If it has been news in the metro area the past couple of months, it probably hasn’t been news to Craig Welling.
Welling, a 39-year-old Broomfield resident, has had an uncanny knack in August and September for being in the thick of events that grabbed headlines. Last month, he witnessed a wrong-way crash on Interstate 25 that led to three days of coverage.
Now, he finds himself as a key witness to the talk-of-the-town topic in Denver: Did the Rockies’ Clint Barmes actually catch the popup that led to Colorado’s dramatic win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon?
Welling, a Rockies fan, snapped photos from the right-field stands during the climactic moment, including one that appears to show the baseball resting on the outfield grass next to Barmes.
He posted those photos on a website he maintains — rockiesphotos — and they have since become a primary reference for pastime pundits intent on unraveling the mystery.
(Welling, incidentally, also captured photos of the last great Rockies riddle: Matt Holliday’s did-he-or- didn’t-he-touch-home-plate slide during the 2007 wild-card tiebreaker.)
This sudden Forrest Gump-like run comes in addition to Welling’s day job as deputy legal counsel to perhaps Colorado’s biggest newsmaker: Gov. Bill Ritter.
“It’s actually kind of nice that in 2 1/2 years here at the Capitol, the only time I’ve been in the news is for something in my personal life,” Welling joked. “I consider that a small accomplishment.”
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
