These guys were Rockies?

Often times professional athletes have a little trouble walking away from the sport they love.  Honestly, I can't say that I blame them.  But it does create some memories of star players in uniforms that just don't seem to fit.  Football has it examples of Joe Montana as a Chief or Franco Harris as a Seahawk plus many others.  With basketball there is Hakeem Olajuwon as a Raptor (Wow, I didn't remember that) and of course Michael Jordan as a Wizard.  Baseball has its examples too and with this being a Rockies site I will now share with you some of the fine players that ended (or neared the end of) their career in Denver.

Dale Murphy

Dale Murphy was one of the 2-3 best players in the National League in the 1980s.  Of course, he is known as the leader of some very bad Braves teams (excluding 1982) during that decade.  After a brief pit stop in Philly, Murphy played in 26 games for the expansion Rockies in 1993.  He was a shell of his former self and retired May 27th of that year.  On a personal note, GET THIS MAN INTO THE HALL OF FAME!!!

Ron Gant

Ron Gant in my mind is an Atlanta Brave also, but he also some good years in Cincinnati and St. Louis.  He was a Topps All Star rookie in 1988 (as shown above) and finished in the top 10 in MVP voting twice.  Gant played in 59 games in 2001 hitting 8 homers and 22 RBIs.  He was traded to Oakland in a trade deadline that year for the immortal Robin Jennings (traded away after playing 1 game with the Rockies).

Bruce Hurst

Bruce Hurst was a member of some pretty good pitching staffs in Boston during the 1980s.  Following a few years in San Diego, the Rockies acquired him in a deadline deal in 1993.  Hurst started 3 games in the expansion year and lasted a total of 8 2/3 innings with an ERA of 5.19.  He left via free agency after the season and played one more year for Rangers before calling it a career. 

Bret Saberhagen

Bret Saberhagen was a 2-time Cy Young Award winner with the Kansas City Royals in the 80s.  He led Kansas City to the thievery that was the 1985 World Series (ahem...Don Denkinger).  For the Rockies, he was less successful.  He started 9 games for Colorado in 1995 following a trade from the Mets and had as many uniform numbers (31,38) as wins, 2.  He was resurrected somewhat, with the Red Sox after his stint in Denver and finished his career in 2001 with 167 wins.

Steve Finley

Steve Finley is the most recent member of this group.  He was a two time All Star and a five time Gold Glove centerfielder for several different teams.  Finley has one distinct record among his well traveled career.  As far as I could find, Steve's stint with the Rockies made him the only player to be a part of all 5 National League West teams.  He played for 3 other teams (Orioles, Astros. Angels) as well.  He played in 43 games for the 2007 Rockies before being released in June of that year.

OTHERS

Sandy Alomar

Eric Anthony

Howard Johnson

Matt Nokes

Milt Thompson

Greg Vaughn

Tony Womack

Todd Zeile

I didn't wanted this post to be super long so I will write about the "others" Rockie careers at a later date.I only have a card of Murphy as a Rockie (shown above I love the windbreaker on the back).  I could not locate any cards depicting Anthony, Nokes, Thompson, or Womack with the team.  If any of you know of any please let me know.  Were there any players that you were surprised played with your team?