Every boo that banged on the eardrums of fallen Colorado Rockies star Kris Bryant pounded home the truth: Baseball can be a cruel game, but when it becomes a matter of life and death, that’s sick.

“I’ve been through it all,” Bryant said Friday. “The death threats, the ‘Kill yourself.’ All the craziness that this game will dish out.”

Unshaken and subdued, Bryant stood at his locker in the Coors Field clubhouse on a wild emotional rollercoaster ride of a spring day, when he was lustily booed, heartily cheered and booed again by 48,399 fans.

“It takes courage to show up every day in this game,” said Bryant, who preaches to Colorado teammates that this cruel game was designed to mess with the mind. “This game dishes you a lot. A lot of up — well, not a lot of up — but a lot of downs.”

The Rockies built a big lead, gave it all away during a ninth inning in which Bryant failed to pluck a throw in the dirt at first base that could’ve ended the agony, then found sweet redemption in the bat of Ryan McMahon, who jacked a walk-off grand slam that allowed the Rockies to escape with a 10-7 victory against Tampa Bay.

“Keep on keeping on,” Bryant said.

Like it or not, Bryant is the face of a franchise without a clue. Every strikeout by the former National League MVP and every loss by the last-place Rockies reinforces how clueless the team was by signing him to a $187 million contract in 2022.

I asked: Does he feel more weight of responsibility for the team’s success and failures?

“Oh, hell yeah. That’s the simple answer,” Bryant replied. “I want to play good. That’s just who I am, in everything I do. You play me in Monopoly, I’m going to want to beat you.”

In the 32nd season of Rockies baseball, the booing delivered suddenly and unmercifully from the moment the National League MVP of 2016 swung and missed for strike three in the bottom of the first inning was a striking indication that maybe, just maybe, Denver is finally growing up as a bona fide major-league city.

Yes, sunshine on our shoulders in LoDo makes us happy. But all the sunshine of summer can’t disinfect the stench of a baseball team that’s treated as background noise by Rockies owner Dick Monfort.

Long the blissfully ignorant place in the major leagues, win or lose, Coors Field has finally become home to paying customers bold enough to demand production from a $187 million ballplayer who is hitting .120 with a dozen strikeouts, despite the 422-foot home run Bryant sailed past the left field foul pole to give Colorado a 6-2 lead heading into an absolutely bonkers ninth inning, even by LoDo standards.

“In this game, you’re constantly trying to prove yourself,” Bryant said. “You’re trying to prove yourself as a prospect, trying to prove yourself as somebody who signed a contract, trying to prove yourself as somebody that won an award and has got to do it again. It’s a never-ending process. That’s what makes this game great and will drive you crazy at the same time.”

While the Rockies’ investment in Bryant has been every bit as regrettable, and perhaps more unforgivable, than the $245 million contract extension the Broncos gave quarterback Russell Wilson before he was run out of town, let’s give credit where it’s due.

More interested in protecting his brand than shooting straight, Wilson stubbornly refused to open his heart and acknowledge his failures in the bluntly honest manner Bryant did while sharing his feelings about being booed at home. He took full responsibility for failure to make a critical scoop at first base when the Rays scored five times in the ninth to erase a four-run Colorado lead.

But death threats? About baseball? That’s gross, absurd and a reflection on the ugliness that discourse in America has taken from the political campaign trail to the dark corners of the internet where trolls hide.

“It’s the way of the world,” said Bryant, evasive and unwilling to cite the time or place of the threats against him during a major league career that has spanned more than a decade. “It’s something that’s a little bit unfortunate.”

Baseball dares a strong man to be defeated by its unending swing-and-a-miss nature. In the bottom of the ninth, Bryant struck out on three pitches with the bases loaded before McMahon blasted a home run over the right field fence to allow everyone to go home happy.

“I know I have three boys waiting to give me a hug right now,” said Bryant, before leaving the team’s 2-6 record behind in the clubhouse to wrap himself in the love of his wife and kids.

“That really makes anything this game dishes pretty easy to handle.”