Sam Suplizio: Grand Junction giant in business, baseball.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: In memoriam

Sam Suplizio's pro baseball career ended in the New York Yankees farm system in 1957 with a slide into second base that shattered his wrist and laid waste to widespread expectations that he would eventually join Mickey Mantle in the Yankees' outfield.

A devastating break for a 24 year old. But Suplizio was one of those guys who moved with the same ease in the business arena as he had on athletic fields. In part because of the adaptability, resolve and charisma he brought to any undertaking, Colorado now has major league baseball; Grand Junction is the permanent home of the National Junior College World Series; and Mesa State College has one of the best college baseball facilities in the country--Suplizio Field.

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Suplizio, a longtime Grand Junction resident, died on Dec. 29 of congestive heart failure at 74 in Pawley's Island, S.C., where he had made his home in recent years. He had been weakened by a stroke he suffered about five years ago while addressing a group of players at a St. Louis Cardinals practice.

His influence can be seen in Denver and in Grand Junction, where he settled in 1958 and went to work as an insurance salesman and eventually became majority owner of Home Loan Investment Co., one of the largest insurance agencies in Western Colorado.

Success in business--chiefly salesmanship--enabled him not only to indulge his baseball passion as an instructor for several major league teams, but also to play a huge role in furthering baseball in Colorado. Not least was his stint as co-chairman of the Colorado Baseball Commission in which he helped to bring major league baseball to Denver. The commission asked voters to approve a sales tax increase of one tenth of one percent to guarantee a new stadium, and when voters approved, the stage was set for the Colorado Rockies to begin play in the National League in 1993.

"I would consider him a large civic leader and a very successful businessman in Western Colorado," said Jamie Hamilton, who, like Suplizio, started out as a salesman at Home Loan Investment Co., and became chairman and CEO after buying out Suplizio in 1998.

"He was very active in Club 20 (a group of 20 Western Slope counties) to give political clout and fight the battles on the Eastern Slope," Hamilton said. "He was very instrumental there as a prior chairman of that board."

Few have felt Suplizio's influence more than Hamilton, a 1974 graduate of Regis High School who starred for...