matthewweaver.com | mlb ballparks

Ballpark:
Coors Field opened in 1995 and was quickly recognized as one of the best ballparks in the Major Leagues. It is the largest of the new parks, with a seating capacity of 50,445, but the sightlines are good enough to allow everyone to get a decent view. The park has so many seats because the team sold nearly 40,000 season tickets while the park was being built and needed to add 10,000 seats for other fans to be able to see the games.

The playing field is huge, with a 415 foot center field wall, to try to compensate for the 8% extra distance that the ball travels in the "thin" air of Denver versus sea level. However, Coors Field is still a launching pad. Lazy fly balls become dingers and games regularly end with double digit scores! In fact, some pitchers - for instance, Darryl Kile - have had their careers scarred by the ballpark. Rockies fans argue that most of the home runs would have gone out of any park, but I personally witnessed a true pop up that ended up drifting over the right center field wall.

The park provides fans with a nice team shop, a microbrewery (with lousy beer) and a unique seating section known as "The Rockpile." It is a separate, but inexpensive, section in center field that is high up and far away from home plate. The park has many club seats and a small row of suites. Another cool feature of the park is the purple row of seats near the top of the upper deck that mark the "mile high" elevation of 5,280 feet. The only real drawbacks are the lousy food and the high prices.

Despite those small issues, Coors Field is one of the best parks in the Majors and I give it a strong "A" rating.

How to get there:
From Denver International Airport, take Pena Blvd. South to Interstate 70. Follow I-70 West to near Downtown Denver and exit onto Interstate 25 South. The first exit on I-25 (Park Avenue) will take you directly past Coors Field. You can also take the Brighton Blvd. exit off I-70 and follow it South to Blake Street (which will take you South to the ballpark).

City:
Denver is called the "Mile High City", as it sits almost exactly one mile (5,280 feet) above sea level. The city is growing at a rapid pace and is regularly chosen as a top place to live, though housing prices are skyrocketing. The population is young and active and they take advantage of the outdoor activities in the nearby Rocky Mountains.

The city sits at the Western end of the Great Plains, so it is very flat and virtually treeless, except for the area to the West of the city. Thankfully, the massive peaks of the Rocky Mountains are just to the West of the city and provide some needed contrast.

Ultimately, the explosive growth of the city, along with smog caused by the proximity to the mountains, makes Denver much like Phoenix. An active, growing city with beautiful scenery, but a city with a chance of ruining a good thing quickly.

Stuff to do while there:
The area around Coors Field, known as "LoDo" (Lower Downtown), is young and hip. The local businesses are peppered with posh shops, restaurants and microbreweries. Like many other cities, the apartment rents are quite steep in the area around their ballpark.

The rest of Denver has many decent neighborhoods and parks. The Rocky Mountains are just a short trip to the West with its ski resorts and scenic hikes and Colorado has more peaks above 14,000 feet than any other state.

Story:
Saturday 4/28 - I was dropped off at the park by the Airport Super Shuttle and made it to my left field bleachers seat just in time for the first pitch. After eating a bad hot dog, I settled in for a day of bad pitching and baking in the sun. I spent much of the game chatting with a nice couple from Nebraska named Benny and Bert. They were regular visitors to Coors and were very nice people.

Sunday 4/29 - After checking out of my downtown hotel, I got to the park more than 2 hours before the game. That allowed me to chat at length with a nice old usher named Bill (who was nice enough to snap my picture), explore the upper deck and get some bad food and even worse beer at the Sandlot Brewery on the first base concourse. I was able to catch 8 innings of sun-drenched baseball before having to leave for the airport.

Fun facts:
There is a purple ring of upper deck seats that mark the "mile high" portion of the park - at 5,280 feet above sea level.

Coors Field led the Majors in attendance from 1995 until 1999 when Cleveland took over the reigns for the 2000 season.

The ballpark had the longest sellout streak in Major League history in the mid-1990's with over 250. The Cleveland Indians destroyed that record with 455 straight sellouts of Jacobs Field from mid-1995 until the second game of the 2001 season.

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The first pitch of the game as
seen from my home plate seats
April 29, 2001

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The exterior of Coors Field at Blake Street and 20th Street
April 29, 2001

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The Rocky Mountains are very visible from the upper deck
April 29, 2001

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Matt during batting practice
April 29, 2001

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A great view of the field from Section 155 in the Bleachers
April 28, 2001

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Downtown Denver as seen
from the third base stairway
April 29, 2001

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The bleacher creature and
beer man, Mr. Earthman
April 28, 2001