All-Star Game at Coors Field provides emotional reunion for Nolan Arenado

By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer

DENVER — The Coors Field crowd never grew louder at the 2021 All-Star Game than it did repeatedly for Colorado’s old favorite, Nolan Arenado. 

The fans showered him in a standing ovation during pregame introductions. They engulfed him in cheers when he stepped to bat in the bottom of the first inning. Both times, he removed his hat (or helmet) to show his appreciation for their appreciation. 

Hours later, he stifled tears while talking about it.

"One of the better things I’ve ever had," Arenado said. "In my life. In my career."

It’s a strange thing for a player in his prime to depart his home and still be so serenaded. But Arenado’s experience here was sufficiently strange that it made fine sense. He was a homegrown superstar on an undisputed path to becoming the franchise’s best-ever player, and he was committed — with one pesky opt-out clause — to playing in Denver through 2027. 

Then the Rockies paid to trade him to St. Louis, where he has continued to play how he played here.

That, of course, is how he ended up back in Denver as the National League’s third baseman, No. 3 hitter and No. 1 attraction Tuesday. Arenado contributed little to the ultimate result, another American League victory, its eighth straight, this one by a 5-2 score. But he supplied its most emotional moments.

"The fans know how much I love them, how much this place means to me," he said. "I gave them my all, and I know they appreciate that. They saw the way I played, and I just wanted to do everything I could for them."

All the mutual affection made the game feel even more like a blast from the past in this increasingly normal-seeming season. There were no sticky-stuff enforcements. It was a sold-out stadium, and Arenado was basically back on the Rockies, except with the letters S-T-L on his all-white uniform. It might as well have been 2019.

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The Cubs’ Kris Bryant, who might soon join Arenado as a traded-away, homegrown, star third baseman, said players remarked on it all in the National League dugout. "We’re back to what the All-Star Game is supposed to look like," he said.

True to his form as a defensive whiz and obsessive, in the second inning, Arenado attempted a barehanded play in an attempt to throw out Marcus Semien. He performed it seamlessly but could not obtain the out. 

During pregame batting practice, he had been wearing a stylistic but imperfect glove. He liked its look but could not abide it for the game — not even an exhibition game.

"I ain’t making errors with this thing," he said.

He took this pretty seriously, letting his focus lapse only to acknowledge the crowd.

Monday was his day to rile up the crowd as former-teammate Trevor Story’s Home Run Derby hype man. That intensity was what endeared Arenado to this city years ago, what compelled Coloradans to celebrate him when the St. Louis Cardinals visited earlier this month. 

Arenado was so touched then that it sounds like he pressed to impress them anew. He played more like himself on the next leg of the Cardinals’ road trip in San Francisco.

Arenado took only two at-bats Tuesday before he was replaced by Manny Machado. Overall, the National League hardly threatened against nine American League pitchers; Vladimir Guerrero Jr. alone matched the NL's output.

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But the takeaway for many of the fans in attendance was a rare chance for closure, an occasion to celebrate their erstwhile local superstar on the sort of national stage the team could never reach while he was here. 

And for one notable Missouri resident, All-Star week provided a chance to collect something almost akin to back pay.

"I think we can all understand that sometimes, when you do good work, it doesn’t get noticed," Arenado said Tuesday. "Sometimes, you wanna be appreciated for what you did."

He said that goes for anyone, in any walk of life. Sure enough. But what other line of work offers the opportunity for the sort of adoration that Arenado accepted with gratitude Tuesday?

This was the All-Star Game. Arenado is on a new underachieving team now, and the Rockies are under new management since his departure. He didn’t need to lob another barb at Colorado ownership for its mismanagement while he was here, for its failure to surround him with the sort of roster that could constitute a consistent winner.

With every cheer, the Coors Field fans did it for him.

Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He most recently covered the Dodgers for three seasons for The Athletic. Previously, he spent five years covering the Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. More previously, he covered his alma mater, USC, for ESPNLosAngeles.com. The son of Brazilian immigrants, he grew up in the Southern California suburbs. Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.