TUCSON — Happens every year, doesn’t it?
Position players aren’t yet scheduled to report and already we have our first bizarre, only-in-baseball injury of spring training.
Lucky for Astros outfielder Hunter Pence that he didn’t have to report to the Rockies’ camp after he walked through a sliding glass door at his spring training apartment in Florida. Then he really would have felt the pain.
That’s the drill with these Rockies.
“We like to rag each other,” Matt Holliday said.
Funny thing about sports. If you make your living in a jockstrap, punking your fellow employees not only is highly encouraged, it’s a necessary thread in the fabric of every day life in the clubhouse.
But there’s a trick to the trade: You have to know whom you’re dealing with. That’s the other thing about the Rockies. Most of them have known their teammates for years.
“You have to develop that relationship before you’re able to rib people and they know you’re just kidding around,” Holliday said. “It’s all in good fun, so we’re always ripping on each other. Everybody’s fair game.”
That’s because, in the Rockies’ clubhouse, you check your ego at the front door.
“There are superstars in there, but you wouldn’t know it,” Matt Herges said. “If you didn’t know baseball, if you’re from another country and came in here, you’d be like, ‘OK, who’s the good one?’ Because nobody acts like it.”
I only mention this stuff because it isn’t easy being a baseball fan these days, what with all these reports of players playing with needles. Don’t know the first thing about steroids, but I know this: There are good
clubhouses and there are great clubhouses.
And then there’s the Rockies’ clubhouse.
It isn’t just that most of them have known each other for years. You can’t have good karma without good people. And the Rockies have a lot of good people in their clubhouse.
Thought you might want to know that the next time some ballplayer makes a fool of himself in front of Congress.
Follow Jim Armstrong’s daily sports commentaries on The Jimmy Page during the week mid-day. And read his columns on Sundays at .
He can be reached at 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com.
