Coors Field Clubhouse Manager is Colorado Rockies' Unsung Hero

Mike 'Tiny' Pontarelli has been roaming the catacombs of Coors Field for years as the team's likable and reliable clubhouse manager

Coors Field clubhouse | Credit: Ron Chenoy | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

For many years, the Colorado Rockies have been used to seeing a lot of things around their purple and black clubhouse. There are the usual chairs, lockers, and equipment, along with each player's own personalized locker room. Like all dressing areas in Major League Baseball, there are pictures on the wall and bulletin boards nailed up.

But at Coors Field, the sight of Mike Pontarelli doing his duties as the team's clubhouse manager lets the Rox know that they are truly home.

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Pontarelli, the Rockies' home clubhouse manager since the 2016-2017 offseason, began his baseball adventures as a batboy for the Denver Zephyrs, the Triple-A team based in the Mile High City before the birth of the Rockies in July 1991. After beginning his career with the Colorado organization in 2005 as a clubhouse assistant, he received a promotion to the top spot 11 years later and has been there ever since. Over the years, he's provided a steady hand in assisting the team.

“I kind of became part of the furniture a little bit, if you will,” Pontarelli jokingly recalls, according to a recent feature story at SB Nation. “And then, [it] sort of grew into the job when I was in high school, where I was coming and going between school, baseball practice, and everything else I had going on. And I was a pretty outgoing kid, so I got to know people, and I would talk to everybody.”

A Classic Career in Colorado

Colorado Rockies batting helmet | Credit: Darren Yamashita | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Nicknamed 'Tiny', the stocky equipment guy is also famous around Denver for being the man who cares for Colorado's Coat of Purple, a fur in the team's primary color that is draped around Rockies players when they hit a home run. It's just one of the many duties he's happily responsible for every day.

For Pontarelli, his love of the game and of the Rockies organization has made his journey in Major League Baseball a magical one. He's seemingly seen it all over the years, from great players and teams to the recent run of futility by the franchise. Still, he holds each of those snapshots in his past dear.

“It’s been a lot of stories – a lot of innings, a lot of baseball, a lot of sunflower seeds and everything else – but I learned the business,” he said. “I applied what I learned in the financial world to what I do now with budgets and inventory and management of staff and things like that. And I really felt like I’ve gotten pretty good at the logistical part of what we do, as well, so it ended up being a career that I’ve really enjoyed.”