Opening Day is capitalized because, to avid baseball fans everywhere, that day deserves the holiday status of a proper name.
In Cincinnati, for example, the birthplace of professional baseball (and where I was born—with a virtual baseball in my hand—76 years later), Opening Day is cause for a parade, and kids either skip school or are dismissed early. Many workers call in sick, as expected.
For decades—until television overruled tradition—Cincinnati’s historical distinction was accorded the honor of playing the first game of the year (almost always at home), or at least throwing the first pitch unquestionably ahead of any other team that opened on the same day. (Now, at least, they still get a home opener.)
In the minds and hearts of every team’s most faithful, the outcome of the season commencing on Opening Day is foretold by the final score of Game One. (The joke in Cincinnati, back when vendors sold beer from bottles they opened upon each sale at a buyer’s row, went, ”They can’t sell beer at Crosley Field this year—they lost the opener.”
When the Rockies begin the 2026 season Friday night in Miami, it will be their un-Reds-like 25th Opening Day in the other team’s park in the 34 years beginning with the Denver expansion team’s first opener, which was also on the road, a 3-0, four-hit complete-game shutout by Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets.
(When it comes to Opening Day “moments,” what can top Eric Young hitting a lead-off home run as the first home-team batter in the first inning of Denver’s first Major League game days later?)
Colorado’s overall record in season openers through last season is 17-16 (5-4 at home, including the classic that opened not only the 1995 season but also was the first regular-season game at Coors Field.)
That’s the frigid game decided in the 14th inning by Dante Bichette’s three-run home off lefty Mike Remlinger, who five years later picked up a four-out save in relief of Greg Maddux in a 2-0 Atlanta Braves Opening Day shutout of the Rockies.
The Mets were the opponent for that Coors Field inaugural, too, but it was no pitcher’s duel. After four hours and 48 minutes, the final score was11-9. which began the park’s reputation as a hitter’s paradise and gave birth to the Blake Street Bombers.
The Rockies finished second in the National League West that year with a 77-67 record—their first of nine winning seasons in the franchise’s first 33 years—and earned the National League’s new Wild Card berth.
Colorado has won a NL Wild Card four other times but won on Opening Day only one of them, in 2017.
When that crazy winning streak and heart-pounding Game 163 Wild Card playoff victory over San Diego propelled the team into its only World Series appearance so far, the 2007 season began with an 8-6 loss at home to Arizona—the team the Rockies swept in the NL Championship Series.
So, will the Rockies’ 2026 Opening Day be a harbinger of this season? And if so, in what way?
In truth, nobody knows. Five of their nine winning seasons began with an Opening Day loss.
But Friday’s game notwithstanding, after closely following the off-season and Spring Training (also capitalized for reasons Seamheads understand), I’m willing to make one prediction with certainty.
Colorado will lose fewer than 100 games this season—win or lose on Friday.
My prediction is 70-92, a 27-win improvement.
This would represent a noteworthy turnaround in the first year of the Paul DePodesta-Josh Byrnes regime, but believe it or not, there have been several larger in Major League Baseball history.
The 1962 Phillies improved from 47 wins the year before to 81. That’s 34 more.
Of six other 30-plus turnarounds:
After losing 107 games in 1988, (including an 0-21 start) the Orioles were 33 victories better in 1989 and had a chance to win the American League pennant on the last weekend of the season, and they won 31 times more in 2022 than ’21;
The 1967 Cubs also won 33 more games than the ’66 version, winning 87 games and finishing third in the NL East;
Two years ago, the Royals went from 54 Ws in 2023 to 86 in 2024, and that 30-game gain was good enough for them to claim an American League Wild Card; and
The 1999 Diamondbacks won 65 times in ’98 then added 35—biggest one-year improvement in MLB history— to win exactly100 games the next season, losing to the Mets in the NL Divisional Round. They won the World Series two years later.
As they say throughout baseball: Play Ball!
________________
Denny Dressman writes a weekly sports column for The Villager. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.
Who’s on first only one of Schaefer’s decisions
By DENNY DRESSMAN
SCOTTSDALE, AZ—In the 1930s, Lou Costello asked Bud Abbott, “Who’s on first?” And Abbott answered, ”Yes.”
Decades later that skit earned Abbott & Costello a place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
And today, the opening lines describe the decision facing Rockies manager Warren Schaefer as he constructs the roster he’ll take into battle when Colorado starts the 2026 season in Miami next weekend.
T.J. Rumfield? Troy Johnston? Eduard Julien? Charlie Condon?
Somebody has to take Todd Helton’s old place.
My prediction is Rumfield, who was acquired from the Yankees in trade for reliever Angel Chivilli in late January.
I don’t think he’ll hit for high average, but he gives the Rockies more power threat than either Johnston, who seems destined for Albuquerque, or Julien, who came to Denver in a trade with Minnesota and thus is more assured of a place on the team. Condon, a prized prospect, will begin the season at AAA.
Who backs up Hunter Goodman is another interesting decision Schaefer must make.
It might be Brett Sullivan instead of the seemingly obvious choice of Braxton Fulford—for the unfortunate reason that Fulford is so highly thought of that they want him to play regularly, which he can do at Albuquerque.
Sullivan is a journeyman who might be better-suited to limited, intermittent playing time.
And then there’s the pitching staff.
Ryan Feltner, Chase Dollander and Tanner Gordon are contending for the fifth spot in the rotation. I’d go with Gordon or Dollander, but Feltner, who is coming back from an injury and has the most Major League experience, likely will get first call. The Rockies believe other two will benefit from more time in the minors.
Most of the bullpen spots are claimed. The lone remaining spot will go to either Jaden Hill, John Brebbia, Keegan Thompson or Adam Laskey.
I favor Brebbia, who will join Jimmy Herget and Antonio Senzatela in providing some veteran seasoning for a young nucleus, but hard-throwing Hill has a lot of support.
This might be a good year to be a fan in Albuquerque.