Getaway

As Alison and I were planning our vacations for 2018 it became apparent that our international travel goals for the year meant that we would not see as much baseball as we have in years past. We did manage to sneak in a Yankees-Angels game when we visited Disneyland for Alison’s birthday, but we were not going anywhere that we would be able to visit a new baseball stadium. Alison and I love baseball and we eventually want to attend a game at every baseball stadium together. To make this goal a reality we try to visit one new stadium together every year. In most years this happens organically. We plan to visit a city that has a baseball team and we can catch a game. Since that was not in the cards this year I searched for an opportunity to visit a new stadium that was relatively inexpensive and would not require us to be gone for a long period. After doing some diligence I determined that Denver was our best option. Alison begrudgingly went along with this plan (Denver is not her favorite place in the world to visit).

We woke up on Saturday morning and headed to the airport. One benefit of flying to Denver is that the flight is super short. After 90 minutes we arrived. We took caught a shuttle to our airport hotel. It turns out that in Denver the airport is massive and is surrounded by wide open space (one of the reasons Alison doesn’t love Denver – even though they claim to have the Rocky Mountains the mountains are really two hours away). It took a few minutes to get to our hotel. We dropped our stuff and got right back on the airport shuttle, much to the confusion and consternation of the driver. At the airport, we caught a train to downtown Denver.

Riding the train was a great and inexpensive way to get to Denver. I think if we ever visited Denver again (not super likely) we would stay downtown and take the train from the airport to our hotel. Denver was a lot like Utah. The houses and buildings looked very similar. We also noticed a lot of factories/industrial buildings as we rode on the train. It seems like there is a lot of industry in Denver. We arrived at Union Station downtown.

We wandered around downtown Denver. It is a nice place. It is clean and has a lot of brick and older-looking buildings that have been converted into modern use. It gives the city a hip feel. There were tons of restaurants and shops. We were hungry so we got some dinner at Sam’s No.3. It is a classic American Diner. It was excellent. Alison and I both had hamburgers with a side of mac and cheese. For dessert, we shared an orange vanilla milkshake.

After dinner, we slowly made our way to the ballpark. We arrived a couple of hours before the game started, which was great. There really is not a lot to do in downtown Denver. According to the internet, some of the top things to see in Denver include Union Station (where our train dropped us off) and the Denver State Capitol. While I am sure those are great sites we could not get too excited about any sites in Denver. That is why we built our trip around a baseball game. We were excited about the game. We went right into the stadium and watched batting practice. While batting practice was going on they had a guy playing live music. He played soul music and was very talented. We enjoyed sitting at the ballpark watching the players get ready for the game and listening to live music. We really liked Coors field. It is a big open stadium. Despite the design, the seats feel very close to the field. We walked all the way around the stadium and even made our way up to the top level. Near the top of the stadium, there is a row of purple seats. These seats are purple to indicate they are exactly one mile above sea level. While they were kind of cool, our seats were at field level. We got a pretty good deal on seats that were by the third base bag and eleven rows back.

The game itself was a lot of fun. The Rockies were playing the Dodgers. The NL west this year is a tight race. The Dodgers were tied with the Diamondbacks for the divisional lead and going into this game the Rockies were only two and a half games back of those teams. Each game really matters for these clubs. The pitching matchup was Freeland (Rockies) against Buehler (Dodgers). Since we primarily follow the Yankees and they are in the American League we were not familiar with either of these pitchers. Both guys pitched very well. Freeland gave up a run in the first and second before settling down and Buehler held the Rockies scoreless into the 7th inning. Alison kept score during the game and I sat back and enjoyed. I did take a break during the 3rd inning to get our favorite ballpark snack these days – nachos. Going into the ninth inning the Rockies were still down two runs. Alison told me that the last two games she went to had pretty wild 9th innings. The last game she went to there was a walk-off home run. Of course, she was the common factor between those two games. She strongly implied she thought the Rockies would come back. She turned out to be right on. The Rockies had a strikeout, double, hit by pitch, and ground out to bring Ryan McMahon to the plate with two outs and two men on base. McMahon hit his 4th home run of the year to bring the game to its dramatic end. It was a fantastic ball game.

After the game, we took the train back to the airport and then took the airport shuttle back to our hotel. We got up the next morning and ate omelets at a nearby diner before heading back to the airport to catch our flight to SLC. It was a quick getaway – we were only in Denver for about 24 hours, but it was a ton of fun. This was the 10th Major League Baseball stadium where Alison and I attended a game together. Each stadium looks different and has its unique quirks, but they all share the thrill that is baseball. There is something magical about sitting in the ballpark with the smell of the grass, the crack of the bat, and being surrounded by the cheers of a multitude of fans. Alison and I have made and will continue to make great memories at ballparks all over the country. I can hardly wait for the next baseball game.