Paul Parker essentially built the Colorado Rockies’ archives from scratch before retiring from his post as the team historian in 2018. He also serves as the President of the Rocky Mountain chapter of SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research.
If there is a relic of Colorado baseball history, chances are Parker has either studied, acquired, or researched its history. And on occasion, his wealth of baseball knowledge attracts all sorts of random phone calls from people who have uncovered some baseball artifact in the dusty corner of the attic.
Once in a while those calls reveal a little piece of Colorado baseball history. Such was the case with a call Parker took a couple years ago from Sybil Moschetti, the widow of Bauldie Moschetti, who founded the Boulder Collegians in 1964.
Under Moschetti’s leadership the Collegians, a collegiate summer league program, became a national power, winning four National Baseball Congress World Series titles between 1966 and 1978. Parker was well aware of the history, as well as the names of some of the game’s greats that passed through Boulder wearing Collegians jerseys. San Diego Padres Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. 1993 World Series hero Joe Carter. Eventual World Series-winning manager Joe Maddon, among so many others.
Sybil Moschetti gave Parker some vintage Collegians jerseys she discovered after her husband passed away, but Parker understood the stuffy wool uniforms needed a proper home. He called Matt Jensen, the Boulder native and baseball fanatic who resurrected the Collegians program in 2013 after a 33-year absence.
Back in those nostalgic days of 2019 when backyard barbecues weren’t a public health risk, Jensen invited Parker to his home along with a handful of Collegians players. Sitting under the summer sun, there was quite the shared laugh about the thought of playing baseball in those egregiously hot old jerseys. It also was a moment when the program’s history melded into its present, as Parker bestowed the jerseys to Jensen for safe keeping.
“I love the ceremonial parts of things, so I did a big build-up and a short speech about it,” Parker said. “The Collegians are a big part of Colorado baseball history.”
That legacy is in jeopardy of being unplugged once again.
COVID fallout
As a realtor, Jensen travels amongst the Boulder community enough to know his baseball program hardly is the only business getting stretched thin by the COVID-19 pandemic. But it is his baby. While Jensen is quick to credit all the help he has received along the way, he was, and remains, the driving force that brought the Collegians out of hibernation and helped so many young baseball players over the past seven years.
That enterprise, however, is in trouble. Last week, Jensen hosted a Zoom video conference with supporters, fans, and former players outlining a two-fold plan in hopes of keeping the Collegians alive. First, Jensen would like to form a fundraising committee with a goal of raising $25,000 by Memorial Day. And then Jensen hopes to form a host family committee, which conceivably would help ease the strain of finding summer lodging for the Collegians players.
“I want it to be a team for the people made by the people,” Jensen said. “I really need people to step up. We’re a cool nonprofit that is doing things way far beyond just what the game of baseball offers. I think there’s a unique opportunity for people who maybe want to get involved in something at a charitable level. And we don’t ask people for a ton. What we’re asking for from people who might want to join a committee is maybe one hour a week, and then one Zoom meeting a month.
“So five hours a month for phone calls or whatever, and utilizing our already-established relationships with the Chamber of Commerce and other businesses. The infrastructure is there. We just need bodies to carry it out. We need help for sure, especially in those two main areas.”
The Collegians have always operated at a thin margin. The coronavirus pandemic that struck in March has made things exponentially worse.
In each previous season since restarting the Collegians, Jensen estimates the program received around $10,000 to $12,000 in sponsorship money. In 2020 they received zero. Jensen admits some of that was bad luck, as on April 30 he told backers, coaches, and players alike there would be no season, only to cobble together a shorter season later with a roster heavy on local talent.
Jensen hoped Boulder Parks and Recreation would cut the team a break on the rental fee at Scott Carpenter Park when the team was allowed to resume play there in late June (after playing three weeks mostly in Greeley), but that didn’t happen. Jensen said the club cut costs wherever they could, and the plan going forward will be to build a roster with as much local talent as feasible in order to cut the costs associated with host families.
“Our revenue was cut down to an eighth of what we normally do,” Jensen said. “We still broadcast our games online and did a lot of the things we normally do, we just didn’t charge anybody for it. So we took a pretty big hit.”
Coming together
Dan Evans is a baseball lifer who helped build MLB playoff teams as an associate general manager of the Chicago White Sox and again as the general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Vanessa Luna is a baseball lifer in a different way, a lifelong fan of the game and a relative newcomer to Boulder who nonetheless has become a regular at Collegians games.
Both of them believe the Collegians provide a meaningful outlet in the community.
“I think it’s a really great thing for the community to have Collegians summer baseball,” said Evans, who has lived in Boulder the past six years. “There’s a lot of positives to it. CU doesn’t have a program, so it’s a great opportunity for local kids to play somewhere in the summertime. If the Collegians are here, it’s better for the Denver-area baseball market. And frankly, the history of the franchise has a lot to do with my desire to help.”
Luna spent her early childhood in Anaheim, Calif., and was imprinted with the fandom of the Angels. When her family moved to Ogden, Utah, she regularly attended games of the minor league Ogden Raptors at picturesque Lindquist Field. Luna might be a new fan, having just started attending Collegians games in recent summers, yet she believes those beautiful evenings at Scott Carpenter, particularly after having social lives scuttled amid the pandemic, provide a critical outlet.
“We are all so starved right now for something to bring us together that’s hopeful, and I really think baseball can be that right now,” Luna said. “I went to a few of the games this year, and we’re all wearing masks and we’re all socially distant. We’re all rooting for the same thing. There’s so much that’s dividing us right now. I’m not saying baseball is the solution to all that, but it’s an opportunity to come together as a community that’s neutral, and it’s positive, and is something we all could really use.”
