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his issue of Rockies Magazine is Volume 21, Number 2, meaningthe second issue of the 21st year. Sheldon Bergenheier knows

that because he possesses every issue of Rockies Magazine in history.“In the early years, I was going to school at Mesa State in Grand

Junction and my parents and I would try to make it to Denver a fewtimes throughout the summer,” Bergenheier says. “I realized I hadmost of the magazines around’95, then did a little research,called the team and bought allthe issues I was missing, whichwas probably five in those firsttwo or three years. After that,I’ve just been a subscriber.”

While he was a college stu-dent at Mesa State College—now Colorado MesaUniversity—Bergenheier re-members a Rockies Caravancame through the WesternSlope with former ManagerDon Baylor, relief pitcherBruce Ruffin and infielderHoward Johnson. He thoughtthe caravan afforded him aunique opportunity to meetsome big leaguers in personand get some autographs, butreally nothing more at thetime.

“I thought, ‘I’ll go down,get some baseballs and RockiesMagazines signed and start acollection,’” Bergenheier re-members. “It just kind of ex-ploded from there.”

With his magazine collec-tion, Bergenheier, like mostcollege kids, also had somehelp from mom early on.

“My mother would buy[the magazines] for me as abirthday present every year,”Bergenheier remembers.

While there are certainlyother Rockies fans with a copy ofevery Rockies Magazine, what makes Bergenheier’s collection especiallyimpressive is that he is not a Rockies Season Ticket Holder and hedoes not live in Colorado. He uses Rockies Magazine as a means tostay connected with the club and he remains as loyal and enthusiastica fan as ever.

Raised in the mountain town of Meeker, Colo., in a time beforethe Rockies existed, Bergenheier now lives in northern Nevada withhis wife, Jennifer, and two sons, Brooks, 11, and Erick, 8. He has livedin Nevada since 1994, most of his “Rockies life.”

Even though he lives a couple of states over from Colorado,Bergenheier has never missed a Spring Training, either at Hi Corbett

Field in Tucson or Salt River Fields in Scottsdale. He also visits CoorsField as much as possible during the regular season, with family livingin Denver.

He keeps all of his Rockies Magazines on a bookshelf in his homeoffice and when asked about his favorite issue or stories that immedi-ately come to mind, Bergenheier quickly mentions the famous Sep-

tember 1998 issue. He, ofcourse, knows the month,year, volume and number, notjust the guy on the cover.

“I was having a conversa-tion today about that exactissue,” he says. “I’m a bigVinny fan and that would beit, the ‘Matador’ issue.”

While his dedication andcollection of magazines is im-pressive, Bergenheier’s arsenalof Rockies memorabilia doesnot stop with just the pro-grams.

An avid Rockies auto-graph collector, he also boastsa rare and expansive collectionof autographed baseballs.

“I have a signed ball fromevery player and coach inRockies history,” Bergenheiersays proudly. “Each one is ona single signed sweet-spot base-ball. I have a wall built in myoffice that holds them all. Ialso have a single signed All-Star ball from each year;[Major League Baseball]makes the All-Star ball foreach city and I have all those[signed by the Rockies playerswho represented the club inthe All-Star Game that year],except for Carlos Gonzalezfrom last year. I don’t havethat yet.”

Bergenheier also has a fewmulti-player signed balls with variousteams or groups of players. For ex-

ample, he has a Blake Street Bombers autographed ball, 1993 Open-ing Day starting nine, the entire 1993 team, etc.

As the years roll on and new players come into the organization,Bergenheier may have to invest in more square footage to hold all ofhis memorabilia, but his motivation and love for Rockies collectablesendures. And he will continue to make his annual journey to SpringTraining and attend as many Rockies games as possible. It won’t beeasy, he says, but it never was.

“It’s a crazy chase, but it’s fun. And I’m proud to bleed RockiesPurple.” v

Rockies Archives, Nevada StyleBy Julian Valentin

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Rockies collector Sheldon Bergenheierwith his sons, displaying a few favoriteRockies Magazine issues in front of hisextraordinary autograph baseball wall.

Inset: A few special multi-player base-balls in the collection.