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2002

“Friends” wins theEmmy Award for BestComedy Series.

The Los Angeles Angelsof Anaheim win the WorldSeries.

What is your favorite memory from that first season?For me, probably throwing a complete game against the Mets. In fact, Isigned an autograph today (April 6, 2013) and now I know the date wasApril 15, 1993, when I was able to throw that complete game. The fan hadsaved the ticket stub from that game and asked me to sign it.

So a fan held onto that ticket stub for 20 years. What does itmean to you that you’ve been able to help create such specialmemories for baseball fans in Colorado?It’s crazy. I can’t believe it. That ticket brought back a lot of good memo-ries and throwing the complete game stands out in my mind because it wasa big moment, a really successful moment.

I can’t believe it’s been 20 years because I remember everything so clearly.I was here at Currigan Hall on expansion draft day. Then Opening Day,the complete game, then playing in front of 4.5 million people that year. It’soverwhelming and really neat that we all came back to celebrate and I’m justthrilled to have my name on that ’93 roster. v

What are you up to these days?I live in Dallas, Texas, and I’m part-owner of a company, CylinderHeads International, which sells cylinder heads for automobile en-gines. We have about 40 employees and we’re a family-owned busi-ness. It’s an 8-to-5 job and I’ve been doing that for about 12 years.

What do you do to stay around baseball?Since they’re local, we go to Rangers games from time to time, butthat’s about it. We came out here to Denver for a World Seriesgame in 2007—my wife, Heather, surprised me—but I haven’t beenhere in Colorado since then.

You mentioned Heather, so talk about your family—children?Heather and I have been married six years and we have four kids,Tanner, 18, Colton, 15, and then we have two babies, Houston andBeckett, who are three and two years old.

What were your first thoughts when you were invitedback to Colorado to be part of the Opening Weekend reunion of the 1993 Rockies team?There were so many emotions that went through me. I was reallyexcited, but I didn’t find out about it until late because, I guess, Iwas hard to track down. I didn’t know if we were going to be ableto get a babysitter for our little ones, but the one thing I wanted todo was have my big boys, Tanner and Colton, come out here toDenver and be a part of this. We were able to get a babysitter forthe weekend, their grandparents, and we had such a blast. Every-thing worked out great.

Talk about those early years of the Rockies. It was pretty incredible. At the time, I didn’t really get to enjoy it, but I lookback now and think, “You know what, I pitched in front of 72,000 peoplein just the third Rockies home game ever.” And then in front of 60,000,60,000, 50,000 fans, and the list goes on. Then, you look at the end of theyear and, as a team, we played in front of 4.5 million people. It’s astro-nomical. I didn’t appreciate it back then because I was in the moment, butafter getting away from the game and coming back here, it makes me realizethe attendance record is an unbelievable record that will never be broken.

How does the 1993 Rockies team compare to other teams youplayed on during your career?That was the most special team. We were all kind of just thrown together.There was nobody on the roster before us and we didn’t know a lot abouteach other. We had one month, really, to introduce ourselves, learn every-thing about each other and start playing Major League Baseball. It was sounique and it doesn’t happen often that new teams come into play. For usto be part of that and, like I said, play in front of 4.5 million people, was justcrazy.

The Rockies’ first pick in the 1992 Expansion Draft, pitcher David Nied, brought two of his kids, Colton

and Tanner, along with his wife, Heather, to Denver for the 20th Anniversary Opening Weekend festivities.

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