Owen Perkins for State Representative, House District 2

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It was a weekend for a riverside reunion among old teammates, renewal of good friendships, friendly rivalry between family members, and perhaps even a little revenge for those who may feel they were done wrong. Never mind the fact that it was also a chance for the Rockies to have a winning road trip – the Rockies certainly didn’t.

But overshadowing a mismatch between  the first-place Cardinals and the cellar-dwelling Rockies, all the anticipation from outside the clubhouses was about the Rockies facing their old franchise player, Nolan Arenado, in the wake of his February 1st trade and the subsequent firing just 21 games into the season of the General Manager who made the deal.

“We're good friends, and he mentored me a lot coming up, and I'm very thankful to him for that,” Trevor Story said, having spent five big leagues seasons with Nolan to his right at third base. “There's so many instances where you're amazed by the guy and the stuff that he does on a nightly basis. The one where I was in most awe of him was the walk-off cycle on Father's Day.  That was a special day for him, and obviously his family, but that's one of the days that sticks out.”

And while a second-inning solo shot may not be as dramatic as completing a cycle with a walk-off homer, Nolan homered in his first at bat on Mother’s Day in the series finale, giving the Redbirds a 1-0 lead they would never relinquish on their way to sweeping the series. The homer came off Rockies ace German Marquez and was the only earned run allowed on the day. Folks around these parts learned long ago that’s just Nolan being Nolan.

“It was kind of weird hitting off Marquee,” Nolan said of the game-winner off his old teammate. “That's my boy, man, I love that guy. He's a great pitcher and I think he's gonna be really good for a long time, but that was a little weird. There's a few other people I'd rather hit a homer off of than Marquee.”

Nolan has been quick to learn that while teammates may change, family is forever. While winning trumps everything in the Book of Nolan, hitting a homer for his mother on Mother’s Day certainly exceeded any satisfaction he took from besting his old buddies. 

“My mom's here now, and we’re gonna have dinner, wherever she wants to eat, and we're really excited,” Nolan said after the series wrapped Sunday. “She's probably stoked about it, and I am also. Unfortunately for my mom, it's definitely not as good as a Father's Day Homer cycle. But I know my mom was freaking out about this series, playing the Rockies. She was tripping a little bit. It's good to hit a homer for her to relax a little bit.”

To hear Nolan tell it, the pressure of playing in front of his parents may be even bigger than the pressure of facing his old team for the first time.

“I love when my parents come out, and when all my family comes out,” Nolan said after securing the sweep. “You just want to make them proud, and I know they are. You want to get hits, because you don't want to hear Dad tell you to stay on top of the baseball.”

But despite the family focus throughout baseball over Mother’s Day weekend, the weight of anticipation around this Rockies-Cardinals match-up fell squarely on Nolan’s shoulders, whether in the ubiquitous desire of a traded player to shine against his old team, or the conflicted feelings of facing comrades who came up together and think of each other like brothers.

Nolan broke into the big leagues with Trevor Tulowitzki beside him, anchoring the infield at short, but he played five of his eight seasons in Colorado with Story to his left, and the infield in the Arenado Era followed his lead. Nolan defined the team in recent years, and along with Charlie Blackmon, he assumed the mantle of leadership after Carlos Gonzalez’s departure.

“He made me better in a lot of ways,” Story said of Nolan before the series started. “He had to kind of show me the way, how to work and how to go about your business every day. Mentally, being there for every pitch is something that Nolan is really good at. There's not a pitch that he takes off. No matter what the score, no matter what situation, he's always ready to make a play. The mentality of just being ready and expecting the ball to be hit to you at any point in the game is something that I really took [from him].” 

Once the series was over, Nolan was also quick to point out that while there were definitely strong feelings between himself and the Rockies, he had no “evil feelings” about getting the best of his old team.

“It felt really weird running to third and knowing that a lot of those guys that I came up with are over there,” Nolan said Sunday. “All those little things – I just didn't feel normal. I felt normal against the Mets, but it didn't feel normal against the Rockies. It just didn't feel right, in a way. Once the first pitch [of the series] came and once the game got going, once I got a double, it kind of went all out the window. But it was weird seeing Story out there – I had Story on the left side for a long time, and I love him like a brother, and Charlie [Blackmon], and all those guys. But at the end of the day, we're trying to win a series, we're trying to win a game, and that's what it all came back down to.”

Before the series started, it was all a little more theoretical for Nolan, as he talked about his history with the club and the impact players and coaches made on him over the course of a dozen years in the Rockies system.

“I went through that organization since I was 18 years old,” Arenado said before the first game, singling out Story and his cousin Josh Fuentes among the players he remains closest to. “Most of the people that I was really close with and coaches that helped raise me and become the player I am today aren't there anymore. They haven't been there for quite some time. I'm always grateful for that organization for what they did and having those people in that organization that helped me.”

Nolan has always talked openly and honestly with the media, so if it sounds like he’s being more subtle than he has in the past, he’s earned the right. In fact, he went on to say that his biggest misgiving about his time in Colorado was that he let his dissatisfaction with the front office became so public.

“My only regret would probably be that I let it get to the media,” Nolan said. 

Whether he thinks of it as a big regret or not, the fact that his feelings of being disrespected, along with his questioning of Colorado’s commitment to winning – the fact that both became media fodder to fill a void when Rockies wins were notably absent seemed to lead to an inevitable separation between Arenado and former GM Jeff Bridich. Fans made it clear they’d rather keep their Hall of Fame third baseman – on track to be the best there ever was – and send Bridich anywhere but Blake St. The early-season end to Bridich’s tenure only made the treasonous trade that much harder to swallow.

“I didn't know about it for a while until a few days ago,” Arenado said of Bridich’s departure two weeks earlier. “I guess it was just a little surprise, but I'm not there anymore, so what am I going to do?”

What his Cards did was to sweep the Rockies, including a series-opening win over Austin Gomber, the only Major Leaguer the Rockies got in the trade for Arenado, with Arenado scoring all the runs in the series finale.

Nolan is the first to admit, no one should shed any tears over the challenges he faced in 2020 after his falling out with Bridich during the previous offseason. His numbers dipped as he played through injuries until the Rockies were all but eliminated in the final week of the short 60-game season.

“People think that I was so miserable last year, but 2020 was miserable for a lot of people, regardless if you're playing baseball or not playing baseball,” Arenado volunteered Friday. “It was just a tough year in general. Obviously playing baseball during that was tough, and then being hurt was not good either. 

“I love my moment in Colorado. I loved everything. I played with excitement. I feel like I gave Colorado fans something to cheer for. I wasn't miserable. 2020 was just a tough year in general, being hurt and just frustrating.”

Arenado remains focused on the game, immersed in an environment steeped in success and even more soaked in tradition in front of fans who are legitimate contenders for the best in baseball.

“Absolutely everything about the fans and the whole tradition here is unbelievable,” Arenado said of St. Louis. ”They respect good baseball, and they respect opposing baseball too. If you make a great play on the opposing side and play hard and do little things, they respect it too. They understand the game, so it's been awesome. I really love every part of it.”

The Rockies didn’t give Cardinals fans much opportunity to cheer for the visiting side over the weekend. While Nolan robbed the Rockies with his glove – including a liner off the bat of Fuentes Sunday --,  drove in runs, and scored all the runs in the finale, his counterpoint cousin manning the hot corner since Nolan’s departure made his share of highlight reel defensive gems, but came up short in his ultimate goal.

“I'm very excited to make a play on Nolan and rob him, and I know he wants to do the same, so it's gonna be fun,” Fuentes said before the series started. “We want to beat each other so bad. We might shake hands, or something like that before the game, but once we’re on the field, it’s going to be a battle.”

A Fuentes throwing error put Nolan on base to score the game’s second run in the 2-0 finale, and Fuentes was at the plate in the bottom of the ninth with one out and the bases loaded before grounding into a game-ending double play for the Rockies’ fifth scoreless offensive outing of the season.

Still, Nolan promised not to give Fuentes any grief about his play, though he warned he’d be ready to pull the error out if his cousin starts talking trash. He admitted that it’s easier to have fun with Fuentes as a rival than seeing the rest of his teammates in the same light.

“Josh is family, so he’s my boy, and we're so close, so it's a different kind of close when it comes to teammates, obviously,” Nolan said of their competitive streak, having played on the Rockies together for a couple years and for a lifetime in the backyard whiffle ball games. “My relationship with him is more important than baseball, and so it's just a little different to see him on the field.  You want him to have success, but then, I want him to have success when he's not playing us.  It's weird for our family.”

Nolan’s departure opened the door for Fuentes, who made his first Opening Day lineup this year, and has gotten the lion’s share of time at third base, despite a slow start at the plate. 

“He's doing a good job,” Arenado said of his cousin’s first five weeks as the Rockies’ primary third baseman. “He hasn't gotten going with the bat, but I know he will. Defensively, he's been pretty good. Josh is a good player. If he gets continued reps, he's gonna play really well and help the team win.”

The battle among friends and family was the overriding theme of the weekend, as old teammates and coaches couldn’t keep from praising the man who’d been their leader on the field and in the clubhouse while refraining from gushing too much about a player in another uniform.

“He's a buddy of mine,” Charlie Blackmon said before the series started. “I hope things are going well for him, but ultimately, I want the Rockies to win.”

When Nolan’s doing well, the odds are against his opponents winning. For the 12-22 Rockies, who have lost eight games by one or two runs, it’s easy to see the impact made by Nolan’s absence. Even in the dismal 2020 season, the Rockies were 17-17 after as many games.   

“It'll be fun to see him again, really pretty cool,” said Jon Gray last week, knowing he wouldn’t have to face Nolan from the mound over the weekend. “It's still going to kind of suck to see him in red over there making good plays in the series. That'll kind of bug me.”

Whether it bugs them or not, the Rockies knew they’d have a tough time looking away. Blackmon is the only player on the roster whose time with the Rockies pre-dates Nolan -- by a year ---, but for anyone who’d been in the organization with Nolan in the 12 years between when he was drafted and when he was traded, his impact on the club and the players around him is undeniable.

“What is most impressive is the way he goes about his work and the way he works to prepare, the intensity with which he does all that and then takes that into the game,” Story said about his friend. “He’s the most fierce competitor I've been around when it comes to anything, especially getting on the baseball field. Everybody sees that. That's probably the thing I remember most about Nolan.”

It’s hard for any baseball lifer not to want to watch a player of Nolan’s caliber – particularly his unparalleled prowess in the field. My own earliest baseball memories are flooded with images of watching Brooks Robinson play third for the Baltimore Orioles – so much so that my first specific memory I can pinpoint is sitting in right field for Game 7 of the 1971 World Series in order to see Roberto Clemente up close in a rare Baltimore appearance. Its significance to my seven-year-old eyes was highlighted by the change in our routine – the fact that we were not sitting by third base, for once. 

Nolan has been that kind of player – one you want to watch every day, and one you’ll do whatever you can to see him play, whether you only get one chance or you get 162 days a year to treasure his presence. Rockies fans certainly knew to appreciate him when he was in Colorado, but in hindsight it must seem like he could never be appreciated enough.

“I'm a fan of the game, I love this game, I watch it all the time, I think about it all the time,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “A special part of this game is watching the special players that make this game great….[Seeing Nolan on the other side] will be different for a lot of us.  It's weird, it's a weird feeling. Nolan’s formed relationships here in good times, big games, the whole gamut.”

The Arenado Admiration Society is equally strong in his new home as it was in his old one, with legendary Cards pitcher and Sunday starter Adam Wainwright praising his new teammate after Nolan’s solo homer secured Wainwright’s 169th win as a Cardinal.  

“It’s an overwhelming sense of confidence that we have a couple of the best players in the game of baseball in the middle of our lineup,” Adam Wainright said Sunday, referring to Nolan and perhaps Paul Goldschmidt, perhaps Yadier Molina. “Having Nolan in the thick of that, there’s just a sense of confidence. We have a pretty good squad. We can do some cool things and be a dangerous team.”

Much as the Rockies wish Nolan was still bringing that danger to their own lineup, it’s hard to dismiss what a good match it is to have one of the greatest third baseman to ever play the game in one of the all-time best baseball cities. He follows a path that Hall of Famer Larry Walker took, in leaving Colorado for St. Louis, where he quickly made it to his first and only World Series, only to face the red-hot Red Sox as they won their first Fall Classic in nearly a hundred years.

“It seems to be a fit,” Story said of Nolan’s new home. “It's a very historic baseball town, in my eyes. Nolan is a guy that's very in tune with baseball, and he's always watching it. He lives, breathes, and dies it. He seems to be happy there, and from a friend standpoint, you want your friends to be happy.”

Neither the Cardinals nor their fans need any help evaluating a player like Nolan Arenado, but few in the game know him better than Story, and Story wasn’t shy in offering his take on the player the Birds on the Bat picked up this year. 

“In my eyes, they got the best third baseman in the game,” Story said. “You're getting a guy that cares more than anybody, and he's gonna put in the work that matches that…. He’s very instinctive. The game comes to him in a very natural way. He doesn't have to think really too much about what's going on. His hand eye coordination is amazing, better than anybody I've ever been around. Realizing those two things and all the work that he puts in -- that's what makes him the best.” 

They also got one of Story’s best friends in the game, a man who calls Story his “brother.” Those kind of relationships are hard to replace with a player to be named later.

“There's been many times when we've just had conversations about baseball, or the way we're feeling, or trying to get back on track, or baseball talk in general, and that would happen a lot – a lot of little conversations like that through our time together,” Story said. “He always was a guy that I could confide in, and he truly, genuinely wanted the best for me, and likewise me for him.”

It wouldn’t be a bad legacy to leave behind, but Nolan clearly has a lot of baseball left to play and a lot of history still to make before anyone starts writing epitaphs on his career, in Colorado or with the Cardinals. While there may be those who hold ill will toward the Rockies for letting him get away, it’s doubtful there’s anyone in baseball who doesn’t want to keep watching Nolan for another decade or so, and rooting for his continued success – as long as it doesn’t come against their team.