“Spilly.”
For Rockies fans, the nickname evokes bits of magic.
There was his mad dash around the bases on Aug. 24, 2009, when he homered off San Francisco pitcher Merkin Valdéz in the 14th inning for the first walk-off grand slam in Rockies history.
There was his “Who-hoo! … Woo-hoo!” walk-up song (Gwen Stefani’s “Sweet Escape”) that became part of the Rocktober soundtrack in 2007.
There is the broadcaster for AT&T SportsNet: the serious in-booth analyst who mines stats and information for his commentary, but is also the zany guy roaming the stands with a microphone who interviews dogs during “Bark at the Park” day at Coors Field.
There is the co-host on MLB Network Radio who shares his honest opinions about news and trends in the game he loves.
In so many ways, Ryan Spilborghs has put an indelible stamp on baseball in Colorado.
“He’s got so many things going on, it’s amazing,” said Jenny Cavnar, his TV partner. “But his genuine love of people, and the things that he’s doing, that’s what drives him. Because if he didn’t have that passion, he wouldn’t be doing it.”
And there’s much more to come.
Spilborghs, 41, is the co-founder of Future Legends Sports Complex in Windsor, a $130 million, 118-acre sports, entertainment and retail development currently under construction. The complex is scheduled to fully open in the spring of 2022 and will become the home of the Northern Colorado Owlz, an independent minor league team which will begin play next season.
“The whole project is designed to be a sports park for the whole family, where they can make a vacation out of it,” said Spilborghs, who’s been involved in the project for more than seven years. “I’ve been working constantly with the town of Windsor, raising money, doing pre-development.”
Future Legends bills itself as “Colorado’s elite sports facility,” designed for players of all ages and skill levels. Plans call for the complex to include a stadium for the Owlz, multiple baseball diamonds, multi-purpose fields, an indoor bubble sports arena and lodging for youth teams.
“I don’t care if anybody ever plays professional sports,” he said. “I just want families to be able to spend time together and spend time with the community. Because baseball and other youth sports are so community-driven, and they bring people together. I wanted to make this happen in Colorado.”
Spilborghs has no plans to quit the broadcasting career he’s embraced, but he wanted to create something that would last.
***
The heart of Spilly can be found in the backstory of his Twitter handle: @spillygoat19.
In 1999, Spilborghs was a 180-pound, redshirt freshman at UC Santa Barbara, trying to live out his baseball dream in his hometown. A graduate of Santa Barbara High School, he remembers feeling “overwhelmed” and being “the worst player on the field.”
But Brad Wright, a fifth-year senior for the Gauchos, recognized something special and took him under his wing. Right field at UCSB’s Caesar Uyesaka Stadium is a notorious sun field and not easy to play, but Wright saw it as an opportunity for Spilborghs to stand out.
“Brad realized how hard I was working,” Spilborghs recalled. “He pulled me aside, and we talked, and then he bought me a pair of sunglasses. He said, ‘Hey, I’m going to teach you how to catch flyballs in the sun.’ I always thought of myself as a center fielder, but Brad said, ‘If I can teach you how to play right field here, you’ll get a chance to play.’ ”
Wright, who now lives in Parker, remembers the first time he saw Spilly.
“Here was this kid whose legs started up under his chin,” Wright recalled. “He was all legs and very fast. And he had a very good arm. You could tell that this kid had ‘stuff.’ So he’s definitely downplaying his talent. He had good tools and when he hit balls, they came off the bat differently.”
But it was more than baseball talent that captivated Wright.
“He was such a good kid, and even then people naturally gravitated to him,” Wright said. “He had a massively big heart and he was willing to do anything that was needed.”
That included picking up baseballs in the outfield and picking up trash around the ballpark and locker room — without anyone asking.
“That’s just kind of how my parents brought me up,” he said.
After Wright left UCSB, Spilborghs adopted Wright’s No. 24 jersey, in tribute to his mentor. Spilborghs evolved into a first-team, all-Big West outfielder in 2001, when he hit .375 with 40 RBIs and 19 stolen bases.
And he played an excellent right field.
“So that’s how I got the nickname, ‘Spillygoat,’ ” he recalled. “I was running around there in right field. Guys were saying, ‘He’s a goat out there, he gets all of the trash!’ ”
Last year October, Wright’s father, Wes, died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. In the years before Wes died, Wright would often bring his dad to Coors Field to hang out with Spilborghs.
“Spilly would always give him a hug,” Wright said. “He made my dad feel like a trillion bucks.”
In 2014, at age 33, after playing with the Saitama Seibu Lions of Japan’s Pacific League, Spilborghs hung up his jersey. That’s when TV came calling. It was a natural fit.
***
In spring training 2014, Cavnar met with Spilborghs for a drink at the Talking Stick Resort and Casino in Scottsdale, Ariz. They ended up talking for five hours.
“Here’s the thing about Spilly. I don’t think you can separate Spilly — the person, the player and the broadcaster — it all comes from the same place,” Cavnar said. “He’s one of the best teammates I have ever had, and I want to go to bat with him every day.”
Spilborghs’ ability to walk the fine line between being an astute baseball analyst and a goofball has made him one of the most popular figures in Rockies history. This season, he’s teamed up with former major leaguers Cory Sullivan and Jeff Huson to share some play-by-play duties when Drew Goodman has taken time off to watch his sons play baseball.
“Spilly wasn’t an everyday player, he was a role guy,” Cavnar said. “And I think when you are a role guy, you get a very different perspective on the game. He watched everyone very closely and he could see what was wrong with somebody’s swing if they were in a slump, and he cared about them in that regard.
“What the fans saw was a very loveable guy. And he’s become like a brother to me.”
Goodman believes the secret to Spilborgh’s success is his authenticity.
“Spilly is a confident guy and he never tried to become some buttoned-up guy who changed when he got in the booth,” Goodman said. “That’s translated well.
“He’s much more than ‘Silly Spilly.’ He can be, and is, very analytical. He uses the new metrics of the game. He’s very much into looking into the expertise of the game, but at the same time he knows that baseball should be fun.”
Spilly’s got a lot of balls in the air. In addition to his baseball life, he and his wife, Stacey, are raising a daughter, Kierra, and a son, Tatum. And while it took Spilborghs 18 years to complete his degree from UCSB, he finally finished his bachelor’s degree in sociology last year. He’s currently enrolled in the MBA program at the Denver University Daniels College of Business.
But, of course, Spilly will always remain a Rockie, the team that drafted him in the seventh round in 2002.
Even though he often came off the bench, Spilly was central to the 2007 team. That club was different, not just because it won 21 of 22 games to reach the World Series, but because it was so tight-knit. Often, a dozen or more players would go out for a postgame dinner together. Spilborghs had a lot to do with that.
“He was the liaison for everything, he planned everything,” said Sullivan, Spilborghs’ close friend who was his Rockies teammate from 2005-08. “He just made sure that we were all together. That’s just the kind of person he is. He was the one who organized for the night out. We’d get to the stadium for a 6:10 game (and) everybody would say, ‘Hey Spilly, where are we going to dinner after the game?’ ”
Now, Rockies fans get to see much the same person Spilborgh’s teammates saw during his playing days.
“It’s a fine line, between being serious and goofy and funny, so I need to know when to turn it on and off,” he said. “But it is entertainment.”
Spilborghs admits he never really envisioned what he would do with his life after his on-field baseball career ended, he just knew that he would pursue it with passion.
“I guess I will always think of myself as a Rockies major leaguer,” he said. “I love Major League Baseball and I’ll never forget how hard it was to play and the struggles that players have, on and off the field.
“So, to me, this game has always been about relationships and it’s been about understanding what people are going through. I guess I’ve always just wanted to be a good teammate.”
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