14 JUNE 26-JULY 2, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | the in-progress calamity was the May 10 game in which Colorado knelt to the San Diego Padres 21-0. Blowouts aren’t as agonizing as they were prior to the advent of the pitch clock, which has shortened games substantially. “I think Drew’s the most underpaid guy in the history of the game when you think of all the four- hour marathons he had to do in Coors Field before the pitch clock came in,” Caray says. Still, Alison Vigil, who’s been producing Rockies games since 2014, says Goodman readies himself for each game as if it could go on indefi nitely. “There aren’t a lot of times I can surprise him with a story he’s not already aware of,” she says. “He’s so well read and with so many deep relationships in the game. Drew’s work ethic is second to none.” After completing phase one of his research, Goodman headed to Coors Field at 2:30 p.m., about four hours before fi rst pitch on June 6, and quickly tracked down Ryan Ritter, the evening’s big storyline. Ritter was making his major-league debut after tearing up the Pacifi c Coast League as an infi elder on the Albuquerque Isotopes, the Rockies’ Simpsons-monikered AAA affi liate. Ritter was deferential to Goodman as he revealed that twenty friends and family members were present to see his Rockies bow. By 3 p.m., the rest of the broadcast team had joined Goodman in the dugout, includ- ing his booth partner for the evening, former Rocky Cory Sullivan, plus pre- and post- game producer Nicole Gates and cohorts Jeff Huson, another ex-Rocky, and commentator Marc Stout. Moments later, Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer, who’d taken the helm in May after his predecessor, Bud Black, became the designated scapegoat for the team’s putridness, arrived for a pre-game chat. He told reporters about an unusual pitching strategy he’d be deploying: Since Senzatela had recently stumbled in fi rst innings, Ryan Rolison would start the game before Senzatela’s entry in the second. This scheme didn’t make much sense. After all, the second inning would be Sen- zatela’s fi rst, and he’d have to pitch later to Soto and Alonso (Lindor, who had fractured a pinkie toe, wasn’t in the starting lineup). But given how brutal things were going for the Rockies, anything seemed worth trying. When the Rockies players took the fi eld for warmups, clad in their dopey-looking powder-blue uniforms, Goodman headed to the batting cage and palavered with recently returned catcher Braxton Fulford and a handful of his teammates, as well as support staffers such as Rockies legend Vinny Castilla and World Series skipper-turned-interim bench coach Clint Hurdle. Virtually all of them towered over Goodman, but he was as muscled as most. A workout monster, his upper body is so infl ated that when he stands with arms akimbo, he resembles an inverted triangle. Next, Goodman headed to the broadcast booth on an upper level of Coors Field, where he joined Sullivan, camera operator Sam Heraison and audio pro John Mickity. Also present was stats guru Doug Marino, whose approach to conveying data is as retro as Goodman’s; he had already generated a stack of Post-Its covered with scribbled tidbits. After going through scads of graphics created in advance of the game, Goodman and Sullivan went to the cafeteria for a pre- game meal with Mike Santini, MLB’s vice president of production for local media. As he gabbed with Sullivan and Santini, Good- man also highlighted Rockies and Mets game notes, occasionally taking a break to chew before going back to the booth. There’d been rain during the afternoon. But as the seconds to gametime ticked down, the sky had cleared and the view of the city and distant mountains was spectacular. “Always good to be back home,” Goodman said to start the show, then added, “Don’t look now, but the Rockies are unbeaten this week” with an enthusiasm that was positively contagious. His tone raised hopes that maybe, just maybe, the Rockies’ mastery of the Marlins would result in the sort of momentum that had been in short supply this season. Goodman isn’t a wordsmith along the lines of seminal gabber Vin Scully. His style is punchy, slangy and familiar; a hit is a “knock” and a locked-in batter is “raking.” Such terms might seem hackneyed coming from some announcers, but not Goodman. Rather than keeping audience members at a distance, his lexicon invites them to join the fun. Good times for the Rockies were plenti- ful at fi rst. Schaeffer’s nutty pitching plan worked: Rulison gave up a single to Soto but got out of the fi rst inning with no damage, and Senzatela kept the Mets scoreless over four innings — and when he got into trouble in the sixth, reliever Jake Bird decisively shut the door. In the meantime, Rockies right fi elder Mickey Moniak put one over the fence in the third, giving Goodman a chance to trot out his signature home-run line: “Take a good look! You won’t see this one for long!” Then, in the fi fth, Ritter, in his second at-bat, laced a ball to the left-fi eld wall. “First major league hit is a triple!” Goodman exalted, as proud as any of Ritter’s loved ones in the stands. Predictably, the Rockies’ 1-0 lead didn’t hold up; the Mets erased it in the seventh by way of two runs doubled in by Alonso. The two-bagger triggered chants of “Let’s go, Mets!” that were louder than previous cheers of the Colorado faithful. For years, fans of visiting teams have often outnumbered Rockies rooters, and the hefty percentage of Mets lovers among the 34,000-plus people in attendance proved no exception. In their half of the seventh, the Rockies knotted the score at 2-2 thanks to a Sam Hill- iard triple and a Moniak single. But Moniak was tagged out at second, squelching the chances for a bigger inning and leaving the door open for the Mets. The New Yorkers strode through it in the ninth, when Lindor came off the bench and smacked a two-run double. After the Rockies went 1-2-3 in their half of the ninth, the Mets notched a 4-2 win. As the Mets celebrated, Goodman said, “Tough one for the Rockies.” But not for Goodman. Once again, he was at the top of his game. Email the author at [email protected]. Talk it Up continued from page 12 Drew Goodman with another member of the broadcast team, former Rocky Jeff Huson. MICHAEL ROBERTS GAME ON: WHERE TO WATCH Baseball fans who want to hear Drew Goodman call Rockies games still have that opportunity. But fi guring out how to view them has gotten more diffi cult in recent years owing to the troubles experienced by regional sports networks, or RSNs. In the beginning, Rockies fare was eas- ily accessible. KWGN/Channel 2 broad- cast games for ten years, beginning with the club’s fi rst in 1993; in 1997, Fox Sports Rocky Mountain became the designated cable provider. The Fox Sports offerings were later rebranded as Root Sports be- fore being brought under the umbrella of AT&T SportsNet, founded in 2009. But in 2023, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, the Rockies’ television partner, went belly up — and it wasn’t the only RSN to wind up in that position. Darrin Duber Smith, a retired senior lecturer for the University of Northern Colorado, among other institutions, is a nationwide authority on RSNs. “The sports- network model is broken,” he says. “The fact is, the system is over-fragmented. There are too many choices for too few eyeballs, which means you can’t generate enough money to turn a profi t.” This scenario goes for both traditional media entities and team-owned operations such as Altitude, the television home of the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets, which was booted off Comcast, the state’s largest cable provider, in 2019 and didn’t return until this year. But despite this fragile peace, Duber Smith still believes that “there’s no money in regional sports. And that’s not just a problem here, but in a lot of places.” True enough. After AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain cratered, Major League Baseball itself took control of Rockies broad- casts, and today it’s doing the same for fi ve other franchises without separate television deals: the Arizona Diamondbacks, the San Diego Padres, the Cleveland Guardians, the Minnesota Twins and the Seattle Mariners. The Rockies are luckier than some of these teams. KTVD/Channel 20, a sibling station of 9News, has contracted to simulcast ten games throughout the season; the June 6 Mets matchup was one of them. Comcast also offers a Rockies slot that functions something like NFL Red Zone; when live games or repeats aren’t airing, the channel broadcasts the Rockies logo and a snippet of music on a loop. Other platforms include DIRECTV, Spectrum and Fubo. Games can also be streamed on the MLB app with a subscription to Rockies.TV for $37.99 per year, or $74.99 as part of the complete MLB package. Overall viewership numbers aren’t avail- able. But game producer Alison Vigil is happy with how the system is working. “I think our product is as good today as it’s ever been,” she says, “and we feel very supported by MLB, which is making sure the Rockies are accessible and on TV.” Goodman is philosophical about the changes. “RSNs were a cash cow for a long time,” he points out. “But close to half the country has cut the cord. Comcast and DI- RECTV and all these providers were losing subscribers right and left, and the most expensive channels on their menu were the sports channels. Ultimately, the RSN busi- ness took a huge hit and in some cases has gone away — and we were one of the RSNs that went away.” As a result, he’s grateful that Major League Baseball not only stepped in, but kept the Rockies’ television unit intact. “We have a very tight-knit TV family,” he stresses, “and I think that’s one of the reasons we’ve had really great broadcasts this year, even though the team we all want to win hasn’t won very much.” — Michael Roberts
