“A great spectacle”: Recalling the 1998 Home Run Derby at Coors Field

Before the 1998 Home Run Derby became one of the most memorable in league history — and before it forever cemented Coors Field’s reputation as a launchpad — the game’s preeminent superstar had to change his mind.

Ken Griffey Jr. didn’t want to compete, citing his desire for a day off.

But a persuasion committee put together by league executives, combined with boos by 51,231 as Griffey was introduced as the top all-star vote-getter 90 minutes prior to the derby, convinced him to enter at the last-minute.

Then Rockies public relations director Mike Swanson was among those pushing to get Griffey to participate. “Major League Baseball knew what they had in Denver,” he explained, so it was going to make every effort to get the most popular player to hit moon shots at pre-humidor Coors.

“I sauntered over to him at his locker, and I totally understood everything he was saying, because the Mariners have the worst travel schedule in the history of baseball,” Swanson said. “But I also knew what the fans wanted… In a weird way, they booed him out of respect for who he is. They only booed him because they really wanted to see him. And I told him, ‘This is going to be one of the most talked about home run derbies ever.’”

And so it was.

Thanks to prodding from Swanson, Hall of Famer Frank Robinson (the key part of the league’s effort) and a LoDo crowd that demanded Griffey’s presence, the Mariners superstar relented. Then he delivered, turning boos into cheers when he outlasted Jim Thome in the finals.

What would the ’98 derby have been without “The Kid,” his sweet swing and his cool-as-summer backwards hat?

It would’ve been something — certainly a relic of the zenith of the steroid era — but not a thing. Not a standard-setting derby, and the highlight in a weekend that brought a widespread national spotlight to Coors Field, then just three years old.

“It was the first Home Run Derby that got a lot more notoriety than usual because it was played at Coors and everyone anticipated a lot of long homers and a lot of home runs overall,” said then-Rockies pitching coach Rick Matthews, who threw to Griffey and three others in the derby. “1998 set the stage for the hype of the Home Run Derby as we know now it, with all the notoriety and all the publicity it gets.

“It was a perfect scenario of what was going on with the home run chase with (Mark) McGwire on a tear entering midseason, all the homers being hit across the league, and the intrigue of Griffey maybe or maybe not going to do it….

“Well, he did it, and no one was forgetting that day or Coors Field after that.”

“A great spectacle”

At that ’98 derby, no one hit a ball out of the stadium. And Big Mac, who went on to hit a then-record 70 homers that year, didn’t advance past the first round.

But there were still plenty of jaw-dropping moments that enabled the event — and the All-Star Game that followed — to live up to its mile-high billing.

“I was in awe of how far they hit some of those balls,” said Jim Leyland, the manager for the National League team. “To hit them over the fence is one thing, but to hit them where some of those guys were hitting them was another thing altogether. It was a great spectacle.”

McGwire had the longest bomb, a mammoth 510-foot homer that hit the facade of the Rockpile section in straightaway center field. It was one of only four that the Cardinals’ star hit. Afterwards, he complained that Matthews kept putting the ball middle-away instead of in his sweet spot, middle-in.

“It kind of took your breath way when he hit that 500-footer,” Matthews recalled. “You knew it was going to go a long way, and then you looked up, and it was still going, and going … it was something to behold.”

Griffey, meanwhile, had no problems hitting Matthews’ pitching, nor did hometown favorite Vinny Castilla. In front of a crowd that cheered his every move, the Rockies third baseman hit seven homers in the first round and then five in the second before bowing out.

And Thome, who was thrown to by Rich Donnelly, dazzled in his runner-up finish. In the first two rounds combined, Thome blasted 15 homers, seven of which landed in the upper deck.

“I hit that first one to the third deck,” Thome recalled, “and then I just got into a groove.”

It was vindication following the 1997 derby, when Thome failed to hit any out in his home park of Jacobs Field. And it was a performance only Griffey was capable of topping that night, when he beat Thome 3-2 in the finals — something the latter Hall of Famer remains grateful for, even though he lost.

“I’m glad he decided to enter it even though he won it, because it gave the fans an opportunity to see how special this guy really was in his prime,” Thome said.

The ’98 derby marked the second of Griffey’s three derby wins, with the others coming in 1994 at Three Rivers Stadium and in 1999 at Fenway Park. His victory was followed the next day by a historic offensive performance in the American League’s 13-8 win, the highest-scoring All-Star Game in its history.

Alex Rodriguez and Roberto Alomar, the game’s MVP, hit homers for the AL while MLB home run king Barry Bonds hit a towering, three-run shot off a young, thin Bartolo Colon. The ball banged off the Giants banner on the upper deck facade in the fifth inning, and gave the NL its last lead.

“I really wasn’t worried about running out of pitchers — I was worried more about finding enough guys who wanted to pitch,” Leyland recalled with a laugh.

“A show for its city”

The Rockies shattered MLB attendance records in their first few years at Mile High Stadium and went to the playoffs as a wild card in 1995, where they lost to the Braves in the divisional series. So it wasn’t as if LoDo hadn’t already been overrun with big crowds before.

But for the first time, the gleaming new stadium, the revitalized warehouse district and the fervent, baseball-hungry fans who filled its seats were on a national stage. Throw in Griffey’s show and the run-fest in the all-star game that featured 15 future Hall of Famers, and Thome declared the event “an amazing experience.”

“The city and the excitement and being around Denver, walking around LoDo to all the restaurants around the ballpark — the vibe around Coors Field was incredible, and players felt that just like the fans did,” Thome said.

“The ballpark was so clean and impressive, across the board, from the clubhouses to the field and everything. From that aspect of going to Denver, the stadium put on a show for its city.”

Swanson recalled Alomar’s “jaw dropped” when he walked into Coors Field for the first time, and other American Leaguers who had not played there yet had similar reactions.

What people in Denver already knew was no longer a mystery for the rest of the league.

“I wanted the whole world to see how proud we were of Denver and the whole community that was building up around the ballpark,” Swanson said. “The phenomenon of baseball for Denver… came through.

“It was a coming-out party, no doubt, for what the sport means to the region.”

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