My Coors Field (Rail)Road Trip
by doctorK on Jul 8, 2008 12:48 AM PDT
6 comments
Last winter, Mrs doctorK informed me of her desire to attend a meeting of a bunch of really smart people in Denver during the week of the 4th of July. I quickly checked to see if the Rockies had a homestand during that time (I've got my priorities straight, after all), and happily they did, so I agreed to go along. I absolutely detest flying, so I thought we would go there on the California Zephyr, and fly home. I had taken that train a few times while in grad school, when I was able to handle a two-day train ride in coach. Now that I'm no longer in my twenties, and am merely poor instead of destitute, we sprang for a roomette in the sleeper car ($185 for the two of us - an absolute bargain). Here's how our little journey to Denver went.
To skip my narrative, go here for a slide show of the trip.
First, to get into the mood, here's a little train music.
Getting There
To avoid making my mother (in town to watch little Miss specialK) drive us to Emeryville at 6:00 am on a Sunday, we decided to take the afternoon Capitol Corridor train from Santa Clara and spend the night in Emeryville. On the way, we saw a happy sight.
Alas, the Gnats were 1-0 winners that night.
The next morning, we got on the Zephyr without any TSA hassles. From Emeryville, we went to Martinez, then on up to Davis and Sacramento. At Martinez, we had to cross the Benicia bridge.
While crossing the bridge, to distract myself from the possibility of dying a horrific death via an 8.0 earthquake, I tried taking pictures of this truly ugly ship without getting shots of the bridge supports. For the most part, I failed.
Somewhere between Benicia and Davis, a bird decided to improve the view out our window by taking a dump on it. We only had to stare at this avian reminder for the next 34 hours or so.
This guy in the foreground was trying to keep up a conversation with a buddy of his in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, the Union Pacific line starts to feature a load of tunnels past Auburn, so he kept losing the connection (tough - you're supposed to be enjoying the view, not yapping on the phone).
The train continued through Colfax, where we caused a traffic jam.
Here are some other sights along the way to Denver.
Where are the Road Runner and Wile E Coyote? (Eastern Utah)
Colorado River in Ruby Canyon near the Utah/Colorado border.
Click here for a view of the moon over the Colorado River (probably NSFW).
The Zephyr goes through the famous Moffat Tunnel. Here's what it looks like inside.
The Venue
After hanging around Denver for a few days, I finally got around to what I really wanted to see - baseball!
Our seats were in section 206, in the front row. This put us right over the out-of-town scoreboard, and featured a great view of the field. Up in the third deck there is a row of seats colored purple. The Purple Row, which is where our sister SBN site gets its name, marks the one-mile altitude line. I was advised to get there early so I could hike up to the third deck and get a picture taken there before all the fans showed up (note - if global warming melts the polar ice caps, then the Rockies will need to move the purple seats up a row or two).
A couple of things to note.
- My legs need more sunlight, or to be totally hidden from view.
- It was really hot in Denver that afternoon.
Coors Field has a very nicely done bullpen. Note the tribute to Daryl Kile on the wall.
Overall, Coors Field is an excellent place to watch baseball, with a good variety of food, drink, and, most importantly, good views of the field.
Here is my dinner. Great Dog Almighty!
During the game, fan contests are done live. This one was right below us.
Instead of Dot Racing, the Rockies do Harley Racing
Unfortunately, the fans liked to do the wave. For the most part, however, they seemed to really be into the action on the field, even when their team was down by 9 runs in the 4th inning. Also, nobody hassled me for wearing an A's shirt (I imagine the reception I would get during football season would be a little different, however). There was also one bonehead sitting down the LF line who decided to grab a live ball, resulting in a ground-rule double (the umpires did allow a runner to score from 1B due to the fan interference), and the moron's ejection from the game.
The main scoreboard was also useful in showing me the important news of the night.
There were, however, a few technical glitches, such as displaying the wrong face during an at bat by Jorge Cantu.
This guy, I swear, is so gritty that he could probably chew through five maple bats simultaneously without splintering a single one.
The game
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that along with George Steinbrenner and Al Davis, I was born on July 4, so happy birthday to me. I just love baseball and fireworks, so the Marlins and Rockies decided to give me a lot of both. Because I am not a fan of either of these two teams, I could just settle back and enjoy the action. Hanley Ramirez did not wait long to get things going - he smoked the first pitch of the game about 450 feet to straight-away CF. Here we are with two outs in the top of the first, when it was already 5-0 Marlins.
Thankfully for the home nine, the Marlins pitching was just as execrable. Here, the fountains are going off after the first of Matt Holliday's home runs.
Brad Hawpe fields one of 13 doubles hit in this game.
Luis Vizcaino was the third pitcher of the game for the Rockies. Unfortunately, he still is as bad as he was with the A's.
The oval on this picture shows about where Chris Iannetta's 5th inning home run landed, on the concourse behind the LF bleachers.
Marlins starter Scott Olsen was really quite terrible, yielding 9 runs in five innings. For some reason, manager Fredi Gonzalez had Olsen hit leading off the 6th (I suppose it must be some NL thing to let a pitcher that YOU ARE ABOUT TO PULL FROM THE GAME to hit for himself). In the top of the seventh, with no outs, runners at 1st and 2nd, and two runs already in, Gonzalez also decided to have Matt Treanor bunt. The Marlins ended up scoring two more runs on a double (what else) by Luis Gonzalez, but considering that Treanor had already hit a bomb, and hits were about as rare as sand on the beach in this game, I kind of wonder what might've happened had Treanor been allowed to hit away. As for the Rockies, the only questionable move of the night was pulled by Troy Tulowitzki, who smashed a maple bat after being pulled in a double-switch. The bat shattered (of course) and gave him a laceration on the hand, landing him on the DL.
Here is Ryan Spilborghs after his second HR of the game.
Here is Garrett Atkins after his 6th inning big fly, which brought the Rockies to within a run at 13-12.
The Marlins and Rockies exchanged four-spots in the seventh (the Rockies' runs came on slam by Matt Holliday), and after a scoreless 8th for both teams (the only time this happened all night), the Rockies came up in the bottom of the ninth, trailing 17-16. Three straight singles off of Kevin Gregg (a former Toluca Lake Rodent of Orange County) tied the score. Jeff Baker then hit what should've been a double-play ball, but Hanley Ramirez dropped the throw at 2B, loading the bases with no outs. Here we see Baker's ground ball, visible just to the left of the mound.
Instead of two outs, runner at third, the bases were now loaded with no outs. Iannetta's seeing-eye ground-ball single then scored Holliday with the winner (this ball probably would've been fielded had the infield not been playing in).
Final score: Rockies 18, Marlins 17. There were 43 hits and 11 walks in this game, so the pitchers' combined WHIP for the game was 3.177(!). Given the score, forgive me if I thought this line to be more appropriate.
The Fireworks
It took nearly 40 minutes to get all the fans in the bleachers and the Rockpile (the upper-level bleachers above CF) down onto the field so they could see the action. Here's a video (crummy camera-phone quality) of the last 6 and a half minutes of the show. This was the first fireworks show I've seen to feature the end of Beethoven's 9th for the finale.
The Really Smart People Meeting
For the most part:
Oh yeah, we flew home. The less said the better.
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Awesome!
Mark Ellis: sent down from Heaven to rob Evil of hits and hand out rainbows
by Jennifer on Jul 8, 2008 7:27 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Oh, so you were at THAT game. Nice.
Hmm. The thought of taking a train someplace like that is pretty appealing.
Last of the Ninth - Photography Site
jamesvenes.com - Blog
by Flashfire on Jul 8, 2008 7:42 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs
that is definitely neat
and i would consider it.
nice post, doc.
"It's not my fault your team's so shitty." -Steve Friend, head coach, Chabot College, to Laney College's head coach, who asked why we scored so many runs after we beat Laney 30-3 in 2006
by flipgatey3 on Jul 8, 2008 12:08 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I've done it before, just not so far
Back in 2004 I flew to Kansas City to see a couple Mets/Royals games then took the train to St. Louis for the real reason I went: A’s/Cardinals, then more train to Chicago for A’s/Cubs before flying back home.
Those were about six-hour rides, though. No sleeper car stuff.
Last of the Ninth - Photography Site
jamesvenes.com - Blog
by Flashfire on Jul 8, 2008 12:47 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Thanks for sharing!
There's no textbook for how to treat a geriatric tapir.
by Poppy on Jul 8, 2008 12:21 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
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