If Vandergrift’s Warren Schaeffer keeps this up much longer, he will be able to say that literally half his life has been spent in professional baseball.

Since summer 2007, Schaeffer has been employed by the Colorado Rockies organization.

That’s a lot of games — and a lot of Opening Days. But Thursday will mark a game — and Opening Day — unlike any of the other for the 38-year-old Greensburg Central Catholic graduate in the past 16 years.

For the first time, Schaeffer will be in “The Show.”

Promoted over the offseason to third-base coach for the Rockies, Schaeffer is part of a major-league team for the first time. That means for the season opener Thursday at San Diego’s Petco Park, and again next Thursday for the Rockies’ home opener at Coors Field, Schaeffer will take part in the traditional ceremony lining up along the baselines, his name announced with Rockies players and other coaches.

“That definitely means something,” Schaeffer said. “It’s something I haven’t done before, and a lot of people dream their whole lives to get there. I think it’s going to be special. It’s going to be a big deal. I am looking forward to it.”

Schaeffer’s path to the majors has been a long time coming. After leading GCC to a PIAA title in 2002 and being a four-year starter at shortstop at Virginia Tech, Schaeffer embarked on a six-year pro playing career that got him tantalizingly close to the majors — 59 games over parts of two seasons in Triple-A.

After retiring from playing in 2012 before he turned 28, Schaeffer worked his way up the Rockies’ organizational ladder as a coach/manager, starting as a Single-A hitting coach before managing multiple seasons at each classification level.

Three years after being named manager at Triple-A Albuquerque, Schaeffer in November was promoted to the big-league team to serve as the Rockies third-base and infield coach.

Veteran Colorado manager Bud Black said Schaeffer caught his eye during previous major-league spring trainings that Schaeffer participated in as an upper-level organizational manager. They developed a relationship over the years with Schaeffer providing updates on minor-leaguers.

“I’ve seen a lot of growth,” Black said of Schaeffer. “I’ve seen him work in spring training. The dialogue, watching him work with infielders and players, all those things add up to a guy who’s ready.”

Schaeffer, in some ways, never set out to prepare for the gig while he was playing. As he put it, “When you’re playing, you really have a one-track mind. You are thinking about yourself all the time and how you can get yourself better.”

But after deciding to end his playing career, Schaeffer in part leaned on his father, Jim, a former quarterback at Allegheny College.

“My dad always told me I should do something where I am helping people,” Schaeffer said, “and I thought, ‘This is the perfect segue into coaching.’”

Schaeffer has had myriad influences shape him into a major-league caliber coach, but one who made an early impression was his coach at Greensburg Central Catholic, Jack Korpar.

“I used a lot of stuff when I was managing that I learned from him,” Schaeffer said.

“You were trying to pick his brain back then, and it’s funny what shows up 20 years later.”

Because Double-A and Triple-A managers are significant parts of major-league spring training, to this point Schaeffer’s MLB gig hasn’t been all that different in regards to who he’s worked with and where he’s worked (the Rockies’ Salt River Fields facility in Scottsdale, Ariz.). In fact, Schaeffer said the biggest adjustment thus far has been that he’s no longer a manager but instead specialized in duties focused on the infielders.

That changes, though, starting Thursday. And while Schaeffer acknowledges the significance of that, it’s also just one more step in a baseball journey that began in the Alle-Kiski Valley as a kid growing up three decades ago.

“I just come to work every day and enjoy my work, and I just try to get players better every day and enjoy the people around me,” said Schaeffer, whose wife, Callie, and son and daughter have moved to Denver to be with him this season.

“It doesn’t matter where you are at, there’s been things to learn along the way at different levels. And I am still learning every day. I have a lot to learn this year, first year in the big leagues, no doubt about it.”

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