April 24, 2009Dodgers 6 @ Rockies 5
I took this trip in April on somewhat of a whim. I had a free Rapid Rewards Flight on Southwest that was about to expire, so I picked a road date on the Dodger schedule and decided to pay my first visit to Coors Field.
The Colorado Rockies moved to Coors in 1995 after two years (well, one and a half, really) of playing at Mile High Stadium.
Coors Field and the city of Denver are well known for being situated almost a full mile above sea level in the Rocky Mountains. Due to the elevation, the air in Denver is much thinner, allowing a baseball to travel much farther when hit than if it were at sea level. Because of this, Coors Field has gained a reputation as a notoriously hitter-friendly ballpark, despite having some of the largest outfield dimensions in the league. (Oh, and steroids probably helped too.) To combat this in recent years, the Rockies have been given permission by Major League Baseball to store game baseballs in a humidor, in an attempt to soak the balls and make them heavier, thus negating the effect of the thin air and corralling the insane amount of scoring that was once commonplace in the Mile High City.
The outside of Coors Field is a brick structure, with a rotunda at the main entrance behind home plate. It is a design that is meant to evoke old-time baseball, despite the fact that the Rockies only began playing in 1993. However, the outside does fit its surroundings well, as the park is in the "LoDo" District of Denver, a district that is full of historical brick buildings that are now filled with yuppie apartments and offices that nobody can afford anymore.
The neighborhood around Coors Field is very white, and therefore has a lot of bars and other places to meet and socialize. It is a short walk from Denver's historic Union Station and the 16th Street Mall, a moderately interesting white people grazing area.
I arrived at Coors Field by taking a bus from the airport, but really, if you're able to, rent a car. The Denver International Airport is almost in the middle of Kansas somewhere, and public transportation options to and from there are very, very slim. There seemed to be a decent enough amount of parking for a downtown venue, and the neighborhood seemed safe enough, so the car is probably the best option if you can.
There wasn't anything that remarkable about the food at Coors, but it does have it's own brewery/restaurant (owned by the Coors Brewing Company, of course) on site. In fact, it's where Blue Moon Beer was first brewed.
Unless the Rockies make it to the playoffs (they're leading this year's wild card standings at the time of writing), there are probably going to be seats available, thanks to a very large capacity of 50,455 When I went in April, the Rockies were 5 games behind the Dodgers in 5th place. The attendance for this game was a respectable 36,151, but I was still able to walk up on game day and get this awesome seat for a relatively fair $50.
I liked my seat, but probably the coolest thing about the seats at Coors Field is the row of purple seats in the upper deck. The row marks the point that is exactly 1 mile above sea level. A nice touch for the team from the mile-high city. There is also a section of bleachers in deep center field called the "Rock Pile," and tickets for this section are $1 on the day of the game.
From what I experienced, the Rockies fans all seemed fairly intelligent and alert to what was happening in the game. They cheered at appropriate moments, booed Manny, and there wasn't anything like a beach ball to distract them. There was good conversation had, and one person even stopped me to tell me how awesome my jacket is. (It is.) The ushers were also very friendly, even allowing me to get closer to the Dodger dugout to try and see some of the players. Very un-Dodger Stadium like.
The place is even landscaped well, with a nice fountain area in center field that is surrounded by a miniature forest that extends to the bullpen. While I'm not normally a fan of this kind of stuff, it works well here and serves a nice little reminder that the game is being played in the Rocky Mountains for those watching on TV.
I even kind of liked Dinger, the mascot, even though he does sort of re-kindle some awful, awful memories.
My experience at Coors Field was a very, very good one. I liked the environment and the people a lot. Of course, it probably helped that the Dodgers won the game. However, I'm glad I was able to cross it off my list, because there is really no other excuse for me to visit the City of Denver again anytime soon.
You can view all of my photos from my trip to Denver here.
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