It's the World Series! In Denver! Oh My!

Awesome - it's exhilarating to see everyone in the city decked out in Rockies colors and to hear everyone in the streets, bus stops, cafes, and offices all over downtown talking about our baseball team. The Rockies have accomplished nothing short of a miracle, and I don't think it could have happened to an athletic club with more heart and more character.

Lots of people are complaining about the "bandwagon joiners" coming out of the woodworks as a result of the Rockies' success. I welcome the bandwagon with open arms. If this winning streak (22 out of 23 games at the time of this writing), and possibly a World Series championship, sparks an interest in baseball in this city, then all the better. If this year's success creates new fans to fill the Rockpile in Coors Field and the barstools of Lodo's drinking establishments next year, then tallyho!

My only gripe is with the ridiculously underpowered online process of purchasing tickets for the Series in Coors Field, which resulted in success for only a small fraction of fans - not including us :(. Since non-season ticket-holders could only buy tickets online, the ticket-selling site was swamped on Monday, causing an official claim (bogus in my opinion) that malicious hackers brought it down. When ticket sales resumed today, we were greeted by constant waits, site-disconnected errors, and no tickets.

I have the feeling that the people who benefited most from this online-only sale were professional ticket scalpers, those with sniping software looking to make a quick buck, and the nationwide horde of well-heeled, travel-ready Red Sox fans. Ah well, we'll be cheering from the comfort and warmth of our neighborhood tavern. Go Rockies!

Mile High Fourth of July

We hope everyone is having a great and relaxing Fourth of July week! We decided to forgo the usual beer and food-laden activities, which usually leave us sated and patriotic, but just as often bloated and lethargic. Instead we decided to go on a healthy, calorie-burning hike through the beautiful Colorado front range.

Julia got me some great gifts for my birthday, including The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama (could he be our next president?) and a couple of excellent hiking guide books for Colorado. We dove into the hiking books and chose Button Rock Preserve, a 5.9 mile hike near Boulder that brought us to beautiful rolling meadows, a giant gushing dam, and the usual beautiful rocky mountain vistas. Our only complaint was that a large portion of the hike seemed to take place on rocky roads suitable for vehicular traffic, as opposed to true walking trails.

On the way home we happened to see a banner on Mile High Stadium advertising a July 4 Major League Lacrosse game and fireworks show. How could we resist? One of the reasons we moved to Denver was because we love to try new things, and we had sure never attended a professional lacrosse game, much less one at the palatial home of the Broncos.

We decided we had to give this a try, and we weren't disappointed. Lacrosse is a surprisingly fun game to watch. It's kind of like a soccer or hockey, but extremely high scoring (The Denver Outlaws beat the Chicago Machine 22-14, huzzah!). A fight even broke out at one point. Add fireworks to the mix, and what more can you ask for at a live sporting event?

As a final note, my last post was a rather crestfallen look at the state of Colorado Rockies baseball. Well since then, they have proven me wrong by winning like crazy, culminating in a series sweep of the Yankees, and now a sweep of the Mets, marking the first time in over half a century that an MLB team has swept both New York teams in one season. As Julia's aunt Mary from Maryland wrote us, "You think the Rockies are bad?! Check out the Orioles AND the Nationals." Touche.

I swear I used to hate sports. Something about the high altitude (lack of oxygen?) in this state must be turning us into crazy, outdoors-loving, extreme sports-hungry jocks. Colorado will mess you up!

Update: Here are our July 4 photos, newly posted by Julia.

Springtime = Baseball!

This weekend, Julia and I attended a Colorado Rockies game at Coors Field. Coors Field is a gorgeous, spacious stadium, in one of the sunniest, most beautiful cities in America, complete with a waterfall and scenic rock garden, and renown for its homerun-inducing thin air. What more can you ask for as a baseball fan?

The problem is that the Rockies are pretty terrible. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy rooting for the underdog - after all, the Chicago Cubs are my favorite team, and they haven't won a World Series since 1908. But unlike the perennially struggling Cubs, who are willing to spend ludicrous amounts of money - arguably in a misguided manner, but hey, at least they're trying - to win, the Rockies seem built to lose, and the owners don't really seem to care. At the game we saw, they committed some pretty embarassing errors, displayed an anemic offense, and eventually collapsed in a 10-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals (yes, the Royals).

Interestingly, on the light rail trip to the stadium, most of the people in our car were there for the game, but you couldn't tell by looking at them, save for a baseball hat or two. Whereas on the el train to Wrigley Field, people are excited and dressed to the nines in Cubs paraphernalia, people on the way to a Rockies game largely look like they're going to the mall. As the friendly dude sitting across from us said, "I'm just going to party on the Rockpile - every once in a while someone will ask about the score, but I'm just like 'Hey - throw me a hot dog!'".

Actually, now that I think about it, that guy knows exactly what he's doing.