There wasn’t even a game being played at Coors Field over the weekend, and yet, we were reminded why we love Nolan Arenado.

In essence, the Rockies’ Gold-Glove, Silver-Slugger, All-Star, all-everything third baseman sees all of this* as an opportunity.

A World Series for the Colorado Rockies? Why not. That’s Arenado’s take.

“This is what it is this year,” Arenado said on a conference call over the weekend. “If you have a chance to win a World Series and a chance to get to the playoffs, I’m all about it. I think it’s legitimate, we are here; if it wasn’t legitimate, I think a lot of guys wouldn’t be here. It counts. There’s a chance to win a World Series and I think that should be the goal,” Arenado said.

Sixty games, or 162 – do you think a guy like Arenado gives a damn? If there’s a score to be kept, a ball to be hit, caught or thrown, Arenado is going to be there full steam ahead. We should know by now, that’s simply how he’s wired. Doesn’t he strike you as the neighborhood kid who’s got to be told to come inside about seven times once it’s too dark to see? Whiffleball. Basketball. Baseball. Hide-n-go-Seek. Wouldn’t Arenado be the kid who plays and plays and plays until he’s confronted by being grounded or losing some allowance?

Then again, his “allowance” this season will be considerably less than he’s used to. This season, Arenado is scheduled to make about $13 million, rather than the $35 million that’s spelled out in his contract. But while watching him talk on Saturday, he doesn’t appear to be moping around – back at work, underpaid, grouchy like all the rest of us during one of the wildest, most-unpredictable times in world history.

Actually, he looks like a kid who just got out of school for the summer – there’s a hop in his skip, and there’s no doubt about it. Don’t you just have the feeling that the biggest bummer about all of this is that the kid couldn’t just go play baseball? It didn’t even bother him that he was “brushed back” (on accident) by pitcher German Marquez during BP. For a player like Arenado, a little “up-and-in” is a small price to pay to get back in the cage.

And when he talks about the Rockies winning a World Series, there’s a strange sparkle in his eye – like he actually believes it’s possible.

Is it? Let’s see – if the Rockies are playing 162, nobody but nobody believes (would have believed) the Rockies stood a chance. That’s been proven out almost every year of their existence.

But if the season is shortened? Let’s see, the oddsmakers place the Rockies as one of the worst teams, having no realistic chance at winning. In fact, they’re 150-to-1 to win it all. But if you’re seeing things like Arenado is seeing them, it should be noted that at the 60-game mark, the Rockies have stood atop the division twice (1995 and 2017), and been in second place five times (’97, 2000, ’13, ’18 and ’19). The Rockies have a long history of letting their most respectable starts slip away, but what if they’re looking good when game No. 60 rolls around?

Nolan knows.

It’s an opportunity. It’s Bizarro World in 2020, Jerry. If nothing else in 2020 is predictable, why should Major League Baseball? Or the Colorado Rockies, for that matter?

Put an asterisk on the 2020 World Series if you’d like, but Nolan Arenado isn’t about to. And if it’s something that Nolan Arenado is swinging for, count me in regardless of the sample size.

Watch him now, Colorado – in person, on television, during the pandemic or after. Don’t miss a chance to watch a kid who just loves to play.