Bichette hopes to sway Hall voters

Coors Field hosted its first regular-season game on April 26, 1995, where Dante Bichette ended the night by leaving a glorious impression that still hasn't faded away.
The place opened with a wild game that ushered in a season of high-scoring, exciting and successful baseball, and Bichette punctuated it with a 14th-inning, three-run homer to beat the Mets.
Bichette became the first star player to have spent most of his career with the Rockies franchise to appear on the Hall of Fame ballot. He was a prolific and clutch hitter during his Major League career from 1988-2001, the best seven seasons of which were spent in purple pinstripes.
The home opener homer opened a 1995 season that culminated with Bichette finishing second to the Reds' Barry Larkin in National League Most Valuable Player voting. Bichette batted .340 with a career-high 40 home runs and 128 RBIs.
It was the year Coors opened and quickly proved to be the greatest hitter's park in baseball history. However, there is a difference between players who pile up numbers and those like Bichette, who by sheer force of their swings can make a winner out of a team. The Rockies, in just their third season of operation, made the playoffs.
Bichette was more than a basher. In 1996, Bichette stole a career-high 31 bases, hit 31 homers and drove in a career-high 141 RBIs.
Bichette joined Andres Galarraga, Larry Walker and Vinny Castilla to form "The Blake Street Bombers," a group of hitters that helped draw large crowds and enjoyed celebrity status in Denver until Bichette was traded to the Reds after the 1999 season.