Orioles’ Jackson Holliday returns to Coors Field, where he learned at the feet of his father

Retired Major League Baseball player Matt Holliday, front, listens as his son, Jackson, second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles, talks to reporters before the Orioles face the Colorado Rockies in a baseball game Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

By DENNIS GEORGATOS Associated Press

DENVER (AP) — Baltimore Orioles rookie second baseman Jackson Holliday returned on Friday to Coors Field, the ballpark where he learned some of his earliest baseball lessons as a toddler at the feet of his father, former Colorado Rockies star Matt Holliday.

“It’s very special,” Holliday said before the Orioles beat the Rockies 5-3. “It’s kind of hard to explain growing up watching my dad play here for so long. I’m glad to be able to be here at the end of the year, and just excited to have a bunch of family and friends.”

Holliday’s father, his mother, Leslee, and younger brother Ethan traveled from their Oklahoma home to be on hand for the weekend series between Baltimore and Colorado, where Matt Holliday bookended his 15-year major league career.

Matt broke into the majors with the Rockies in 2006 and helped the franchise to its only NL pennant in 2007. After stints with Oakland, St. Louis, and the New York Yankees, Holliday rejoined the Rockies late in 2018, his final season.

Jackson put on a show in front of his family, hitting an RBI triple off the right-field wall in the ninth inning. He then scored on a headfirst slide when reliever Angel Chivilli fielded Austin Slater’s comebacker but threw wide of catcher Jacob Stallings for an error.

The play at the plate was reminiscent of Matt’s bang-bang, headfirst slide at home for the winning run in a one-game tiebreaker against San Diego in 2007 that sent Colorado to the postseason.

Matt relished the chance to watch his oldest son play on the field he once roamed with his dad playing Wiffle ball and catch, absorbing early lessons in the game and an appreciation for the sport.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Matt said. “It doesn’t seem like that long ago, Jackson was running around here. We’re playing with a Wiffle ball, and now he’s got a chance to play on this field. Just have a lot of fond memories here, obviously, as a family and with Jackson. To get a chance to come and watch him play on this field is pretty surreal.”

Jackson struggled when he was called up by the Orioles in April but has fared much better in his second stint in the majors, which began on July 31st. He hit a go-ahead three-run double in his first career pinch-hit appearance a week ago against Houston, becoming, at 20 years, 264 days, the youngest player in Orioles history to drive in three or more runs as a pinch-hitter since the RBI was recognized as an official statistic in 1920.

He recorded his first career stolen base on Wednesday at the Los Angeles Dodgers, the youngest Oriole to do that since Manny Machado swiped his first when he was 20 years, 53 days old against the Chicago White Sox on August 28th, 2012.

Matt said it has been both thrilling and nerve-wracking seeing his son’s first major league season unfold, admitting that watching Jackson play could be tougher in some ways than dealing with his own ups and downs.

“As a player, you’re controlling the outcomes to some extent,” Matt said. “It’s hard because I wanted to do well, and because I know how bad he wants to do well, so it’s a little more taxing. Makes my gut probably a little more nervous than when I played. But you know it’s fun to watch, too. I love watching baseball, so I love watching him play. I know how much he loves it, so that makes it easy.”