@MarkKnudson41
Strike One: More than anything, Dale Bublitz was looking forward to being at Coors Field for Opening Day 2020. He’d been to every Colorado Rockies opener since the franchise came into existence in 1993. He wasn’t planning on letting his health or anything else get in the way.
Covering sports in Colorado was his passion, as it had been since he joined the local Associated Press back in the 1990’s. For four decades, Dale was a sportswriter in the truest sense. An old school journalist. There at all the press conferences, asking questions and digging for answers.
Just before last Christmas, Dale texted me that he was going into the hospital due to some internal bleeding. When he updated me on Christmas eve, he had sports takes too. He always did. The Rockies, Colorado State, CU Buffs, Avalanche, Nuggets, Air Force. Dale covered them all.
Before he entered the hospital, Dale was all over CSU football’s firing of Mike Bobo and the search for a new head coach. He had strong opinions, but like all the old school sports writers, he didn’t include those in his meat-and-potatoes event coverage. Those were for texts and press box conversations. Just after Christmas, in the middle of a text message about the hiring of Steve Addazio, Dale dropped this in.
“Yesterday they found a large body mass above my abdomen and pancreas. It wasn’t benign. They found the internal bleeding.” In the next sentence, “Opening day can’t get here soon enough.”
That’s how it went these last few months. Dale would update us on his health but always pivot the conversation to an event he was covering. “Went to the Purdue game.”
Through it all, Dale would consistently listen and critique the Saturday morning radio show I was on in Denver and offer up his assessment on how the local teams were doing.
“I’m doing a lot better,” he texted in early January. “How’s your health?”
That question was a constant from him after my heart attack on April 4th, 2019. Dale was sure to ask me how I was feeling and remind me to eat only the salads in the Coors Field press box before we’d sit and watch a painful Rockies season unfold before our eyes.
On January 9th, Dale texted me another painful message. “Irv Moss passed away. They are taking us down one at a time. I’m back in the hospital with internal bleeding again.” I responded with “you better be following doctor’s orders,” to which he replied, “No Milwaukee Beer or meals at Coors Field.” Moss was a long-time colleague and a staple at the Denver Post for five decades before he retired a couple of years ago.
In early February: “High risk cancer surgery Wed. I’m coming Irv. 50 percent risk. You’re show is great.”
Three days later: “Get to Spring Training. Slow recovery but I could be released as early as Tuesday.”
In early March: “I went to CSU practice. Steve wants to throw the ball. My surgeon consult is Wednesday. Nolan homered yesterday.
“The stomach has healed I can walk more, drive more, exercise. Not be a bed potato. I’m pain free.”
We fussed about the impact of the Coronavirus on sports and what we loved to do. In late March, he said his pain was back, but asked how I was doing. I told him I’d hurt my back, but otherwise I was fine. He responded, “Shaq’s stuff works.” That was about 10 days ago.
Then a cruel twist during a cruel time: Dale passed away on Saturday. April 4th. The anniversary of my heart attack. Another reminder of the fragile nature of life. RPI Dale. Thanks for being a great friend. “30.”
Strike Two: By the time the curtain goes down on 2020, a lot of things will have changed – some permanently. However, a great many things will also have been left undecided, with the expected influence of events that didn’t happen in 2020 being absent from evaluations.
Both what has changed, and what never played out will weigh heavily on the mind of Nolan Arenado next winter.
Let’s assume that Major League Baseball has a partial season in 2020. Half the year? Perhaps less? Whatever it turns out to be, it will be a season of record, and Arenado and all the others in MLB will collect their full season of service time and whatever pro-rated contract dollars are due to them. There will be a champion and it will be in the books.
That means that entering 2021, Nolan will most certainly still be a Colorado Rockie, entering the third year of his eight-year, $260 million mega contract. And after the ’21 season he can decide to opt out of the remaining five years and $164 million guaranteed to him should he choose to do so. That is, if he’s not traded before that.
Many observers believe that if the Rockies had flopped early in 2020 that Nolan would have been traded at the July 31 trade deadline. A lot of us don’t agree, but the point is now moot. There won’t be an “early” in 2020. There may not be a trade deadline at all. Who knows?
Regardless, Nolan’s future in Colorado now rests solely on what happens in 2021.
And there are far more questions than answers at this point: Will the Rockies front office make player moves next winter, the kind that Arenado wants to see? With some bad contracts coming off the books and additional revenue from a national TV deal coming in, Colorado will be in a better position to make moves. Will the team get off to a good start next year at this time? Will they be in contention in June and July of 2021?
Most observers will tell you that the answers to these key questions will determine if Nolan is a Rockie for the long term. But it’s not nearly that simple anymore. In light of what has happened in 2020, there are now other questions of equal or perhaps greater importance that will play a significant role in determining Nolan’s future here.
Start inside Nolan’s mind. All of us, including Arenado and Rockies General Manager Jeff Bridich, have had our individual perspectives altered permanently by the current pandemic and the economic devastation it’s brought. No way any of us can look at the world the same way ever again. Disagreements like the one Arenado and Bridich had this off season seem…well…petty and basically meaningless about now, don’t they?
Thousands of people are dead and we’re now in a full-blown economic recession with a depression possible. No one knows how long it will take the country – the world actually – to recover. Businesses are going under, and people can’t pay their bills. While the life and death battle with COVID-19 remains front and center, the medical community will likely get a handle on that part of it long before the economies of our country and others recover completely.
So, under these circumstances, if you’re Nolan Arenado, do you really want to tear up the five years and $164 mil left on a guaranteed contract to take your chances on an open market that very well might not look like it did before the economy crashed? And consider that even before the current crisis that market had changed. Nolan will be north of 30 years old when his opt out time arrives…and the free market wasn’t being very kind to 30-somethings in the past few off seasons. So…does he roll the dice? There are no longer any sure things out there.
Looking at it another way: How important is the financial security that’s already in place for Nolan…and his extended family…to him in light of where the nation’s economy is right now?
The other part is finding a trade partner: How willing will other MLB teams be to absorb a five-year $164 mil deal for a player over 30 years old where they will have to give back something of great value in return…IF the Rockies consider dealing Nolan next July? What if there are no takers or suitable trade partners? With the economy in recession, even big money, big market teams will need to be aware of what they’re spending. And the number of “big market” teams is shrinking.
So when you step back and look at the bigger picture, all things considered, it shouldn’t be a shock if Nolan Arenado is playing third base for the Colorado Rockies for the long term, regardless of what happens on the field in 2020 and 2021.
Strike Three: During down times in sports – and this is the biggest stretch of down time in history – we tend to fall back on talking about the lists – the ‘best of,’ ‘greatest ever,’ etc. Always a good conversation starter.
With the NBA on hold and perhaps done for this season without crowning a champion, all we have left to do is talk about what if’s and make up lists. So here goes:
Choose the Denver Nuggets All-time Starting Five. Could you do it? What’s your criteria, and who would you leave off? Some greats aren’t making this cut.
Denver has had a number of fantastic NBA players don the rainbow uni. An all-time starting Nuggets five would probably not include great names and Hall of Famers. Guys like Fat Lever, Michael Adams, Calvin Natt, Walter Davis, Bobby Jones, Spencer Haywood, Antonio McDyess, Allen Iverson, George McGinnis and Dikembe Mutumbo. Wow.
If you include guys like Haywood (one season) and McGinnis (two) and Iverson (three) the Nuggets have 10 players in the Hall of Fame. Just three played the vast majority of their careers in Denver. Those three, Dan Issel, Alex English and David Thompson should be on every list.
At center, Issel broke the mold. He was just 6’9” and not known as a great low post player, which was the norm back in his era. He played the bigger guys and beat them. No one played Kareem Abdul-Jabbar any tougher than Issel did. The “Issel Missile” jump shot drive Kareem nuts. “The Horse” played 10 seasons with the Nuggets, averaged better than 20 points per and collected more than 6,600 rebounds. ABA and NBA All-Star…ABA champion…Rookie of the Year. Hall class of 1993. For me, Issel is the starting center and it’s not close.
What about Nikola Jokic say the youngsters? Check back in decade when he’s had a fair chance to match Issel’s amazing career. It’s way too early to include him now.
The guard positions are easy. Thompson at shooting guard should be a no brainer. DT was the guy Michael Jordan idolized. ‘Nuff said. He averaged better than 24 points per game including that memorable 73 point performance in the final game of the 1978 regular season against Detroit. ABA and NBA All-Star game MVP…two time All-NBA first team…Hall class of 1996. The true “Skywalker.”
My point guard is Chauncey Billups. Not a long Nuggets career, but there’s no one you’d rather have on your team in crunch time. Billups best moments came as a Piston, and he will eventually be in the Hall of Fame for what he accomplished in Detroit. But during his five seasons playing for his hometown team, he transformed a one-and-done play-off team into a conference finals squad, and even NBA Finals contender. Above his 17 points per game, he showed the Nuggets how to win.
It gets a little more dicey at the forward spots. Several good choices. English is an obvious selection. He’s probably the best Nugget ever.
During his 11 seasons as a Nugget, English’s sweet mid-range jumper averaged 26 points per game. He’s the franchise’s all-time leader in points, assists and minutes played. He was an eight-time All-Star and an NBA scoring champion. He led Denver to nine straight play-off appearances while setting 31 franchise records. Hall of Fame class of 1997. No brainer.
After that? There’s a sizeable number of people who’d quickly put Carmelo Anthony’s name in ink at the other forward spot. I wouldn’t. Here’s why.
Anthony’s tenure in Denver will be remembered for the highs – the scoring binges and the play-off run to the Western Conference Finals. ‘Melo could score with the best of them. He helped elevate a bad Nuggets team into a play-off team. He was a standout on the Olympic team and for that alone he will end up in the Hall of Fame someday.
But you can’t write the story without including the baggage, too. Anthony did as many things to hurt the Nuggets as he did to help them. The drug possession controversies. The “Stop Snitchin” video, the DUI suspension, the brawl at Madison Square Garden. Mostly, the bickering that went on between he and the front office that disrupted the team and led to his trade to New York. Once he left Denver, while he kept on scoring, his teams did nothing but lose. Melo has a resume with a lot of accolades to be sure. But for me, there’s too much bad that goes with the good.
It’s also hard to not include Hall of Famer Jones, who starred for the Nuggets before moving on to Philly to team with Julius Erving. The consummate teammate at power forward, Jones would have been the perfect complement to English, just as he was to Thompson and Issel.
It’s debatable for sure, but for my money, Kiki Vandeweghe is the other forward. He and Melo were similar in a lot of ways, actually. Neither had much use for playing defense or rebounding. They left that for the other guys. But Kiki was a better teammate, every bit as dynamic on offense (Kiki averaged 23 ppg to Melo’s 25 and didn’t shoot as much) and a better fit with English in the frontcourt. ‘Melo was/is a poor passer…something of a ball stopper/black hole on the offensive end. With the franchise’s all-time winningest coach, Doug Moe at the helm of my starting five, these Nuggets would get up and down the floor and play fast – exactly the kind of game Anthony did not excel at.
These are all subjective opinions to be sure. But for the younger, “Melo & Joker” crowd, it would be great if they could go back and watch games that happened before their time when we’re talking about “all-time.”