Any baseball park named after a beer must be a six-pack of fun. The Colorado Rockies started their expansion team existence playing in old Mile High Stadium, prior home of the NFL Denver Broncos for decades. Coors Field is another downtown stadium that ushered in a nice and healthy redevelopment of old downtowns across the country. Of course, the best is in San Francisco with ATT Park, home of the World Champs. Coors Field is adjacent to Denver’s Union Station, where I stopped on my Amtrak trip from Chicago.
Coors Field opened in April 26, 1999 against the New York Mets. It quickly became the most prolific home run ballpark every built, due to the altitude of the city. The average score was 8-7, and no lead was ever safe. The ball travels 9% farther at mile high versus sea level. In general, the thinner air meant less curve or snap on a curve ball, with the fast ball gaining 6 inches of speed!
Total cost to build the stadium was $300 million, with capacity around 51,000 fans. The Rockies drew over 4.5 million fans in their first season at Mile High Stadium. The original design set seating capacity at 43,800, but construction changes and additional seats in right field increased the capacity to 51,000. Center field is also known as the Rock Pile, where seats still only cost a dollar! Even better, construction workers found dinosaur fossils, including a 7 foot long triceratops skull, weighing a thousand pounds.
Of particular interest at Coors Field is the Blue Moon Brewery located behind the right field stands. It is operated by Coors Brewing Company and experiments with craft beers on a small-scale. Among the food selections are sushi, Rocky Mountain oysters, Rocky Dogs, Dave’s ribs, pizza, sushi, pasta and the usual ballpark fare.
The 1998 Major League All-Star game was held here. In 2002, the mighty New York Yankees visited for the first time. The short series was a slugfest with 70 runs scored. The Rockies appeared in the 2003 World Series against the Boston Red Sox. Games 3 and 4 were held here, with the Sox winning the world championship in game 4. The Rockies star shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki pulled off an unassisted triple play on April 29, 2007.
I plan to attend two games here, Saturday evening, and Sunday afternoon. I hope to see plenty of other Giants’ fans here as well. It always looks so inviting when watching our hometown boys on the road, with the visiting stadium full of Giants fans in black and orange. I can only hope that the Giants are still in the pennant race. My hotel is walking distance from Coors Field.
The staff here at the Jet Hotel are really great. Tommy at the front desk, and Marty, the
in front of the bar/disco are class guys. Marty is from Honolulu, and also works at Coach. The hotel is next to the 16th Street Mall, a stone’s throw from Larimer Square, and a 3 wood from Coors Field. And parking my car here was only $10!!!!
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