Rockies Baseball

HI!

We tried something new last night; we went to Lower Downtown (LoDo) to Coors Field to see the Rockies play the San Francisco Giants. Remembering that we are retired, Deb and I decided to leave early, find a place to eat and to enjoy the sights and sounds of LoDo. Turns out there are a bunch of places to go, many of them themed as old west, southwestern, Hip, etc.

Here I am, at the railing, waiting for my Coors, and enjoying the afternoon sunshine from the deck above Blake and Market Streets.

Coors Field is home field for the Rockies. Right now, the Rockies are 25 and 20, in second place, and a couple of games back of the Giants.

I'm conflicted. Do I root for the Giants, from the Bay Area, World Series winners, the home of the King - Barry Bonds - or do I switch allegiance to the Rockies, our hometown favorites, the underdogs, non-winners of almost every major accomplishment in baseball? To ensure I look supportive (of either team) I wore my orange ...... Giants colors and Broncos colors. Haven't been able to bring myself to by Rockies "purple" attire yet!

Baseball is an interesting sport. One can concentrate hard on watching every play, following the ball, the batter's stance, and the positioning of the infielders - for hours on end, with nothing really happening. Then, all of a sudden, and just as you turn your attention to the hot dog vendor coming down the aisle way, something explodes and action is on, but you've missed it!

Late into the fourth inning, the score is Rockies 1, Giants 0; sort of a ho-hummer. Then the Giants explode for three runs in the top of the 5th inning ..... a Rockies error and a genuine hit changes the score to Rockies 1, Giants 3.

Ho-hummer again until the bottom of the 6th when the Rockies score two on a home run with a man on base. I was actually watching Morales as he swung on the pitch, connected perfectly and jerked one into the left Field bleachers! Tie game ...... Looks like the game will go into extra innings tied at three.

Ho-hummer until the top of the 9th inning. Giants manage to manufacture a run ..... slang phrase for nothing really happened, but somehow they got a run ...... and it looks like the Rockies are sunk, trailing 4 - 3 with only three outs left.

Ho-hummer again in the bottom of the 9th, but the Rockies have two men aboard the bases with 2 outs. The batter, Arenado, has a two ball / two strike count on him, so there's one pitch left in the game. Two foul balls later, still 2 - 2 count, and Arenado slashes an off-field double to the wall in right center field, a run crosses the plate (tie game) and the second runner digs for home ...... beats the throw from the outfield relay man and the game's really over - Rockies 5 Giants 4.

I did pick up a bit of trivia during the ho-humming parts of the game: the moths in the Denver area fly around in the park after dark, attracted by the stadium lights. They are bigger than small birds and really freak out the young ladies they bump into.

There's been a change in baseball recently and there's "instant  replay" now like there is in football! The Umps get under a hood and review the tapes of the play and then decide whether or not to reverse the call on the field - score: Giants 1, Rockies 1 in the replay department.

And, the average life of a MLB Rawlings baseball is 8 days. They never get reused once taken out of play in a game, get used in batting practice, fielding practice, in batting cages and sent down to the minors, and then are finished and worn out. The Pittsburgh Pirates get an extra day of life out of their baseballs. The ones that are just grass stained or lightly scuffed go into a tumbler the size of an industrial washing machine filled with erasers. The tumbling action against the erasers cleans them up. Finally, the average number of baseballs used in a 9-inning MLB game is 120!

A number of fans decide who is gong to win about the time of the 7th inning stretch. They stand up, stretch, sing a little, and then pack up and leave so they can get a head start on the going-home traffic. Deb and I are really lucky though. We adventured into the realm of public transportation and took the bus downtown to eat and go to the park. We stayed to the last pitch, and we're glad we did, and then walked home to Capitol Hill. Pleasant night, excellent company, good eats and drinks, warm weather ..... no TV ..... How does it get better?

Cheers!

Phil & Deb