Matt Holliday returns to Coors Field to watch his son Jackson in action

DENVER — Matt Holliday’s career with the Colorado Rockies is a series of frozen moments.

His slide toward home plate that resulted in the game-winning run of the one-game playoff with the San Diego Padres in 2007. The 3-run home run in Game 4 of the subsequent National League Championship Series that effectively clinched the pennant. The 3-run blast in the bottom of the sixth inning of Game 3 of the 2007 World Series that sent Coors Field into raptures and — for a brief moment — led Rockies fans to believe that anything, up to and including winning the sport’s ultimate prize, was possible. There was also two home runs and scoring the game-winning run in a July 4 comeback from a 9-run deficit for an 18-17 win over the Marlins the following season.

And of course, there’s the sight of Matt Holliday holding his 3-year-old son, Jackson, as the Rockies received the only National League championship trophy they’ve ever won.

Back then, Jackson was just a young lad whipping wiffle balls around the Rockies clubhouse.

Occasionally, they smacked into the heads of reporters milling about the room.

“Sorry, if I hit you,” an apologetic Jackson Holliday said Friday afternoon in the Baltimore Orioles clubhouse.

The collision of “Jackson Holliday” and “Baltimore Orioles clubhouse” in the same sentence is jarring to those of a certain age. And that “certain age,” frankly, isn’t all that old.

“Doesn’t seem like that long ago that Jackson was running around here playing wiffle ball,” Matt Holliday said in the Rockies dugout Friday.

But Jackson Holliday is a major-leaguer at just 20 years old, having “>earned his first call-up earlier this season.

That initial promotion didn’t last; Baltimore optioned him back to AAA Norfolk after he logged a .059/.111/.059 line during 10 games in April. But Holliday has been headed in the right direction since his July 31 return to the big club; he homered in his first game back and has a .213/.267/.415 line since his return.

It’s not world-beating and won’t push him anywhere near rookie-of-the-year conversation, but it reveals progress.

And Friday night, Jackson returned to Coors Field, the playplace of his toddler years, as the starting second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles, batting ninth.

The younger Holliday doesn’t recall much about those days in the Coors Field clubhouse before the Rockies traded his father to Oakland after the 2008 season. Those memories are jogged by pictures.

“I think the video that kind of circulated whenever I made my debut of him throwing me and running around and taking ground balls with him. I think that’s kind of special to me,” he said. “And obviously, the picture of us and the playoffs is another good one. Yeah. There’s a bunch of really cool pictures and the memories that I have.”

Jackson Holliday’s memories of his father’s brief return to the Rockies in 2018 are far more vivid.

“I took BP here his last year in 2018,” Jackson Holliday said. “So, excited to take it as a pro and definitely playing the games.”

MATT HOLLIDAY ON JACKSON HOLLIDAY’S MATURITY: “YOU HAVE NO IDEA IF HE’S 0-FOR-4 OR 4-FOR-4”

And that helped Jackson Holliday through a frustrating opening act to his major-league career. After shredding minor-league pitching during a rocket-fueled ascent through the Orioles system, brilliance was expected when he made his MLB debut.

The 20-year-old son of Matt Holliday might look 15 yeas of age, but he acts like someone with twice as many years, which helped him withstand going 2-for-34 during his first call-up.

“For 20 years old, e’s handling it really, really well. He’s very even keeled. He doesn’t get too high or get too low. He’s very mature. He handles failure and success really well,” Matt Holliday said.

“And so I’ve been really proud of how he’s handled it, but not really surprised because that’s who he is and who he’s always been. Classic firstborn. Very responsible.”

And that goes beyond baseball.

“He’s a better parent to the younger kids than me. You know, he’s always like, hey, where’s Reed? I’m like, I don’t know. He’s, ‘Dad, I’ll go find him.’

“He’s been an adult for a while, and so he’s handled it like an adult this year.”

That sort of even approach is necessary when Holliday enjoys a night like Friday’s. On the one hand, he started a double play and stole a base after a fifth-inning leadoff walk. But after that stolen base, he misjudged a fly ball — and perhaps underestimated the arm of Colorado’s emerging center fielder, Brenton Doyle.

Jackson Holliday scrambled to tag up on second base after Doyle’s diving catch of an Austin Slater line drive. Then he tried to reach third base — but Doyle’s pinpoint throw to Ryan McMahon got there first, resulting in being on the wrong end of an 8-5 double play.

HOW FATHER COACHES SON

Don’t expect Matt Holliday to bring up that moment when he talks with Jackson.

While the elder Holliday enjoys watching Jackson — and his other children — play, he doesn’t helicopter-parent. They talk about baseball “a lot,” Matt said — but only when Jackson starts the dialogue.

“I try to let him initiate the conversation. When it comes to mechanical stuff or approach stuff, I don’t want to be over the top with trying to give him too much information,” Matt Holliday said. I know how hard the game is. I never want to forget how hard baseball is — particularly nowadays. So, we talk about baseball a lot, but like I said, it’s a good balance.

“I don’t want him to ever think that all I care about is how well he’s doing on the field, because that’s not true.”