Take a moment and bring yourself back to October 2018. In typical Colorado fashion, the air begins to crisp a little earlier than usual and you dawn your Rockies windbreaker for the first time.
You make your way to a local sports bar and you settle in. For the second straight year, there is a buzz in the air, unlike anything that has taken place in this city since the early 2000’s. It’s October 2nd and the entire state of Colorado is about to turn on the TV to the most anticipated sporting event of the year: The 2018 NL Wild Card between the Cubs and the Rockies at historic Wrigley Field.
The murmur of the crowd shifts abruptly, as the announcers present the starting lineups. “Batting first for the Colorado Rockies, number 19, Charlie Blackmon.” A roar surges from the already drunken bar crowd as the Rockies burley leadoff man nods his head at the screen as if acknowledging all the fans screaming his name 1,007 miles away.
Right on cue, someone in the bar raises a portable speaker and a familiar tune begins to play. “Josie’s on a vacation far away…” The speaker-man need not play another word. The collective effort of the bar crowd takes over.
“I just wanna use your love… TONIIIIIIIGGHHHT
I don’t want to lose your love… TONIGGGHHHTTTTT”
Each collective “tonight” grows louder with every verse. Rocktober is in full swing, and Blackmon — the beloved outfielder and face of the franchise — is batting leadoff.
A lot has changed since that fateful day in October of 2018. But the one thing that has always been a constant — or as Rockies radio broadcaster Jack Corrigan put it, “consistent”– is Charlie Blackmon. Through the ups and downs, Blackmon has been there every day giving Rockies fans his absolute best.
On Monday, September 23rd, 2024, Blackmon finally made the announcement everyone knew would one day come. He announced that the 2024 season would be his last.
“As a kid, you play the game because you love it, like nothing else matters. I still play the game that way, but I don’t feel like a kid anymore. My perspective has changed,” Blackmon wrote in an Instagram post.
His perspective has changed quite a bit since he jumped onto the scene with the Rockies as a second-round pick in 2008. So has his appearance. But as Blackmon sat in a press room the day after he announced his retirement with his two kids on his lap and a room full of teammates past and present lining the walls around him, there was a kid-like excitement in his eyes.
Maybe it was a hint of tears and emotions welling up as he realized, perhaps for the first time, that this was it.
“I feel like I’ve never really worked a day in my life. But at the same time, I do work really hard. So it’s going to be very different on the other side. I do think this is the right decision though,” Blackmon said to open his press conference on Tuesday. “The game is being played at such a high level now. It really demands a certain amount of time, physical ability, health, and strength that I think there’s just a point where I don’t think I’m going to be able to continue to play.”
Blackmon seemed to echo similar words uttered by other retired Rockies legends like Todd Helton, who said an Aroldis Chapman 100 mph fastball hurtling toward his head led him to consider retirement.
For nearly a decade and a half, Blackmon set the standard for playing the game at the highest level in Colorado.
Across his 1,618 games with the Rockies, Blackmon hit .292 with 991 runs scored, 1,797 hits, 333 doubles, 67 triples, 226 home runs, 797 RBIs, and 148 stolen bases. He was a four-time All-Star (2014, 2017-19) and two-time Silver Slugger (2016-17). He also helped lead the Rockies to back-to-back playoff appearances in 2017 and 2018.
Blackmon was also finding his stride right around the same time Rockies manager Bud Black was learning the ropes in Colorado.
“Charlie will be one of my favorite players ever, he’s great,” Black said. “As an athlete, as a professional baseball player, I admire him. I know what he’s done to become the player that he’s become.”
There’s another person who knows even more about the player Blackmon has become, and the road it took to get there: Former Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado.
Arenado hasn’t shared a lot of love with the Rockies since his departure to the Cardinals in 2021. But on Tuesday he buried all grievances and showed up in the Rockies press room to celebrate his former teammate and friend whom he’s played with since he was 18.
“He was always a couple of steps ahead of me… but I was 18 when I met him and it was always kinda like me, him, and DJ were coming up together and that was our core. It was pretty cool to see us all in the same lineup” said Arenado.
And what a core that was for the Rockies: Blackmon, Arenado, DJ LeMahieu… the good ol’ days. But out of the core players from the 2017-18 team, only a few remain on the current roster. One of them is Rockies ace, Kyle Freeland.
“You guys are waiting on me?!” Freeland shouted as he realized the group of media members that had gathered in the dugout were waiting to talk to him about his good friend. He Chuckled and took a seat in front of the cameras.
“Charlie is a guy that has made a career strictly off of hard work and determination,” Freeland said. “He’s a staple of what it takes to have success not only in the big leagues but in Colorado.”
Another long-time Rockie echoed Freeland’s sentiment.
“When stuff starts to go bad. When it hits the fan, [Charlie’s] the guy we turn to,” said Ryan McMahon.
But with the end of one era, the hopeful rise of another is not too far behind. Think Larry Walker to Todd Helton, Todd Helton to Charlie Blackmon, Charlie Blackmon to…?
Who will step up to fill the shoes for the Rockies? Will it be the star shortstop, Ezequiel Tovar? Another lockdown center fielder in Brenton Doyle? Someone new who hasn’t yet etched their name in the mile high history books?
I asked McMahon who he thinks will step up to take over the leadership role now that Blackmon is moving on.
“We’ve got a bunch of good guys and I think it takes more than one leader for a team to be good,” he said. “I think you have to have a bunch of guys on the same page, and usually we turn to him for that so it might take a little more work on some of our parts.”
Regardless of what is to come for the Rockies in the coming years without their bearded leader, the fact of the matter remains. Blackmon will be celebrated on Sunday as one of the greatest Rockies in the history of the franchise.
And despite his lack of a championship or the struggles of those around him at times, Blackmon has given Rockies fans one of the greatest gifts a fanbase could ever ask for — a reason to watch every game. Win or lose, when you came to Coors Field you knew you were going to get a show from Blackmon, with a touch of karaoke before every at-bat.
So to wrap up the celebration of one of the Rockies greats, I leave you with my favorite Charlie Blackmon speech on his definition of leadership. Hopefully, it reminds Rockies fans just how good we had it with the one and only, Chuck Nazty.
“That leadership part is really tough. You can’t be a leader unless you think outside yourself, which is really hard unless you’ve been successful,” Blackmon said. “It’s especially hard as a young player without the track record to spend time trying to elevate the guys around you when you yourself have glaring weaknesses. But that doesn’t mean I’ve got it all figured out, it just means some of my weaknesses I can’t figure out anymore.”
“So I’m going to start trying to help other guys. Because I’ve had lots and lots of struggles and failures in my career and trying to recognize that in someone else’s life or career or swing or whatever it is, and then help them get over that quicker than I did is my chosen leadership method. Ultimately, you want to think about other people and try to do the right thing.”
You are one of a kind, Chuck. Rockies fans will be forever grateful to number 19.