Troy Tulowitzki called John Wooden “one of the brightest guys I’ve ever talked to,” and said, “It’s pretty special to sit around and get to chat with a legend.” Tulowitzki’s meeting Friday with the former UCLA basketball coach was arranged by Jeff Blank, a former UCLA media relations employee and the agent for former Rockies third baseman Garrett Atkins, who went to UCLA. Tulowitzki gave Wooden a Rockies cap. They were supposed to meet for breakfast, but the 99-year-old Wooden wasn’t feeling well in the morning. Regardless, when Tulowitzki went to Wooden’s two-bedroom condominium in Encino, Calif., the surroundings as well as the man himself impressed Tulowitzki.

“A coach of his caliber in today’s day and age wouldn’t be living in a place like that. They’d be in a mansion with a couple gates at it, and you’d be having to call security to get in. So I was pretty impressed with that. But then again, he never made much money. He didn’t care about that.”

Read more about Tulowitzki’s encounter with Wooden and his arrival in spring training in Jack’s report for the Associated Press here.