Baseball season has arrived in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.   

In partnership with the Community’s Recreational Services, the Colorado Rockies hosted a night of nonstop baseball and softball fun for youth ages 6-17 on February 19 at the Way of Life Facility (WOLF).

Participants were split into five groups and were assigned to different stations on the baseball field. Each of the five stations were designed to work on fundamentals that would improve baseball or softball skills such as baserunning, hitting, fielding, pitching/throwing and speed/agility.

To help manage stations, several players from the Rockies organization were in attendance along with Rockies mascot, Dinger the Dinosaur.

“Thank you, guys, so much for welcoming us here today, and really for our entire spring training,” said David Beckel, manager of Community Affairs for the Rockies. “We are deeply honored to have Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on Native land and it’s so important to us and the Rockies to be a part of this Community [and] to get to come out here.”

Participants were given shirts with the Rockies logo on the front and the special Nike N7 logo on the sleeve, and a bat and ball set to continue and practice their skills at home.

“Loved seeing all the kids come out and in different ages, just to see the smile on their faces when they are hitting the ball or running the bases,” said Jim Kellogg, vice president of Community and Retail Operations for the Rockies.

“We have such a beautiful [spring training] facility and we want to give back where we can,” Kellogg added.

The Rockies are one of the many Major League Baseball teams who travel to Arizona for spring training before the start of the regular season. The Rockies share Salt River Fields at Talking Stick with the Arizona Diamondbacks.