Short random thoughts from Coors Field

DMZ · August 5, 2008 at 9:25 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

— Coors Field feels in many ways like an earlier draft of Safeco Field. I don’t mean that all in a negative way — it shares many of the same cues and touches I’m so familiar with, and at the same time it’s clear that Safeco Field allowed them to do some of the same things (the walking-and-viewing concourse, communal rail-watching areas, fan views into the bullpens) in a different (and I’d say better) way
— beer is slightly cheaper
— while it is Coors Field, the good beer selection’s quite nice (they have Newcastle in bottles)
— Jill, after the game: “Wow, that was great. Is this what going to a real game’s like?”*
— the Nationals are so, so terrible
— at one point in the game, Ian Stewart, Garret Atkins, and ScottJeff Baker were all in the game, with Stewart playing the position they all once seemed doomed to logjam at
— most common jerseys spotted: Helton, Holliday, Tulowitzki
— Stubhub doesn’t always work out
— the scoreboard graphics look rough
— between innings they don’t go with videos so much as packed ads
— “Cotten-eyed Joe” plays here too. They go almost as nuts for it
— Hydro race replaced with hog race. Pigs ride Harleys. Footage looks like it’s being rendered on someone’s Ti-99/4a (it’s below the quality level of those creepy fox ads for home-base businesses)

Comments

27 Responses to “Short random thoughts from Coors Field”

  1. Matt the Dragon on August 5th, 2008 9:29 pm

    most common jerseys spotted: Helton, Halliday, Tulowitzki

    I presume hope that’s meant to be Holliday.

  2. Evan R. on August 5th, 2008 9:30 pm

    Scott Baker, simultaneously pitching against the Mariners and playing for the Rockies woooo! Garrett missing a “t” woooo! Halliday woooo! Being a nitpicky asshole woooo!

  3. Mike Snow on August 5th, 2008 9:35 pm

    Is that Jeff-not-Geoff Baker?

  4. DMZ on August 5th, 2008 9:42 pm

    Sorry — I obviously published instead saved before I was done.

  5. Colm on August 5th, 2008 9:46 pm

    It’s vaguely tragic that someone should go to the effort of shipping beer all the way from England (country of spendid beers) to Colorado (country of Coors, notoriously) and yet that the beer they chose to ship, should be the sugary, hangover-inducing concoction, Newcastle Brown Ale.

    Good luck with that; drink plenty of water.

  6. OppositeField on August 5th, 2008 9:48 pm

    DMZ, how long are you out here? I’m gonna be at the Rockies game on Friday night and I think I owe you a Newcastle or two.

  7. basebliman on August 5th, 2008 9:49 pm

    I got to see Coors Field in it’s second year of existence and thought it was a very nice ballpark. The first time I saw Safeco (a couple years later), I thought “Damn, this looks like Coors Field, only a bit nicer and with a roof.”

  8. HamNasty on August 5th, 2008 9:55 pm

    The Tulo chant is pretty sweet though…

  9. The Ancient Mariner on August 5th, 2008 10:17 pm

    I agree on the Coors/Safeco comparison as well.

    And I’m wondering, with Liberty Mutual buying Safeco, if next year the M’s will be playing at Liberty Field. (I hope so, actually.)

  10. dw on August 5th, 2008 10:29 pm

    Actually, Coors IS an earlier draft of Safeco. NBBJ cribbed a lot from it, and also made some modifications based on problems Coors had.

    For instance, that huge rotunda entrance in Safeco — when they built Coors, they didn’t think people would choose to go through the front entrance over entrances closer to their seat. Thus, there were jams getting through in the early years of Coors. They solved the problem with Safeco by making the entrance oversized — and also have about twice as many gates.

    The one big downside to Coors is the upper deck. They were pressured to raise capacity to 55,000 (from 48,000) after they drew 70,000+ at Mile High. Most of those extra seats went into the upper deck, and as a result it mucked with the seating angles. If the Rockies can have a sustained run and get some money, they may do what the White Sox did to Comiskey and redo the upper deck, taking seats out.

  11. That Bootleg Guy on August 5th, 2008 10:54 pm

    Can you elaborate on your issue with StubHub? Just curious, I use ’em a lot and have never had a problem.

  12. sankthetank on August 5th, 2008 11:22 pm

    Out of the 19 stadiums I’ve been to (with both of Chicago’s later on this week, woooo!), I can say that the Coors experiences is one of the best. It’s a beautiful park, the Rockies draw well so there’s the buzz factor going on, and best of all — there are probably about 100 places to drink at within a 10 minute walk of the stadium. Out of all the parks I’ve been to, I definitely think the area surrounding Coors (“LoDo”) is the most vibrant. Oh, and it has a built in advantage as well in that a lot of the games start at 6 or 6:30 local time, meaning you can presumably get out of a lot of games at around 9 PM which is great.

    Out of the “new” parks, I’d put the Safe right in the middle behind PacBell and Camden, in the same category as Coors/Comerica/Busch/Petco, and ahead of the BOB and Jacobs.

  13. julian on August 6th, 2008 12:03 am

    Man, that’s crazy… I was at Coors Field tonight as well (in from Seattle for a statistics conference). Definitely noticed the cheaper beer. I thought the “Flex Cam” was a little weird, though, particularly to the tune of Cotton-Eye Joe.

    We had great views from the upper deck on the first base line.

  14. daveblev on August 6th, 2008 7:02 am

    like 11 said…please elaborate on the stubhub thing…I just bought 4 tix to Citizens Bank Park for the Nats vs. Phils games on Aug 19th, behind first base side, close to the action. So I am bit worried now.

  15. claskowski on August 6th, 2008 8:11 am

    the Nationals are so, so terrible

    yeah, now imagine being a mariners fan living two blocks from the new nationals’ stadium. my favorite team is killing me from across the country. my adopted team and only chance to watch major league baseball is equally disgraceful. yea baseball!!

  16. Bradf0rd on August 6th, 2008 8:15 am

    I moved from Ellensburg to Denver last August and made a trip to Coors almost immediately. My sister, who followed me down a few months later, who isn’t a huge baseball fan but enjoys going to the ballpark, summed it up best. Coors is like the little brother of Safeco. It’s almost as good, but not quite. While the beer is cheaper, I was disappointed in the lack of selection.

    As far as places to drink before the game, that’s about all that there is in LoDo (places to drink). My favorite is a place called the Celtic, only because it has Widmer Hefeweisen on tap, but they give it to me with an orange.

    It’s a good place to watch a ball game, but Safeco is still ahead of it. Both beat the pants off of The Ballpark in Arlington.

  17. DHRjericho on August 6th, 2008 8:37 am

    Newcastle in the bottle is your example of good beer selection?

  18. Mariner Fan in CO Exile on August 6th, 2008 8:49 am

    Derek, I shot you an email. Not sure if you are checking those accounts while away.

  19. pygmalion on August 6th, 2008 8:59 am

    Out of the “new” parks, I’d put the Safe right in the middle behind PacBell and Camden, in the same category as Coors/Comerica/Busch/Petco, and ahead of the BOB and Jacobs.

    I’ve only ever been to three stadiums: SafeCo (numerous), Comerica (three or four times), and the Kingdome (numerous). There is no doubt in my mind that the gap between each of these is quite large. SafeCo is much better than Comerica and Comerica than the concrete bucket.

  20. DMZ on August 6th, 2008 9:07 am

    Newcastle in the bottle is your example of good beer selection?

    RRRRrrgghhh.

    Newcastle in a bottle is my example that in the good-beer carts all through the stadiums it’s not just two Mexican beers and Molson, it included imports from other quality beer-producing countries.

    But that doesn’t quite fit into the “short” part.

  21. daveblev on August 6th, 2008 9:08 am

    15…i feel ya. I live in Norfolk, VA. Longtime Mariners fan…I had adopted the Phillies and Orioles, until the Expos relocated..always supported Triple-A Norfolk Tides. So yeah, the M’s sucking, Nats sucking, the Tides sucking ever since Orioles franchise took over from the Mets (they were always in the International League playoff hunt under the Mets).

  22. DMZ on August 6th, 2008 9:08 am

    I’ve used Stubhub before and had it go well, but they sold me bum tickets this time, and it made for a pretty crappy experience trying to get in.

  23. zzyzx on August 6th, 2008 11:58 am

    Did you get refunded at least?

  24. dsmiley on August 6th, 2008 1:10 pm

    Another selling point for Coors Field:

    No Vidro.

  25. Rumpelstiltskin on August 6th, 2008 1:59 pm

    I had the under 10 in that game. Just a push, but still, what a sick beat!

  26. jsa on August 6th, 2008 4:49 pm

    I just visited Busch Stadium in St Louis, and I believe that field sets a standard for doing almost everything wrong in the modern era.

    No view of the game in vendor areas and VERY sparse screens as well. Exactly ONE brand of beer. ONE. If you ask for any alternatives they look at you like you came from another planet.

    Scoreboards are hard to see from some locations, and the big screen is just about the same size as Safeco even tho the place was build much later.

    Viewing from the few places I checked was OK, but not as good as Safeco. No seats behind girders like Fenway.

    There is nothing going on in the park between innings. Nothing like the constant show put on at Safeco, (or even Kauffman Stadium).

    Some would say that’s fine, but my observation was that the crowd gets bored, drinks more beer, gets rowdy. Rinse repeat.

    I got the feeling they didn’t know how to use the facility.

    I still have scoreboard lust for Kauffman Stadium’s scoreboard. I think Safeco could use a face lift in this regard. Take the whole score board area, put in a horizontal version of Kauffman’s, slanted to prevent sun glare.

    Wriggle? It needs a fresh coat of bulldozer. Blasphemy, I know, but there you have it.

  27. MKT on August 7th, 2008 12:16 pm

    Out of all the parks I’ve been to, I definitely think the area surrounding Coors (”LoDo”) is the most vibrant.

    I’d put Kenmore Square (the neighborhood where Fenway Park is located) above the Coors area, but Coors does have a great location: walking distance from the downtown retail area, with lots of restaurants and stores. Better than Safeco’s location, which is within walking distance of the International District and Pioneer Square but annoyingly far.

    Two items about Coors which have not been mentioned, but are two of my favorites:

    1. A single row of seats, all around the entire ballpark, is purple. “Why are those seats purple?” I asked the guy next to me (this was at a SABR conference a few years ago). The explanation: that row is exactly 5,280 feet above sea level.

    I love the local touches like that that some ballparks have; the Ted Williams seat in the center field bleachers at Fenway, the bronze baseball plaques in the sidewalk outside Camden Yards, etc.

    2. If you sit in the upper deck facing west for a twilight game, you get to watch the sun set over the Rocky Mountains. Overall the view’s not as good as the best ones from Safeco Field (or Petco Field in San Diego) but the sunset performance is pretty spectacular.

    I do agree with the consensus in the other comments: Coors is a very nice ballpark, not quite as good as Safeco.

    I went to Camden Yards for the first time last year; I mildly disagree with putting it above Safeco, I’d rank it about the same. I have not been to … I have given up keeping up with the commercial names, the ballpark in San Francisco, I can imagine that that’s a fabulous place to be on a sunny day.

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