DENVER – Jason Jennings started his Major League career with the Rockies by doing it all – same as he ever had.
Jennings won the 1999 Golden Spikes Award as the nation’s top amateur player by tying the Baylor University record for wins (13) and setting the mark for strikeouts (172) while hitting .386 with 17 home runs and 68 RBIs. The Rockies selected Jennings in the first round of that year's Draft as a pitcher. But he brought his bat with him to his Major League debut against the Mets at Shea Stadium on Aug. 23, 2001.
All he did was fashion the greatest debut in club history. Here is a Top 10 list:
1. Two-way Jennings (Aug. 23, 2001)
Jennings allowed five hits and walked four, yet it didn’t matter. He used his slider as the out pitch for many of his eight strikeouts while pitching a shutout. But Jennings made the game special with his bat.
With the Rockies leading 9-0 going into the ninth, Jennings – already with two hits, including an RBI single – opened the frame with a home run to right field off Donne Wall. The ball bounced off the Mets’ 1986 World Series championship banner. By this time, fans in the Big Apple were cheering him.
Jennings put down the Mets in the ninth to become the first player in history to pitch a shutout and hit a homer in his debut.
With the universal designated hitter in use and pitch counts being adhered to more than ever, Jennings’ feat may never be matched. Only one pitcher since then has even pitched a shutout in his debut: Tigers left-hander Andy Van Hekken on Sept. 3, 2002, against Cleveland.
Jennings, who won the National League Rookie of the Year Award the following year, is one of two Rockies to debut with a shutout in a nine-inning game. (See below.)
2. The beginning of the Story (April 4, 2016)
Trevor Story’s Opening Day debut also made first-timer history. Story blasted a three-run homer off Diamondbacks star Zack Greinke in his second Major League at-bat, and he hit a solo homer off Greinke his next time up to become the first NL player to homer twice in his debut and the first Major League player to homer twice in an Opening Day debut.
This Story didn’t end here. Story went deep in each of the next two games at Chase Field, then homered twice against the Padres in the home opener on April 8. He began his two-time All-Star career with 10 home runs and 20 RBIs in 22 April games.
3. All the way with Brownson (July 21, 1998)
Jennings’ first game tops this list, but it was the Rockies’ second nine-inning shutout. The first went to right-hander Mark Brownson, who struck out seven while allowing four hits and walking one in a 5-0 victory at the Astrodome.
Brownson’s game also produced history. His game score of 85 ranks as the highest of any NL pitcher making his debut in the Wild Card era (since 1995). In the first game of a doubleheader on July 28, 1997, the Brewers’ final year in the American League, Steve Woodard began his Major League career with a 91 game score over eight innings in a 1-0 victory over the Blue Jays.
4. The first steps on the road to Cooperstown (Aug. 2, 1997)
Todd Helton’s Hall of Fame career of 17 seasons, all with the Rockies, began with an oddity. Helton would become a fixture at first base, but with Andres Galarraga still with Colorado and no DH, manager Don Baylor just wanted Helton in the lineup. So he started in left field against the Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium.
Helton’s first hit was a fourth-inning single off Francisco Cordova. In the eighth – after Larry Walker, who also represents the Rockies in Cooperstown – scored on a passed ball, Helton parked the first of his 369 career homers off Marc Wilkins.
Is there an argument for games below this one to be placed higher? Maybe. But any Rockies list with Helton too far down just doesn’t seem right.
5. A Lambert family affair (June 6, 2019)
The Rockies summoned right-hander Peter Lambert to Wrigley Field to start against the Cubs at an opportune time. His family was in Chicago – including his older brother, Jimmy Lambert, who was on the White Sox Minor League injured list (he made it to the Majors in 2020 with the South Siders).
Peter Lambert went seven innings and set a Rockies MLB debut record with nine strikeouts. He added a single in the 3-1 victory.
6. A strong opening act (June 11, 2014)
The Rockies selected left-hander Tyler Matzek in the first round of the 2009 Draft out of Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, Calif.. They worked with him through delivery and control issues until his debut five seasons later.
Matzek put it all together the first time out, pitching seven innings, allowing two runs and striking out seven in an 8-2 victory over the Braves at Coors Field.
Control problems, however, returned the next year. Matzek was out of the Majors from 2016 until he returned in ‘20 – with the Braves. And Matzek won a World Series ring with Atlanta in ‘21.
7. A great place to hit (Sept. 8, 1998)
Players have always dreamed of big games at Coors Field, which is a wonderful place to hit. Derrick Gibson – a 1993 13th-round Draft pick out of Haines City (Fla.) High School who chose baseball over multiple college football offers – showed exactly that when he began his career against the Marlins.
Starting in left field, Gibson knocked an RBI double to left field off Jesus Sanchez in the second inning. He added three singles to finish 4-for-4 with two RBIs in the Rockies’ 11-10 victory.
Of course, the way Coors was at the time, 4-for-4 with two RBIs wasn’t enough to earn top billing. Vinny Castilla finished 3-for-6 with a three-run homer and six RBIs.
8. Inspiring the home city (April 7, 2017)
So fitting. Rookie left-hander Kyle Freeland, who starred at Denver’s Thomas Jefferson High School before his college career at the University of Evansville, made his Major League debut in the 2017 home opener at Coors.
It was a success if for no other reason than it gave his mom a chance to release a picture of how Freeland dressed when the Rockies made their own MLB debut in 1993.
But the all-grown-up Freeland went six innings, struck out six and held the Dodgers to one run in a 2-1 Rockies victory. It was an early sign of quality for Colorado, which would earn a postseason berth for the first time since 2009.
9. Inspiring an entire country (July 25, 2003)
In the late 1990s, the Rockies employed Tim Ireland, who had enough international contacts that he operated as their Pacific Rim scout. Ireland’s scouting led to the signing of right-hander Chin-hui Tsao. (Part of the strange scouting story involved Ireland signing eventual closer Manny Corpas in a convenience store in Japan.)
Tsao became the first Taiwanese pitcher to debut in the Majors. He struck out five and allowed three runs on eight hits and one walk in 6 1/3 innings of a 7-3 victory over the Brewers at Coors.
10. THE Luis Gonzalez, for a day (April 6, 2004)
On Opening Day in Phoenix, Luis Gonzalez had two hits and two RBIs to lead his team to a victory. But this wasn’t the same Luis Gonzalez who drove in the winning run of the 2001 World Series against the Yankees.
This was Luis Alberto Gonzalez, a Maracay, Venezuela, native who impressed enough in Spring Training to make the Rockies’ Opening Day roster – and start at second base against the Diamondbacks.
This Gonzalez led off against Hall of Famer Randy Johnson. He didn’t manage his first hit until the seventh inning – a leadoff single off Mike Koplove. But Gonzalez’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth against Jose Valverde was part of a three-run inning that helped the Rockies to a 6-2 victory.
As for the better-known Luis Gonzalez, he had two solo home runs for the Diamondbacks. But because of the Rockies rookie, Arizona’s star spent the day as merely Luis Emilio Gonzalez.