The Rockies have had seven managers in their history. Hands down, the quirkiest in the club’s first 25 years was Jim Leyland.

The chain-smoking, piano bar-singing, old-school manager came and went like a swirling Colorado spring blizzard. Though highly touted, Leyland managed just one season here, in 1999, finishing with a massively disappointing 72-90 record.

Those who know Leyland view him as a curmudgeon with a heart of gold and a quick wit. But his stint in Denver was no laughing matter.

“I loved the people in Colorado; the owners, Jerry McMorris and Charlie and Dick Monfort. I loved the city, it’s beautiful,” said the 72-year-old Leyland, who led Team USA to the World Baseball Classic title this spring and directed the Florida Marlins to a World Series championship in 1997. “I just wish I could have done a better job there.”

His short stay was quirky. The Rockies had set up Leyland with a suite in a downtown Denver hotel, but on many nights he simply slept in the manager’s office at Coors Field.

Bob Gebhard, the Rockies’ original general manager chuckles at the memory.

“After a game, Jim would have a beer and start talking and then he would fall asleep on Chico’s couch,” said Gebhard, referencing former Rockies clubhouse manager Dan “Chico” McGinn. “So McMorris walked in one morning and sees our manager sleeping on the couch. The night before, Chico’s dog had been sleeping on the same couch. And now Jerry comes in and see our manager there.”

McMorris didn’t think that was too dignified, so he hatched a plan.

“Jerry said to me: ‘Tell you what we are going to do. We’re going to punch a hole in the wall to the conference room behind the manager’s office, give Jim another room and we’ll get him a bed,’ ” Gebhard said.

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Some nights after games, to help him unwind, Leyland ventured over to SingSing, the former dueling piano bar near Coors Field.

“I’d go there to sing,” he recalled. “I’ve always found places to sing. I love it. I still do.”

Leyland won pennants in both the National and American League. But he simply wasn’t cut out for managing baseball at 5,280 feet.

“I was always a pitcher’s manager, and I just felt, at the end of the day, after being there a year, that I couldn’t run a pitching staff the way I needed to run it,” Leyland said. “I tried, and tried and tried, but I just wasn’t a good fit. Now I’ve kind of gotten to a place where I’m kind of tired of apologizing for that year, to be honest with you.”