Wednesday, July 02

ATLANTA -- Rockies reliever Tyler Kinley’s face showed how Father’s Day makes dad become a kid again.

Kinley showed the baseball spikes that his sons, Harrison and Rowan, and daughter, Remi, designed for him with their crayons and creativity. Kinley had no idea that the children -- with his wife, Brittani, making sure all went smooth -- would surprise him by turning a white baseball cap into a piece of art.

“They draw all the time, they color all the time,” Kinley said, showing the hat and shoes from his locker. “They draw the guys on the team, playing cats, hitting the ball -- any time. My middle son will see a 14 anywhere, and say, ‘Dad! [Ezequiel] Tovar! Tovar!’

“They were able to hide this hat from me. My wife does a good job of organizing and planning this stuff. It was a great surprise.”

With the help of the community relations department, the Rockies conspired with players’ wives and children to design a hat -- while games were in session, so dad had no idea. Then the players were brought to a press conference room at Coors Field on Thursday under the guise of delivering a Father’s Day message.

Instead, they received deliveries. And smiled, and kept smiling.

Click along to see the hats on this Instagram post.

Kinley wore the gift except when on the field. He threw a clean inning with a strikeout in a 10-1 Father’s Day victory over the Braves.

Some of the children needed assistance. Third baseman Ryan McMahon, who celebrated the day with a home run, received his hat with the hand prints of his 16-month-old daughter, Austyn Brooke -- thanks to mom, Natalie.

“You can tell it was hard for her because they’re all spread out and bigger than her hands actually are,” McMahon said. “It was cute. My wife worked hard on that with her. I just appreciate that.”

Pitcher Germán Márquez, whose nearly 7-year-old son, Damian, made two hats with the help of mom, Onelia Rojas, said, “It’s really cool because we are regular people, too. The best thing is to be with family.”

Lefty pitcher Austin Gomber and his wife, Rachel, are parents to two sons, Beckham and Charlie, and a daughter, Adalyn. The Father’s Day warmth was part of a weekend that saw him return from a shoulder injury and pitch five strong innings in Sunday’s victory.

“I’m just super excited to be back -- and it’s cool to be able to throw on Father’s Day,” Gomber said. “Having three kids just adds to the excitement.”

For the rest of this month, the Rockies are honoring your school (or the school you wish you attended). There are special ticket packages for MSU Denver on June 20, the University of Nebraska on June 21 and the University of Northern Colorado on June 22. More>>

Remember the beginning of the season, when nine of the Yankees’ 15 home runs against the Brewers were hit with the so-called “torpedo bats?” Tapered toward the wind with more weight distributed to a longer barrel, they were supposed to revolutionize offense and end the scourge of batters being jammed with an inside pitch. Players flocked to their bat companies to order torpedo bats. 

Whether it was a big series in a park with a short porch against an injured pitching staff, hitting hasn’t changed. It wasn’t long into the season that players figured it was the batter and not the bat. And the flood of reports about the bats stopped.

One Rockies player switched -- Hunter Goodman, who has turned out to be the team’s most productive offensive player, slashing .284/.326/.494. Goodman said he has been swinging it for about a month and a half -- not because of a strategic switch, but out of practicality.

“I was breaking a bunch of bats, and those were what I had,” he said. “I would say if I miss one a little off the hands, it might help me hit a little harder, but that’s about the only thing I’ve noticed.”

Asked if there is a direct correlation between the new bat and the big numbers, he said, “I don’t think so.”

Or, as interim manager Warren Schaeffer put it, “I think it’s just Hunter Goodman. If that bat feels good in his hands, God bless him.”

Left-handed-hitting Rockies No. 5 prospect Yanquiel Fernández, an outfielder at Triple-A Albuquerque, is on a 13-for-25 run while hitting safely in his last six games. Fernández has 12 multihit efforts in his last 20 contests dating back to May 16, slashing .405/.460/.620 during the stretch. Most players who have put up decent Triple-A numbers have made their debuts.

The Rockies want Fernández, 22 and in his second year on the 40-man Major League roster, to recognize the breaking ball and limit funks. Also, with Tyler Freeman running with his shot in right field and the outfield having quietly developed a functional mix of right- and left-handers, there hasn’t been the playing time available to justify calling up Fernández.

But he is being watched.

“The first impression I had of a young Yanquiel was he was, like some of our other guys, a swinger -- really good at balls over the plate,” said Rockies hitting coach Jordan Pacheco, who began the season in the same job at Albuquerque, working with Fernández. “He got an understanding when he got to Triple-A last year that they saw weaknesses and spun a couple balls in the dirt, and he kept chasing him. They’re going to keep going to it.”

Pacheco said he saw improvement at the start of this season.

“He has to keep getting better and locking in, because when he gets here, chase numbers don’t go down and strikeouts don’t go down -- they go up, because the pitchers are better,” Pacheco said. “He understands that. It’s how you condense that, what adjustments you make physically, mentally and at the plate. Getting to know himself in that light will be really beneficial.”

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