Click the link to read the article on the Colorado Public Radio website (Sten Sieg). Here’s an excerpt:
June 12, 2026
On a recent warm night, a batter cracked a hit deep into the lush outfield at Grand Junction’s downtown baseball field, and fans of the city’s new team erupted in joy. Their screams welcomed two players sprinting across home plate. Emblazoned on the young men’s crisp navy caps was the image of an imposing fish with a distinctive hump.
“Go, Suckers!” yelled a guy in the stands, lifting up his beer.
The Razorback Suckers isn’t just a quirky team name. It’s a statement about what matters to this community. The Grand Valley, on the high-desert edge of Colorado’s Western Slope, is deep in a fight to keep this endangered fish alive. Razorbacks roamed the Colorado River for an estimated five million years before humans almost fished them out of existence and destroyed much of their habitat. Now it’s up to today’s humans to save them. And on a recent morning, hundreds of people gathered on the rocky banks of the Colorado River in Palisade for a joyous razorback release…
[Patrick] Steele’s students, who raised these razorbacks all school year, helped direct locals into two long lines leading to the olive-green water. They were here for a local tradition: to kiss each fish before it’s released. Standing in the river, Steele held up a glistening, green and yellow razorback — its suctioning mouth opened and closed between wide eyes on a blobby head. Little kids squealed, and adults closed their eyes with a grimace as they planted a smooch on the razorbacks.
“Well, it was very slimy,” said Phoenix Hadley, a local mom, before starting to laugh. “I think I might have kissed its eyeball. I’m not sure!”