning their cereal from the left side of the bowl.
“Son, you got a ballgame today?” Frank asked.
“Yeah, dad. I think so,” Marco said.
They laughed.
On Saturday afternoon they laughed again, then embraced.
Marco, just finishing his freshman year at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, did play a game, the Class 5A state championship game. Talented and experienced well beyond his 15 years, Marco was the dazzling, dominating pitcher in the Lobos’ 12-2 victory over Wheat Ridge. He allowed only seven hits, struck out five, didn’t walk a batter, made only one mistake (a two-run homer) and made short work of the Farmers.
“Marco is sort of comfortable around the field. He was at 700 professional baseball games before he went off to school,” says his mom, Gina Gonzales.
Like father, like son, like left-handers, like titles.
Twenty years before on a similar, sun-satisfied day at the same All-City Field, Frank Gonzales was the star pitcher on the La Junta High School state championship team.
“To be a freshman and pitching on this field where my dad pitched, in the biggest game of my life, and to win, wow!” Marco said. “I was so nervous. I’m just a kid.”
The Kid acts more mature than a lot of major-league pitchers and pitches better than some who have appeared in another Denver ballpark recently.
Marco retired the first 10 hitters, and his perfect game was spoiled in the fourth by a bloop just over his head that he dove for and barely missed grabbing.
“I didn’t care about a no-hitter or shutout. I wanted a title, and now I want to come back and do this three more times.”
Marco reminds me of another high school freshman I once interviewed in Denver – Chauncey Billups.
Marco will remind you physically (with the mental toughness) of another pitcher. Tippy Martinez was born in La Junta and played at Colorado State, just as the elder Gonzales did, and the wiry left-hander spent 14 years in the big leagues. Frank Gonzales was drafted out of CSU by Detroit in 1989 and spent the next 11 seasons trying to make it with the Tigers, the Yankees, the Red Sox and the Pirates. He also played pro ball in five other countries, but never pitched a major-league game.
Frank can’t twist his mouth to taste bitterness. He returned to Colorado State, earned his degree and became a middle school teacher and the coach of CSU’s club baseball team.
A son, Marco, was born in Lakeland, Fla., right before the opening of Tigers spring training camp in 1992. “I had a premonition then he would become a baseball player,” Gina said.
She carried Marco to his father’s games with the Toledo Mud Hens that season, and soon he was swinging a plastic bat in clubhouses that all seemed identical to the Gonzales family.
“I wanted to be just like my dad.”
Marco wasn’t pushed or pulled, though, to baseball. “I wasn’t really coaching Marco. I wanted him to enjoy the game as I did when I was a boy,” Frank said. “Then he came in one day when he was about 8 and said he couldn’t play with the other boys because when he threw hard, they couldn’t catch it. That’s when we thought he might be pretty good.”
Marco played T-ball, but not Little League.
“I got serious about pitching four years ago, but I always liked hitting better.”
Last summer the elder Gonzalez and two other fathers organized a team called the Colorado Bombers and took the boys on a whirlwind tour of the country.
“We must have played 100 games against the elite teams,” Frank says.
Marco was prepared for high school ball.
But he didn’t make his second start until the district championship.
Marco, considered the No. 3 best pitcher for the Lobos, threw a three-hitter. In his previous state tournament start, Marco had another three-hitter. Then he finished off his season with a superb effort Saturday.
“Dad told me to throw strikes, and everything would be OK,” the son said. “We’ve got an awesome offense and a great defense. You have to be confident to step on the center of the field.”
“He’s a pleasure to watch,” the father said. “I’ve been around a lot of pitchers, and Marco has a rather rare combination of humbleness and confidence … and a good fastball and a nice changeup … and control.”
When the game was called in the bottom of the sixth because of the 10-run rule, Marco was mobbed by his teammates, then kissed by his mother. His eyes searched the stands for his father.
But Frank was back of the stands. “I’ve had my moments. I’ve been here as a player. Now it’s Marco’s turn, and this is all about him. We’ll have our barbecue and our time together tonight, and we’ll talk about how proud I am.”
What now for Marco?
“It’s summer. I get to hang out with the guys.”
The son also rises.
Staff writer Woody Paige can be reached at 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com.
