One photo tells you so much about Mabel Miyasaki. Dressed in Rockies purple, with a birthday tiara perched atop her baseball cap, and a lavender lei around her neck, she’s talking to outfielder Charlie Blackmon during a Cactus League game at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, Ariz. The 6-foot-3 Blac kmon is crouching down to greet Mabel, who stood about 4-foot-7. Blackmon was one of Mabel’s favorite players. Mabel was one of Blackmon’s favorite fans. “Mabel is a true one of one,” Blackmon told me. “She was a star that shone bright. It was uncanny how she could make you feel better about yourself. The world needs more people like Mabel Miyaski.” Mabel Miyasaki, who lived to be 100, celebrates Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon, one of her all-time favorite players. Mabel would have been 101 this coming Friday, but she died on Feb. 5. When she passed, the Rockies lost one of their greatest, funniest, kookiest, and ferocious fans. Donning purple nail polish and Rockies earrings, she attended nearly every home opener, dating back to the first one at Mile High Stadium in 1993. “It’s tough, she left a hole that will never be filled,” said her daughter, Meri Miyaski. “We’ll miss her a lot.” I’ll miss her, too. When I got started in this sportswriting business at the Longmont Times-Call too many years ago to count, Mabel was a fixture at Niwot High School baseball games, where she handed out candy and gum. She worked in the Niwot High lunchroom for years and was the Cougars’ super-booster. As her obituary noted, “Mabel became known as the “Bubble Gum Lady.” She strongly encouraged (i.e. shamed) people to place donations in her green coffee can for the Niwot Booster Club.” Mabel used to invite me — and former Rockies infielder Clint Barmes, too — to her home for her version of chicken teriyaki and rice. Mabel was born to Tasanji and Yoshi Shibao on March 6, 1925, in Brighton, where she grew up working the family farm. A self-described tomboy who was surrounded by five brothers, she fell in love with baseball at an early age. She once told me that she escaped boring kitchen duties — “girly stuff” is how she put it — by going outside to throw and hit baseballs. Her favorite Rockies included Hall of Famers Larry Walker and Todd Helton, Vinny Castilla, Tony Wolters, trainer Keith Dugger, as well as Blackmon and Barmes. Related Articles Can Rockies fix swing-and-whiff offense from disastrous 2025? 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Mabel’s tradition of celebrating her birthday with a dinner during spring training dates back to the early days of the franchise when the Rockies’ camp was at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, Ariz. She and her family, and often a Rockies player or two, would gather at Sakura, a teppanyaki restaurant in the heart of Tucson. One year, reliever Manny Corpas joined the celebration. “He got me drunk,” she told me, wrinkling her nose. “I got really silly.” Hearing that, Meri rolled her eyes and chimed in: “Mom, it doesn’t take much. You had two glasses of wine!” Thomas Harding, my best buddy from MLB.com, often joined Mabel’s family for those birthday dinners. “They would get in so much trouble together,” Meri recalled with a laugh. “They would get out of control.” Mabel seemed to know everybody, probably because she would talk to anybody. For more than 20 years, she worked at a McDonald’s in Longmont. When she retired in 2014, she was one of the oldest McDonald’s employees in the country. “My mom was one of a kind,” Meri said. “And she was one of the hardest-working people I’ve ever known. She wasn’t afraid of hard, physical labor. “But stubborn? Oh my! She had a stubborn streak you wouldn’t believe. But the thing that I loved most about her was that she loved to have fun. She was always the life of the party. Even when things were tough late in her life, she had that mischievous grin. She would always laugh.” Mabel’s last spring training was in 2020, right before the pandemic shut everything down. But she continued to attend Rockies home openers at Coors Field, all the way up to last year when she was 100. She won’t be there in person this year. She will be there in spirit. Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis. ...read more read less