BRENT DOEDEN

The colorful gent known as Captain Earthman has been a fixture in Denver’s sports and music venues since 1986, when he first started vending at the old Mile High Stadium.

Most folks probably know him from Coors Field, where he has hawked beer, soda and snacks at Colorado Rockies games since the stadium opened in 1995.

“I needed some extra income — I was a single parent with a 6-year-old daughter,” Brent Doeden says of his debut at a Broncos game. “They gave me a tray of sodas in the third level of the east stands.

“I walked out and said something incredibly stupid and people started laughing and bought all my sodas. I fell in love with it and have been doing it ever since.”

A grandfather, Doeden lives with his wife, Becky, and has six daughters.

COORS FIELD

One of Doeden’s top spots in Colorado is Coors Field. He not only spends at least 81 games a year at the stadium, but it’s the backbone of his vending career, which is a full-time job.

“It’s a beautiful place and I love the feel,” Doeden says. “It was an instant classic from the day it opened, and the fans are just terrific.”

He’s particularly fond of the statue of a baseball player outside the stadium’s main entrance, a work by Loveland’s George Lundeen.

The 9½-foot bronze, titled “The Player,” honors Branch Rickey, the innovative Brooklyn Dodgers general manager who invented the modern farm system and shattered Major League Baseball’s color barrier by signing Jackie Robinson.

On a recent April afternoon, just hours before he was due inside the stadium, Doeden basked in the sun just a few feet from the statue. A young couple walked up with a camera. They didn’t want a photo of the statue — the guy wanted a photo of himself with Captain Earthman.

“Say ‘Rockies,’ ” the woman said, aiming the camera.

Doeden drew himself up and grinned.

“Cold beer!” he yelled.

Q: You turn 56 in May and still lug those beer trays like a trouper. How do you do it?

A: Young guys wonder about that constantly. My trays weigh about 60 or 70 pounds and this is one of the few places I dominate. But up at Red Rocks the young guns tear me apart. I can’t do 120-pound trays anymore. But I ride my bicycle everywhere, and that’s a great workout.

Q: So how many beers do you sell at an average game?

A: It depends on who’s playing. At a good game I sell 200.

Q: You are quite a showman in the stands. Where does that come from?

A: That’s the entertainer in me. I discovered it when I was 16 and working in a fish market at Fort Walton Beach, Fla., where you had an audience. And I was in the high-school acting club and found I really liked interacting with a crowd.

Q: What is your current state of mind?

A: Outrageously happy. Baseball season’s started.

Q: How did the Captain Earthman persona start?

A: It just happened over the years of vending. I used to be a really private person. And when I was a teenager and we’d be hanging out doing dumb things, I’d used to say, ‘If it’s from the earth, man, I’ll do it.’ That’s where it began.

Q: What historical figure do you most identify with?

A: Neil Armstrong. He got to walk on the moon. I’m from outer space — the Orion nebula: They’re still calling me but I can’t go there.

Q: What is your greatest fear?

A: Making the wrong change while vending. It’s bad karma.

Q: What is your most treasured possession?

A: My album collection. I have 11,000 albums — all vinyl.

Q: And your greatest extravagance?

A: Going into a Goodwill store and walking out with eight or nine albums. And I’m a big collector of “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” stuff.

Q: What trait do you most dislike in others?

A: Stupidity. I don’t have much tolerance for stupidity, even in myself.

Q: What trait do you most dislike in yourself?

A: Sometimes I get really lazy, not while working but at home. Once I sit down it’s hard to get back up.

Q: What is your favorite journey?

A: Going to Hawaii. I’ve been twice. One of my daughters just moved there so I have another reason to go back.

Q: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

A: To quit putting my foot in my mouth. I seem to do that sometimes.

Q: What do you consider your greatest achievement?

A: Raising a family and all of them turning out OK. There have been minor bumps in the road but the kids are all fine.

Q: How would you like to die?

A: I’d like to be abducted by a spaceship. But I wouldn’t call it an abduction. I’d just be hitching a ride home.

William Porter: 303-954-1877 or wporter@denverpost.com