SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — In the chilly early morning approaching 1 a.m. last September, Jon Gray, still wet and shivering from a champagne shower hours before, stopped to sign autographs outside the back-alley gate behind Coors Field.
A crowd had gathered after the Rockies clinched a wild-card playoff berth. Some of them Gray knew as the community of signature-seeking fans who follow the Rockies from spring training to the postseason, from Arizona to Colorado and across the major leagues. Some he didn’t know. All of them huddled to get Gray’s name.
“They were everywhere,” the pitcher said.