Bullpen coach Darren Holmes
The Rockies selected relief pitcher Darren Holmes with the fifth pick in the expansion draft in November 1992. He wasn’t exactly pumped about the prospect of leaving Milwaukee to join a new franchise in an unfamiliar city, where the ball was most certainly going to fly.
But the mind of Colorado’s nowbullpen coach was changed upon arriving in Denver, where he quickly recognized the importance of professional baseball to a region that had long clamored for it.
“I enjoyed Milwaukee — I liked the people there, I liked the city, so it was a little bit of, ‘Ah, man,’ because I didn’t want to leave,” Holmes said. “But then once I got over here and I got to understand the importance of everything that was happening, and the excitement of a new franchise for the city of Denver and for Colorado, that feeling left me really quick and I was all in.”
Holmes gave up his fair share of home runs in five years with the Rockies from 199397 — 34 total, including one Mike Piazza blast at Coors Field in September 1997 that many believe to still be the stadium’s longest and which the 52yearold former pitcher estimated to land at around 540 feet.
But the 13year playing veteran — now overseeing the most cashinfused, expectationladen bullpen in club history — also became one critical cog in what he called Colorado’s “veteran hodgepodge” relieving core of himself, Bruce Ruffin, Curtis Leskanic, Mike Muñoz and Steve Reed for the franchise’s first five seasons.
Holmes, a righthander, went 61 with a 3.24 ERA in 68 games for Colorado’s 1995 wildcard team, which was at that time the quickest postseason berth (third season) for any majorleague expansion franchise.
That season was the highlight of many highlights in a Rockies career that is still unfolding with similar promise and excitement in his fourth season as bullpen coach.
“From the parade to start the organization to Dante Bichette’s walkoff (in the 1995 Coors Field opener), I have a lot of special memories with the Rockies,” Holmes said. “Hopefully, our bullpen can help make more good ones the rest of this year.”