Rockies 1st-round pick Chase Dollander eager to make his major league debut Sunday against Athletics

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Rockies 1st-round pick Chase Dollander eager to make his major league debut Sunday against Athletics

2025-04-06 07:20 Last Updated At：07:41

DENVER (AP) — The moment didn't seem quite real even when 23-year-old right-hander Chase Dollander was told he was heading to Coors Field to make his major league debut with the Colorado Rockies. It seemed almost surreal when he informed his family and friends.

But it certainly sank in once he arrived at the ballpark and saw his No. 32 uniform with his name on the back. Dollander, the organization's first-round pick in 2023, will have his contract selected and make his first appearance Sunday against the Athletics.

“I’m pumped and ready to go,” said Dollander, a hard-throwing hurler out of the University of Tennessee who was the ninth overall draft selection. “It’s going to be a lot of fun to be able to pitch against these guys.”

Dollander found out the news when he was called into his manager's office while with the Albuquerque Isotopes, the Rockies' Triple-A affiliate. He was summoned under the pretense of going over a scouting report he'd prepared for his upcoming start. Dollander's coaches told him his plan wouldn't work — because he was going to Denver.

The 23-year-old Dollander began to clap, leaned his head back on the couch and said, “Let's go.” His first call was to his mom and stepdad, who cried over the news. The next was to his girlfriend, who cried, as well. They're all going to be in the stands Sunday.

“I always hoped it wouldn’t be long, but I didn’t think it would be quite this quick,” said Dollander, who has no attachment to No. 32 and was just given it. “But I’m ready for it. I thought I was ready in spring training.”

Dollander made six Cactus League starts in his first major league spring training and finished 2-3 with a 7.13 ERA. He had 24 strikeout and 10 walks.

His only start with Albuquerque this season was on March 30, when he allowed one run and struck out five over four innings.

Dollander flashed his fastball — consistently hitting 96 mph, while touching 98 — and his vast potential last season. He went 6-2 with a 2.59 ERA over 23 starts between High-A Spokane and Double-A Hartford. He had 169 strikeouts and 47 walks.

“His small amount of seasoning in the minor leagues, we think was just enough,” Rockies coach Bud Black said. “We have no apprehension on the guy, as far as everything outside the lines. It’s a good feeling. Right now, it’s just a matter of hopefully between the lines he performs well enough.”

Dollander has two Tennessee teammates on the squad in outfielder Jordan Beck and righty Seth Halvorsen. He also heard from another Volunteers baseball star in Todd Helton, the longtime Rockies first baseman who was a Class of 2024 Hall of Fame inductee. He's currently the special assistant to the Rockies' general manager.

“Todd texted me yesterday and congratulated me, said he was extending his stay so he could watch me pitch,” Dollander said. “That was really cool. I’m excited to see him and give him a hug.”

Asked how the Athletics prepare for a pitcher they've never seen, manager Mark Kotsay just grinned.

“You can find film anywhere,” Kotsay said. “Exciting time for the Rockies, for this kid to come up and make his major debut here in Colorado. ... We'll prepare. He's a power arm, curveball, changeup guy. Obviously, there will be a lot of adrenaline on his end to come out and throw that first pitch.”

As for pitching at hitter friendly Coors Field, Dollander's far from intimidated.

“Everybody knows the ball flies here. Stuff doesn’t move as much,” Dollander said. “It’s a challenge, and I’m ready for it.

“This is definitely a dream come true, for sure. But as you conquer more dreams, you make new ones. I’m excited to start conquering those new ones and see where it takes me.”

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NYC sightseeing helicopter plunges into river, killing 6, including family of Spanish tourists

2025-04-11 12:17 Last Updated At：12:21

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City sightseeing helicopter broke apart in midair Thursday and crashed upside-down into the Hudson River, killing the pilot and a family of five Spanish tourists in the latest U.S. aviation disaster, officials said.

The victims included Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, his wife, Mercè Camprubí Montal, a global manager at an energy technology company, and three children, in addition to the pilot, a person briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press. The person could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Photos posted on the helicopter company’s website showed the couple and their children smiling as they boarded just before the flight took off.

The flight departed a downtown heliport around 3 p.m. and lasted less than 18 minutes. Radar data showed it flew north along the Manhattan skyline and then back south toward the Statue of Liberty.

Video of the crash showed parts of the aircraft tumbling through the air into the water near the shoreline of Jersey City, New Jersey.

A witness there, Bruce Wall, said he saw it “falling apart” in midair, with the tail and main rotor coming off. The main rotor was still spinning without the helicopter as it fell.

Dani Horbiak was at her Jersey City home when she heard what sounded like “several gunshots in a row, almost, in the air.” She looked out her window and saw the chopper "splash in several pieces into the river.”

The helicopter was spinning uncontrollably with “a bunch of smoke coming out” before it slammed into the water, said Lesly Camacho, a hostess at a restaurant along the river in Hoboken, New Jersey.

On air traffic control radio, an NYPD helicopter pilot can be heard saying, “Be advised, you do have an aircraft down. Holland Tunnel. Please keep your eyes open for anybody in the water.”

About five minutes after that, someone asks, “Hey Finest,” a reference to the NYPD’s call sign, “what’s going on over there by the Holland Tunnel?”

“The ship went down,” someone else responds.

Rescue boats circled the submerged aircraft within minutes of impact near the end of a long maintenance pier for a ventilation tower serving the Holland Tunnel. Recovery crews hoisted the mangled helicopter out of the water just after 8 p.m. using a floating crane.

The bodies were also recovered from the river, Mayor Eric Adams said.

The flight was operated by New York Helicopters, officials said. No one answered the phones at the company’s offices in New York and New Jersey.

A person who answered the phone at the home of the company’s owner, Michael Roth, said he declined to comment. Roth told the New York Post he was devastated and had “no clue” why the crash happened.

“The only thing I know by watching a video of the helicopter falling down, that the main rotor blades weren’t on the helicopter,” the Post quoted him as saying. He added that he had not seen such a thing happen during his 30 years in the helicopter business, but noted: “These are machines, and they break.”

Emails seeking comment were sent to attorneys who have represented Roth in the past.

The Federal Aviation Administration identified the helicopter as a Bell 206, a model widely used in commercial and government aviation, including by sightseeing companies, TV news stations and police. It was initially developed for the U.S. Army before being adapted for other uses. Thousands have been manufactured over the years.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it would investigate.

Escobar worked for the tech company Siemens for more than 27 years, most recently as global CEO for rail infrastructure at Siemens Mobility, according to his LinkedIn account. In late 2022 he briefly became president and CEO of Siemens Spain. In a post about the position, he thanked his family: “my endless source of energy and happiness, for their unconditional support, love ... and patience.”

Escobar regularly posted about the importance of sustainability in the rail industry and often traveled internationally for work, including journeying to India and the UK in the past month. He also was vice president of the German Chamber of Commerce for Spain since 2023.

Camprubí Montal worked in Barcelona, Spain, for energy technology company Siemens Energy for about seven years as its global commercialization manager, according to her LinkedIn account.

Video of the crash suggested that a “catastrophic mechanical failure” left the pilot with no chance to save the helicopter, said Justin Green, an aviation lawyer who was a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps.

It is possible the helicopter’s main rotors struck the tail boom, breaking it apart and causing the cabin to free fall, Green said.

“They were dead as soon as whatever happened happened,” Green said. “There’s no indication they had any control over the craft. No pilot could have prevented that accident once they lost the lifts. It’s like a rock falling to the ground. It’s heartbreaking.”

The skies over Manhattan are routinely filled with planes and helicopters, both private recreational aircraft and commercial and tourist flights. Manhattan has several helipads from which business executives and others are whisked to destinations throughout the metropolitan area.

At least 38 people have died in helicopter accidents in New York City since 1977. A collision between a plane and a tourist helicopter over the Hudson in 2009 killed nine people, and five died in 2018 when a charter helicopter offering “open door” flights went down into the East River.

New York Helicopters also owned a Bell 206 that lost power and made an emergency landing on the Hudson during a sightseeing tour in June 2013. The pilot managed to land safely, and he and the passengers — a family of four Swedes — were uninjured. The National Transportation Safety Board found that a maintenance flub and an engine lubrication anomaly led to the power cutoff.

Thursday’s crash was the first for a helicopter in the city since one hit the roof of a skyscraper in 2019, killing the pilot.

The accidents — and the noise caused by helicopters — have repeatedly led some community activists and officials to propose banning or restricting traffic at Manhattan heliports.

Other recent crashes and close calls have already left some people worried about the safety of flying in the U.S.

Seven people were killed when a medical transport plane plummeted into a Philadelphia neighborhood in January. That happened two days after an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter collided in midair in Washington in the deadliest U.S. air disaster in a generation.

Associated Press reporters Mike Balsamo and Philip Marcelo in New York and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.