A familiar face should be settling in at shortstop when the Colorado Rockies play the Toronto Blue Jays tonight at Coors Field, only he’ll be doing so in a uniform many at Coors Field still might not be accustomed to seeing. Troy Tulowitzki is playing his first game in Colorado since he was traded to Toronto last July.
The deal — Tulowitzki and reliever LaTroy Hawkins for the since-departed Jose Reyes and a trio of pitching prospects — sent away one of the best players in Rockies history. It also created some bitterness.
Tulowitzki told The Denver Post last July that he felt “blindsided” by it. And in February, Tulowitzki told USA Today that he’d “never talk to him, never talk to those people,” in reference to Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich and other members of Colorado’s brass.
It was an ugly departure for a player who’d accomplished so much in a Rockies uniform. In nine-plus years with Colorado, Tulowitzki recorded 1,165 hits, 188 home runs and maintained a .299 batting average. He made five All-Star games and won two Gold Gloves. He was part of the playoff team in 2009 and the one that went to the World Series in 2007.
Tulowitzki recorded the final out of the 2007 NLCS between Colorado and Arizona. He fielded a dribbler then sidearmed it to Todd Helton. It’s up there with the greatest moments in Rockies franchise history.
It will be strange for many to see the man who made the play in the video at the top of this post return to Coors Field in a different uniform. The only question now is how will Rockies fans receive him?
