Editor’s note: One of an occasional series about the 25th year of Major League Baseball in Denver.
Ernesto Marquez was a 15-year-old freshman at Denver North High School in 1996 when the Rockies built Andres Galarraga Field, giving the Vikings an on-campus diamond they could call their own.
“I really started getting into baseball when the Rockies came to town, and Galarraga was my favorite guy,” said Marquez, now North’s coach. “Him being Latino and Spanish-speaking motivated me and my friends to chase our baseball dreams on his field.”
From the time of the franchise’s Field of Dreams’ inception in 1995 to construction of its final field in 2009, the Rockies built or rehabilitated 58 “championship fields” — complete with all the trimmings of a big-league diamond such as grass infields, cut baselines and warning tracks, and overall helped 100 baseball diamonds get built across Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona.