Purple Row After Dark: Going back in time through Rockies rosters

Baseball Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander stands on the pitcher's mound at Yankee Stadium and watches pitcher Satchel Paige at work. Paige is a member of the New York Black Yankees.

The Colorado Rockies feel distant from baseball’s oldest legends because, frankly, they should. The club didn’t take the field until 1993. Honus Wagner debuted in 1897 and last played in 1917. Satchel Paige’s career stretches back into an era that Major League Baseball spent decades pretending did not fully exist. Mickey Mantle belongs to baseball cards, post-war Yankee dominance, and bad knees.

The Rockies belong to the Blake Street Bombers, purple pinstripes, altitude, and Rocktober. Baseball is most definitely organized into distinct eras, but it is ultimately interconnected by the people.

Careers overlap. Young players share clubhouses with old legends. A veteran who barely passed through Denver can become a bridge to a past that feels impossibly distant.

Welcome to Purple Row After Dark.

Here is the game: Start with someone who wore a Rockies uniform, then move backward through Baseball Reference roster pages one shared team at a time. For this exercise, each shared Baseball Reference season roster counts as one link. This is not meant to litigate exact active-roster overlap by date. That would strip away some of the mystique and romance of the exercise.

Player-to-manager or player-to-coach connections are allowed if they happened on the same major-league team, but teammate-to-teammate is the cleanest version. No broadcasters, family links, ownership links, front office-only links, or spring training loopholes. Shorter chains are better. Stranger chains are strongly encouraged.

The obvious place to start is with the stars:

Dale Murphy > Phil Niekro > Warren Spahn

Murphy played for the 1993 Rockies . He also played with Niekro on the 1976 Atlanta Braves , and Niekro played with Spahn on the 1964 Milwaukee Braves . Just like that, a player from the first Rockies roster connects to one of the greatest left-handed pitchers who ever lived.

That is the normal version. Clean names. Easy path.

But some paths are more scenic.

Take Daryl Boston, an outfielder on the inaugural 1993 Rockies. Boston can take us back to the Deadball Era through a museum walk of baseball names:

Daryl Boston > Tom Seaver > Tommy Davis > Gil Hodges > Arky Vaughan > Pie Traynor > Walter Schmidt > Honus Wagner

Boston played with Seaver on the 1984-86 Chicago White Sox . Seaver played with Davis on the 1967 New York Mets . Davis played with Hodges on the 1959-61 Los Angeles Dodgers . Hodges played with Vaughan on the 1947-48 Dodgers . Vaughan played with Traynor on the 1930s Pittsburgh Pirates . Traynor played with Schmidt on the early 1920s Pirates . Schmidt played with Wagner on the 1916-17 Pirates .

Seven links later, we are playing ball with the Flying Dutchman — 76 years before the Rockies ever took the field.

A winding road, no doubt, but the same doorway can lead somewhere else much faster. Baseball is funny that way.

Boston also played with Harold Baines on the 1984-89 White Sox . Baines played with Minnie Miñoso during Miñoso’s 1980 White Sox cameo . Miñoso played with Satchel Paige on the 1949 Cleveland Indians .

Boston > Harold Baines > Minnie Miñoso > Satchel Paige

That is three links from the inaugural Rockies roster to Satchel Paige .

This is what makes roster wandering more than a trivia exercise. The Rockies are young, but they are woven into the same fabric as the old legends. The players who passed through Denver brought their own histories with them, connecting LoDo to different eras, clubhouses, and worlds.

So here is the challenge: find your own Rockies connection to a baseball legend.

Want a place to start? Try connecting Mickey Moniak to Mickey Mantle (Moniak already connected himself). Then see if you can keep going to Mickey Cochrane , the Hall of Fame catcher Mantle was named after.

Tonight, Purple Row After Dark is going back in time. Happy traveling .

Join the conversation!

Fewer ads

Create  community posts

Comment on articles, community posts

Rec comments, community posts

New, improved notifications system!

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Yahoo Sports. Open at source →