Colorado Rockies

Background

Denver had long supported minor league baseball, and earlier bids for a big-league team, including a Continental League club in 1960, came to nothing. In 1991 MLB awarded an expansion franchise, alongside the Florida Marlins, to a group led by John Antonucci and Michael Monus; the name came from the nearby Rocky Mountains and had earlier been used by Denver's NHL team. After an accounting scandal forced Monus and Antonucci out in 1992, trucking executive Jerry McMorris took over the group, and in 2005 he sold his stake to Charlie and Dick Monfort.

The 1993 Rockies drew 4,483,350 fans to Mile High Stadium, still the MLB attendance record. In 1995 four sluggers each hit 30 home runs and were nicknamed the Blake Street Bombers, and the team won the first NL Wild Card. The high point came in 2007: 14 wins in the last 15 regular-season games, a 13-inning, 9-8 tie-breaker win over San Diego, sweeps of Philadelphia and Arizona for the club's only pennant, then a four-game World Series sweep by Boston; fans called the run Rocktober.

Further Wild Card berths followed in 2009, 2017 and 2018, but the Rockies have never won the NL West, and they lost more than 100 games in 2023, 2024 and 2025. The club colours are purple, black and silver; the purple comes from the line 'purple mountain majesties' in 'America the Beautiful', and the Rockies were the first team to wear purple pinstripes. The cap carries an interlocking CR. Todd Helton's 17 and Larry Walker's 33 are retired.