Our only MLB trip of 2010 took us to Denver, Colorado for the weekend of June 11-13th 2010, for our first visit to Coors Field, home of the Rockies. The flight from Newark, NJ to Denver CO took about three hours and 45 minutes, and after picking up our rental car, we arrived at our hotel not far from the airport around 400 pm local time.
There was a considerable amount of turbulence landing at Denver International Airport, which in itself was not unusual, as the airport is adjacent to the Rocky Mountains. Its proximity to the mountains makes the airport susceptible to strong and shifting winds, and all of my landings at Denver International Airport have been bumpy (even in good weather).
Unbeknownst to us, thunderstorms were scattered about eastern Colorado that afternoon. We became fully aware of the threat as we drove from the airport to the hotel. After checking in, we went down to the hotel bar to get sandwiches when the storms arrived. The manager of the bar came out and told us that, if necessary, we would move across the street to a bank to hunker down if a tornado was sighted.
There as an audible murmur among the few bar patrons when they were informed of the specter of fleeing ahead of a possible tornado. However, being a weather geek, I had other plans. If there was a tornado sighted, I was going outside to get pictures of the storm. Never having seen a tornado, I felt this opportunity was too inviting to let pass. Alas, the strongest part of the storm passed us by, leaving the bar patrons relieved and me disappointed.
Behind the storm, the wind picked and the air turned noticeably cooler as we headed out to Coors Field, located just outside of downtown Denver. Arriving at the park about an hour before game time, we searched for parking. There are three official parking lots at the stadium (Lots A,B and C), with prices ranging between $15 and $25. On this night, due mainly to the unsettled weather, we sought to secure a spot near the stadium. Otherwise, there are many other parking options located within a short walk from the stadium, though prices vary considerably.
With a light rain falling, we skipped our normal walk around the stadium and went into the ballpark through the first base entrance. Entering the ballpark, we were greeted by a tarp covered field. Every baseball fans knows that tarp on the field before the first pitch is a bad sign. Trying to stay optimistic, we wandered around the park in the rain as long as practical, before ducking in under cover provided by the lower level concourse.
The game time of 610 pm came and went, while the rain continued. Temperatures dropping into the 40s made a wet evening even more unpleasant, and I feared as though the game would be postponed without a single pitch being thrown. We took cover as the rain started to lighten up, giving us hope that there might be a game after all.
As the rain slackened, our hopes for a game were buoyed. After removing the tarp, it took the ground crew 45 minutes to ready the field, pushing back the game time to 855 pm. Much of the crowd left during the extensive rain delay, and there were less than 10,000 fans left in the park (which holds 50,000 fans) when the game started.
Cold and wet, we found our seats for the first pitch. Starting for the hometown Rockies was right hander Ubaldo Jimenez, who was enjoying a career year. Jimenez sported a 1.13 ERA in support of a 11-1 record. The starter for the visiting Toronto Blue Jays was left hander Ricky Romero, who we saw start for the Jays in Detroit in 2009. Not long after the first pitch, intermittent light rain returned, with the occasional snowflakes mixed in as temperatures dropped into the 30s.
The Blue Jays opening the scoring in the second with a single run, and the Rockies responded with two runs in the bottom of that inning. The Blue Jays scored two more runs in the third to retake the lead, as Jimenez was experiencing his worst outing of the 2010 campaign. The intermittent rain was becoming steadier and heavier, chasing away most of the remaining fans. Having traveled 2,000 miles to see this game, we were determined to remain util the end.
Meanwhile, the Rockies scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth in innings to take a 5-3 lead. Conditions continued to deteriorate, prompting umpires to call for the ground crew to cover the infield once again. Mercifully, the wait was relatively short before the game was called, handing Jimenez his league leading 12th win. With so few fans left in the building, exiting was easy. The late start and bad weather didn’t allow us to explore the park as much as we would have liked, but there were two more games in the series, so we would get another change to take in the feel of Coors Field.
Baseball Travels 