John Kidde Writes

My tour of baseball stadiums has taken me to new heights.

Mile high heights, that is. Yes, I went in the most obvious route possible for word play. I do not care.

Early in the fall, I had not seen my favorite team play in person all season. This has not happened to me since I was probably in middle school. Yet, here we were late into the 2024 MLB season, and I had not seen Shohei Ohtani play in Dodger blue with my own two eyes.

As fate would have it, I ended up in Denver on a day when my Dodgers would be strolling through town and playing the hapless Rockies. I could not pass it up. This season was already turning into something special. Weeks earlier, Ohtani had passed the 50-50 mark for home runs and stolen bases. The remaining games in the season would only be to pad those numbers and prepare him for his first postseason appearance.

Despite being one of the younger teams in the league (they debuted in 1993), the Rockies have the 10th-oldest stadium in Major League Baseball: Coors Field. Coors Field opened in 1995 and has remained essentially unchanged since then. It has hosted two All-Star games in 1998 and 2021 and, remarkably, the 2007 World Series. 2007 was the year of “Rocktober,” and the team has not reached that same level of fervor since.

For starters, this stadium is aesthetically pleasing. The brick and dark green tones mimic what people commonly associate with the “Rocky Mountains.” While I was walking around, it did not feel like the stadium was close to 30 years old. The vaulted ceilings and wide concourses felt comfortable and easy to navigate.

Seeing that I was at Coors Field, I had to have the “Silver Bullet.” Beer at any arena, stadium, or park is not cheap. You could spend upwards of $20 at times just for a pint. When my friend from high school, Sean (seen above), told me about the Rooftop deck, the Coors Light Silver Bullet Bar, and their cheap beer, I had to partake. Adults over 21 (because that’s the law!) can buy a Coors Light for $3 every game before the first pitch. James Franco “wait, what” dot gif.

I had two Coors Lights. Once the game began, I got something more crafty, but that detail is a little fuzzy.

I had to look up how this game went because I remember there being a lot of runs, a Shohei home run, a Shohei stolen base, and a plethora of Dodgers bullpen pitchers. It ended in an 11-4 Dodgers rout.

In classic Coors Field fashion, there were numerous home runs. If you did not know, Coors Field is commonly called a hitter-friendly ballpark because of the altitude. The 5,280 feet between the stadium and the sea level fosters a lot of runs. So many that they had to install a humidor for game ball storage to combat the low humidity and altitude.

As the Dodgers walked off the field that night, victorious in competition, I couldn’t help but look around me and see the volume of Dodger blue in the stands. I knew there were a lot during the game because we were the fans who had the most to cheer about. Dodger fans travel pretty well. It doesn’t hurt that a flight from LAX, Burbank, Ontario, or Long Beach to Denver takes under two hours.

As I mentioned, the Rockies fanbase has had little to celebrate or cheer for since their 2007 World Series appearance. They have made the postseason three times since then. In their next appearance, in 2009, they lost to the Phillies 3-1 in the NLDS. In 2017, they lost the NL Wild Card Game to the Diamondbacks. In 2018, they won the Wild Card Game against the Cubs but were swept by the Brewers in the NLDS 3-0. If you keep tally, that is two postseason wins since 2007.

I remember in 2004, when Jose Lima and the Dodgers won their first playoff game since 1988. As a fan, I know what that feeling is like. This may come off as crocodile tears given the recent success of the Dodgers, but it’s not fun watching your team fail. It also does not help that the Rockies are amid massive rebuilding and are up against teams in their own division who are recent champions (Dodgers), have been close (D-Backs), full of young talent (Padres), and a team that finally has some direction to go with solid performance (Giants). The deck is stacked against them. “Rocktober” will return one day, but not anytime soon.

That said, this is a great stadium to visit, and downtown Denver is easily navigable to and from the stadium. Scooters are plentiful in the 303, and with numerous bike lanes, you can make your way around downtown with relative ease.