Suplizio Field

Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, CO, was the home of Grand Junction affiliated baseball from 2012 through 2019. After that and the Coronavirus pandemic-canceled 2020 season, MLB's Minor League Reorganization made the Rookie-Advanced Pioneer League - including the Grand Junction Rockies (now Jackalopes) - an independent circuit.

Although that resulted in the GR-Rockies losing their affiliation with the Colorado Rockies, they remained owned by a group headed by Rockies ownership and kept their brand in their now independent circuit in 2021 and 2022. However, in August of the latter year, the company that owns the Northern Colorado Owlz of the same league announced it had bought the GR-Rockies from the Rockies group. The new owners say the club will stay in the Junction and play at Suplizio, but did not say whether its brand would change.

Suplizio has hosted the Junior College World Series since 1959.

Sam Suplizio was the first University of New Mexico baseball player to be named an All American. Injury forced ""the next Mickey Mantle"" out of baseball in 1958, but he promptly helped the Junction land the JUCO. He would serve 33 years as tournament director.

In 1991, Suplizio helped Denver, CO, land the National League expansion franchise that became the Rockies. Also that year, the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame inducted him.

In 2011, the Rockies group bought the Casper Ghosts to move them to the Junction in 2012, making a ghost of Wyoming affiliated ball but ensuring renovation of the vintage 1949 GJ playpen. A week after it reopened, the Mavs drew an NCAA Division II regular-season record 4,122. The GR-Rockies' debut drew 5,312. JUCO games hold both its post-renovation and all-time records: 12,014 in 2014 and 12,309 in 2010.

Related Sites

• Colorado Mesa University - Sam Suplizio Field