SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Char­lie Black­mon isn’t even sup­posed to be here. Not in the Rock­ies club­house for a 14th sea­son. In the big leagues.

Black­mon was a mid­dling relief pitch­er at Geor­gia Tech, his career going nowhere light­ning fast. He showed up for sum­mer ball with one year of eli­gi­bil­i­ty left and told man­ag­er Rusty Greer he was a two-way player.

He hadn’t hit since high school. He fibbed. He raked. And he hasn’t stopped since, his jour­ney leav­ing him reflec­tive as he enters what could be his final sea­son in Colorado.

“Things could have been so dif­fer­ent for me. I am very grate­ful. There’s a lot I have to give back because of it. I just don’t think it was a pure blind chance that I got the oppor­tu­ni­ties I did, and I had the suc­cess I had. Just divine inter­ven­tion I think,” Black­mon said. “With all my suc­cess, I need to make sure that I have a good per­spec­tive of where it comes from and don’t screw up.”

Black­mon, 37, has become one the most pop­u­lar and pro­duc­tive play­ers in Rock­ies his­to­ry. Nobody boos Char­lie. It would be like boo­ing Win­nie The Pooh or a free meal at The Chophouse.

Black­mon began his pro career as a poten­tial reserve out­field­er with foot prob­lems. He evolved into a hit­ter who is more con­sis­tent than a metronome, his career .296 aver­age and .355 on base per­cent­age as proof. There are con­stants with the Rock­ies, save for a few notable excep­tions. They are going to lose more than they win, and Black­mon will swing with intent and intel­li­gence, more apt to give away his ATM PIN num­ber than an at-bat.

He is the old­est Rock­ie, a man who nev­er com­plains, lead­ing by exam­ple with every swing. While the con­tract sur­prised the indus­try, the Rock­ies signed Black­mon to a one-year, $13 mil­lion con­tract last sum­mer. This is not a farewell sea­son. Black­mon has no plans to retire.

“Plan A was always to stay here. I cer­tain­ly give the Rock­ies a lot of cred­it for hav­ing inter­est to do some­thing dur­ing the sea­son,” Black­mon said. “Yeah, it was a one-year thing, but you nev­er know what’s going to hap­pen when you are com­ing back from injury. I was lucky to get back on the field, play well, and that gave me con­fi­dence I can do it again this year. I think I was pro­duc­tive and I feel good this year so I am not ready to say one way or the oth­er, but I don’t see why I couldn’t keep going beyond this year.”

If a high­er pow­er put Black­mon on a path to the Rock­ies, a relent­less work eth­ic and prepa­ra­tion kept him in the lineup.

But why is he here now?

Oth­er than the home­less Oak­land Ath­let­ics, no team is viewed more dim­ly than the Rock­ies. Bet­ting odds place their win total around 60, leav­ing them in dan­ger of deliv­er­ing their sec­ond 100-loss sea­son after post­ing the first in fran­chise his­to­ry in 2023.

“Real­ly, it would just mean more to have team suc­cess here than to go some­where else and not real­ly be part of it. The mis­sion has been every year to get the Rock­ies into the post­sea­son. It’s been that way for so long. That’s what I would like to do, get us back there,” Black­mon said. “(And) it def­i­nite­ly mat­ters (to spend my entire career with the Rock­ies). This is a real­ly good orga­ni­za­tion with good peo­ple and a great city. And we play in an amaz­ing sta­di­um. There’s just so much to like about it. And a big part for me is being around my team­mates. I am sure I could have team­mates in oth­er places. But these are my team­mates and I like them.”

Black­mon knows he will nev­er repli­cate the 2017–18 sea­sons, when he won with peers he grew up with in the minor leagues. He has long­time team­mates in Ryan McMa­hon, Bren­dan Rodgers and Kyle Free­land. They keep it “fun,” and blos­som­ing play­ers, like Eze­quiel Tovar and Nolan Jones, keep him young.

“We all love the game,” Black­mon said. “That’s what brings us together.”

Black­mon is not viewed as a man in a rock­ing chair. He is expect­ed to be a rock in the line­up, lead­ing off as a des­ig­nat­ed hit­ter and part-time out­field­er. He expects the Rock­ies to improve, but is not cer­tain what it will look like, admit­ting that big jumps from young play­ers could make the biggest dif­fer­ence since it falls out­side of the purview of most projections.

The batter’s box brings Black­mon end­less moti­va­tion. He rel­ish­es the con­fronta­tion with the pitch­er. Black­mon in the batter’s box also brings fans joy, a pleas­ant diver­sion as they wail the lyrics to The Outfield’s “Your Love.”

“I love the song,” Black­mon said. “My ears pret­ty much don’t work when I hit. I feel (the crowd) more than I hear them.”

This sea­son will test their loy­al­ty, the Rock­ies attempt­ing to regain their bal­ance and devel­op some des­per­ate­ly need­ed pitch­ing. Through it all, there remains one man stand­ing who nev­er thought he would be here. He is the beard­ed face of the fran­chise. He is Char­lie Blackmon.

“I am com­mit­ted to the look. I don’t like change, and I feel like I have had it for so long, chang­ing it would be chang­ing who I am,” Black­mon said. “I am not a big super­sti­tious guy, but I don’t want to find out what it would be like with­out it.”

We all could say the same thing about him.

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