Don’t see your commemorative brick at Coors? It’ll soon have a new home

As fans rev up for Rocktober and head to Coors Field on Sunday for the Colorado Rockies’ first home playoff game in nine years, they may notice something missing across the street from the stadium — thousands of $75 commemorative bricks.

But fear not, Rockies nation: Your bricks are safe, in storage, and will be relocated before opening day next season.

The inscribed bricks planted more than two decades ago in Wynkoop Plaza, across 20th Street from Coors Field, were removed last month as part of the redevelopment of the “west lot” parking area — which eventually will give rise to

condos, office space, restaurants, a hotel and a future Rockies Hall of Fame.

“The bricks have been removed, photographed, cataloged and stored at Coors Field,” said Matt Sugar, spokesman for the stadium district, which owns the lot. “They will be relocated along 20th Street, adjacent to the home plate entrance, in the exact order they were removed, prior to opening day next year.”

Individual brick owners were not contacted about the removal and planned relocation. The Rockies did not issue a news release, but gave members of the team’s call center details of the move to answer fans’ questions, according to Rockies spokeswoman Jill Campbell.

“I think we would be communicating directly with all brick purchasers once we have the new bricks in place,” Campbell said. “They’ll know where to find them, and it would be put online.”

Stan Koniz was one of thousands of people who put down $75 to have his name inscribed on a brick before the opening of Coors Field in 1995. He knows exactly where it used to sit: “Around the outside of the diamond, there’s (the lyrics to) the song ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game,’ and it’s three bricks in from the beginning of ‘If they don’t win it’s a shame,’ ” he recalled Wednesday.

Koniz, who’s now retired, said he first noticed his brick was missing while leaving Coors Field last week.

“It was a little disconcerting when my wife and I left the game and I noticed the bricks were gone,” he said. “It would have been nice to know they were being cared for, what the plans were. It left me with the impression that they just got paved over with concrete.”

Campbell said the Rockies have received very few calls about the bricks.

The Denver Metropolitan Major League Baseball Stadium District raised $650,000 in 1994 for public art through the sale of the personalized bricks. Until last month, they were set into Wynkoop Plaza in the shape of a miniature baseball diamond.

That area needed to be cleared to serve as a required fire lane for the west lot construction, Campbell said.