Life as a Colorado sports fan is tough these days: the Broncos missed the playoffs, the Nuggets and Avalanche might as well have missed the playoffs, and the Rockies look playoff-bound only if a local T-ball league takes pity on them.
But few fans feel the pain like Bill Vizas.
Vizas, you see, runs Bill’s Sports Collectibles, the gold standard for memorabilia stores in these parts.
Looking for a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth? A basketball signed by Bill Russell? A dirt-caked base from Yankee Stadium? A Chicago Bears jersey signed by Dick Butkus?
Vizas is your man.
Operating his store on South Broadway since 1981, Vizas hoped for a nice run selling Rockies goods this year, based on their stunning gallop to the World Series last fall.
So far, it hasn’t panned out.
“The Rockies honeymoon was almost nonexistent,” he said.
That’s why three signed and framed jerseys from Rox shortstop Troy Tulowitzki sit in his store, unsold. Tulo is injured and the Rockies are in free fall, so no one is rushing to pay $425 for his shirt.
“Losing like that hurts the enthusiasm of fans,” Vizas said. “Everyone loves a winner. A bad run hits the local sports fans’ psyches, and it trickles down to us, because then you have to kind of live in the past.”
He paused. “Of course, in a business like this, you live in the past anyway, but still.”
Don’t get him started on the Nuggets, kicked to the curb in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Again.
“The Nuggets have been like an elevator shaft, nonstop to the bottom,” he said. “Every time something good happens, two bad things happen.”
Not that Vizas is a downbeat guy. On the day I talked with him, he cheerfully held court in a T-shirt that said, “Bill’s Beer Removal Service: No job too big or too small.”
He’s a terrific raconteur, a baseball and hoops nut quick with the telling stat and quip.
“You’ll love this,” Vizas said, directing me to one case with baseballs autographed by Stan Musial and Lou Brock. “See that wine menu? It’s from Cerro Square, Billy Martin’s old restaurant when he was managing the Oakland A’s.”
For baseball completists, such ephemera is like a relic from the True Cross.
Despite the Rockies’ sagging fortunes, Vizas is a patient man with a sense of the cyclical fortunes of pro franchises.
Vizas, too, knows something about sports dreams deferred.
He grew up in Washington, D.C., in the 1960s, watching the Senators baseball team totter through one lackluster season after another. The squad consisted of star slugger Frank Howard and a gaggle of soon-to-be car salesmen and insurance agents.
“So as a kid, it was always about next year,” Vizas said. “And then one ‘next year,’ the Senators moved to Texas and became the Rangers.”
But hope springs eternal for sports fans. Vizas is no different. It won’t be long before the Broncos are playing football again, with nowhere to go but up after a 7-9 season.
“Maybe Jay Cutler will break out at quarterback this year and become the poster child for everything good,” Vizas said.
And maybe the Rockies will wake up today and decide to become the second coming of the 1927 Yankees.
That would sure help move those Tulo jerseys.
“When a team wins, fans want to wear their uniforms,” Vizas said. “But when they lose, well, . . .”
William Porter’s column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 303-954-1977 or wporter@denverpost.com.
