Veteran infielder Craig Counsell had a rather abrupt way of putting a timeline on the Rockies’ organization.
He was sitting in front of his locker in the Milwaukee Brewers’ clubhouse at Coors Field before a June 20 game against the Rockies.
The purpose of the conversation was to reminisce about his days with the Rockies.
“I’ll be 40 years old in a couple of months,” Counsell said. “I’m still putting on the uniform.”
Wasn’t it just yesterday that Counsell and the rest of the Rockies’ first class of players from the June draft assembled in Denver?
Actually, it was 1992. And the Rockies still were a year from their first game as an expansion team in the National League.
In order to put some names and faces of players in front of Rockies fans, team management brought the draftees to a training camp at the University of Denver. They were on their way to Bend, Ore., to play the first game for a Rockies team. The camp lasted a couple of days at DU’s baseball field, now gone.
The Bend Rockies opened their season June 16, 1992, in the Single-A Northwest League, beating the Boise Hawks 6-4 with the help of catcher Will Scalzitti’s grand slam.
Counsell was there, and he considers the historic opener in Bend and the time he spent in the Rockies’ organization as great memories.
“It was six years of my life, and those experiences were a big part of my formative years as a baseball player,” said Counsell, who hit .246 in 18 games with Bend in 1992. “I still see people from those days. Gene Glynn, my first manager in Bend, was here in Coors Field today.”
But those distant memories don’t hold a candle to what happened later. Counsell was traded July 27, 1997, to the Florida Marlins for pitcher Mark Hutton.
Counsell joined the Marlins just in time to earn a World Series championship ring. The Marlins, like the Rockies an NL expansion team in 1993, beat the Cleveland Indians in seven games in 1997 and became the first wild-card playoff team to win the World Series. In Game 7, Counsell drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings. He scored the winning run in the 11th inning of the Marlins’ 3-2 victory.
By 2001, Counsell was with the Arizona Diamondbacks and back in the World Series. The Diamondbacks beat the New York Yankees in seven games, and Counsell had his second World Series championship ring.
“Things went well for me,” Counsell said. “The trade to the Marlins was kind of a unique trade. I was a young player being traded for an older pitcher. But I was going to a contending team, and it’s usually the other way.”
Hutton was 0-1 with a 7.11 ERA in eight games for the Rockies.
With the Diamondbacks, Counsell had some all-star teammates.
“We had a great team in Arizona with Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and Luis Gonzalez,” Counsell said. “I’ve been really lucky.”
Counsell is a utility infielder with the Brewers, and he’s ready to stay in the uniform for as long as he’s wanted. “I still feel I can compete,” he said before the start of batting practice. “I see what other utility players are doing around the league and I still fit.”
Counsell didn’t have much good luck with the Rockies, playing in only four games with them. On the way up the team’s development ladder, he missed a lot of playing time because of injuries.
“I joke with Quinton McCracken that the only reason he got to the major leagues was because he got all that playing time when I was hurt,” Counsell said.
McCracken also was a member of that first Bend Rockies team.
When Counsell retires as a player, he likely will try to find a way to stay in the game.
“I think I’ll be involved in baseball,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 18 years and haven’t gotten tired of it yet.”
Counsell bio
Born: Aug. 21, 1970, in South Bend, Ind.
High school: Whitefish Bay, in Milwaukee
College: Notre Dame
Family: Wife Michelle, sons Brady and Jack, daughters Finley and Rowan
Hobbies: Four children keep him busy.
Desire: Play in another World Series.
