The Colorado Rockies are one of many Major League Baseball teams that travel to Arizona for Cactus League spring training. In fact, the Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks share the award-winning Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, which is located on tribal land. 

Every year, the Rockies, in collaboration with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Recreation Department, host an annual youth baseball clinic. This year the clinic was held on Feb. 17 at the Ske:g Himdag Ki: with more than 50 youth ages 6 to 17 in attendance. 

The clinic gives kids the opportunity to learn and practice drills that test speed, agility, pitching, batting and fielding, key components that make a great baseball player. Participants were divided into five groups and dispersed to different areas of the field where skill stations were set up and run by Rockies staff and players. Rockies mascot Dinger the Dinosaur motivated and interacted with participants, keeping the atmosphere fun.

“We see some of the same kids year after year that are coming back. We watch them grow up every year, but also their baseball skills are getting better and they are improving,” said Jim Kellogg, Rockies vice-president of community and retail operations. “It’s nice to know that we’re making a little impact and they’re having fun on a Tuesday night in February.”

At the end of the clinic, each child received a foam bat and ball from the Rockies so they can continue to practice the new skills they learned and have something to remember the night.