See you next Spring
I’m back…AGAIN! I don’t plan on “blogging” everyday.
But with the World Series, and baseball ending tonight, I thought it
was appropriate to blog. In fact, I am on the computer way more than I
like to be. BUT there is a reason for this and I have stated it
in other blogs. I can not get over the fact that baseball is over. I
especially cant get over the fact that I have to wait until April to
see my Colorado Rockies again. So, I have to get
my baseball and Rockies fix from somewhere, and I guess that place will
be online. I am thinking about doing a tour of Coors Field. They are
only like $7. I don’t wanna seem obsessive, but it’s good to have a
hobby, and instead of just a “summer time thing,” I think I am gonna
make baseball my hobby. I already have a little collection of Rockies
stuff in my room. Speaking of collections… There is a baseball fan
I’ve heard about before and just found out he had a blog and his name
is Zack Hample. He wrote two books which I think I am going to read
during the off-season. He’s collected more than 4,000 baseballs at ball
parks across the nation. He’s even been to Coors Field a few times! His
first book is called How to Snag Major League Baseballs. And his second book is called Watching Baseball Smarter. 
He
has a third book coming out in 2011. I think what he does is cool. I’ve
never been to any other ball park besides Coors. I always get mad when
people are at my stadium in a DIFFERENT jersey or shirt being obnoxious
but I guess I shouldn’t be because I would probably do it too if I had
a chance to cheer my team on in an opposing stadium. But he brings hats
and shirts of both teams so that he has a better chance of getting
balls from both dugouts. He also has a card with all the players’ names
so he can ask them personally for a ball.
Okay. Now that I got what
I plan on doing out there… lets talk about this big game that’s going
on right now and is so popular, that every night it’s on… its a
“trending topic” on Twitter. (OFF TOPIC SIDE NOTE: I hated Twitter when
it started and I thought it was lame, but now i get on it like every
day.) So anyway, back to that trending topic… It’s pretty huge… I
remember watching it back in the day and it would be played til
midnight sometimes and my parents let me stay up to watch it. 
Do
I like either team in this World Series? No, not really. I never really
cared for the Phillies anyway, but since they took my Rockies out way
too early into Rocktober, I hate them, and their stupid green Phanatic.
As far as the Yankees go, I really don’t care for them because I feel
weird cheering on ANY team in baseball that doesn’t wear purple and
black. But I guess it’s fitting because my family originated in the
Bronx. I think Hideki Matsui should definitely be the MVP of the
Series. In game 6, he had a 2 run HR in the 2nd inning and 6 RBI’s. And
in game 2 and 3 he had a HR. I am listening to “We Are the Champions”
being played for the Yankees right now. I wish I could hear that for
the Rockies. I have such high hope for baseball in this town. Now on to
the World Series in general. My goal is to go to one. I really wanna be
there for the Rockies, for sure. So lets use that scenario. It’s Coors
Field in a chilly ROCKTOBER night. The stadium is full of about
50,000 people. Some big star sings an amazing version of the National
Anthem (I loved Carrie Underwood’s version of it in 2007.) Purple,
black and white balloons are released and all you can see in the stands
are those colors. The Rockpile is full and the concession stands are
almost empty. The stadium is so loud because fans in Denver go big, and
for an event like the World Series… we go HUGE.
We are either the underdog, or the other team is. The Rockies have made
a well enough name for themselves to not always have the underdog label
as they have had in the past. The stadium is loud, the stadium is
packed, and the nations’ eyes are on us…. Nice scenario, right? Yeah
I liked it too! So, here’s to an amazing year! Here’s to Jim Tracy,
and here’s to baseball!
Oh yeah, and one more thing… If you wanna see my Rockies tribute for 2009… Click this Rockies Tribute.
Games I’ve been to this year
So, it’s the off-season. And with the World Series still being played
well into November, I cant get my mind off baseball. This is a really
hard transition for me from summer into fall and winter. It’s a really
nice day today here in Colorado and it almost feels like spring time or
early April and it really has me thinking about when the weather starts
getting nice, and you start to get excited because you know baseball is
going to start. So, with that, I wanna look back on a few of the games
I went to last year and post some pictures with them. Most my pictures
are of us at Coors.. I don’t have a lot of the field because the
pictures are taken with a camera phone so they aren’t as amazing as
they could be.
My first game last year was a Cocoa Cola value
game. I went with my cousin, her boyfriend, his sister-in-law, brother
and their parents… Yeah, we go big when we go to Rockies games. We
are always in a big crowd when we go. I remember trying SO hard to get
that day off.. It was a Saturday and Saturdays are not easy to get off
where I work. It was April 11th against the stupid Philadelphia
Phillies. It was kind of an upsetting game because we lost 4-8. But it
was fun because it was still early in the season and it was exciting to
be at the second game of 2009 (opening day was the day before.) Here is
a picture of us at that game
My
next really memorable game was on July 3rd, 2009. it was against the
Arizona Diamondbacks and the day before Independence day! I love
patriotism in sports. One of the things I am so proud of is how at
every game, before it starts, the national anthem is sung and the
stadium echoes as the line, “and our flag was still there…” is sung.
I liked how all the players had red hats on. There were veterans at the
game and they stood up as we clapped. We won that game 5-0… it was so
cool being at a game where we shut the other team out. Especially when
that team was the Diamondbacks. Here are some pics…
We
went to another game in July where the seats were amazing. They were
right down the first base line and it was against the Giants. Sadly, we
lost 1-3 but it was still fun going and being so close and being with
people i had fun with. Here’s a picture of us before we went to the
game.
On
September 8th we went to another Cocoa Cola value game that was against
the Reds. We swept the Reds during that series and we beat them 3-1
that night. We had our picture taken and put in the “fans” section on
the website. it’s my main picture on this blog.
My last game of the
year was on September 26th against the St. Louis Cardinals. My cousin
Matt got married the week before and his present to all the guys in the
wedding was tickets to the game. There was like 9 of us there and the
seats were awesome. We lost 3-6. It was crazy seeing Matt Holliday in
red and white though. He got booed like crazy at that game. We were
wondering if people would boo and as soon as the announcer said his
name it was like
“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
I
wonder what Holliday’s thoughts on that were. I wonder if he was like,
“wow, this hurts, this was my home for 5 years and now I am back and
they are treating me like im A-rod or someone lame like that.” Or if he
was thinking “I don’t care, I’m winning and they can suck it!” At that
game, they were painting people’s hair purple for free and all me and
the guys did it. It was pretty funny. There’s a picture of it somewhere
but I cant find it. Either way, it was a great year and I miss it so
much. April can’t get here soon enough.
Introduction
Hey Kids,
I’m gonna do what my friend, Nikki did and start with
an introduction. My name is Cory and I am 20 years old. I was born and
raised in A-town, (Aurora) Colorado. In 1993 when the Rockies
officially started, I was still really young and knew jack about
sports. I remember when I was around 8 or 9, my dad started taking me
to Coors Field. I would watch him fill in his scorecard book where he
would record all the strikes, all the balls, all the hits, runs and
errors. And I don’t know how I remember this, but the game was against
the St. Louis Cardinals and I knew Mark McGwire was gonna be there so I
was excited to see him. After that my dad started buying me all kinds
of Rockies things; a Rockies train, a Rockies bat, a Rockies glove. We
had a shelf that was full of Rockies memorabilia and I would look at it
all the time.
CONFESSION: After a while I fell out of the sports
scene. I loved sports in elementary school and I played them all the
time.. but when I got to high school, I started hanging out with kids
who had the kind of attitude that was, “music before sports.” So, I put
music ahead of sports… I had to have the coolest iPod, I had to go to
local shows, and I sat out during my team sports classes which made me
look like an outcast to sports. This happened my freshman year so,
around 2004. The next summer, 2005…my cousin, her boyfriend and I
went to a Rockies game on the 4th of July.
I
am pretty sure we lost that game but I remember they were pavilion
seats so after the game, we went on the field to watch the fireworks
and I just remember thinking, “God, I miss baseball.. I miss the summer
days when you and your friends get so excited just to go to a ballgame
and see the occasional fireworks.” It reminded me of the scene in “The
Sandlot” where they all play ball under the fireworks. It was there
that I realized I still had a big love for baseball.
After that, I
watched and followed the Rockies regularly, and as we know, nothing
really happened as far as post season dreams until 2 years later. But I
kept my spirits high for the boys in purple pinstripes. Around
2006-2007 I started getting into football again. Like I said, I always
loved sports, always understood them, but I had about 2 or three years
when I was in an awkward indie/music stage. So, like I said, I was into
the Broncos and doing what everyone else was doing in Denver, following
the Broncos. Denver was a huge football town and baseball was
completely on the back burner. I remember the AFC championship game in
2006 where we lost to the Steelers and my whole family was like,
“great… no interesting sports to watch until august (preseason.)” And
that’s a prime example on how baseball was on the back burner to
football in this town.
Lets skip to 2007 where the passion in this
town came back. I was a senior at the time and I was still following
the Rockies. My favorite players were; Matt Holliday, Kaz Matsui, Troy
Tulowitzki (robbed of rookie of the year), and Yorvit Torrealba. I was
always looking forward to those guys doing good things. Then in
September, all the games would be on early, like at 1 in the afternoon.
I had my 4th block off so I’d be done in time for the 5th inning, but I
had good feelings about the Rockies. Something in my gut told me, “this
team can do it, and they will.” So, I started ditching my 3rd block so
I could go home and watch the Rockies. Yes, I ditched class to watch
the Rockies. Then, came the tiebreaker game against the San Diego
Padres… I was watching the game with my brother and we were going
nuts… the reaction that we had was the reaction almost all my friends
had. Jamie Carroll hit the ball with, I think one out, and we went
nuts cuz we saw he hit it, but then the outfielder caught it and we sat
down like, crap. Then we realized Matt Holliday was tagging and we were
like “OMG RUN!!!!!!” Then the umpire took a second to make his call and
we were dead silent. Then he said safe and we were like
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Then I was really ditching class so I
could watch my Rockies sweep both the Phillies and the Diamondbacks. We
made it to the World Series which was amazing. That’s all people at
school were talking about. And I remember on Fox 31 news, Eric Goodman
said something that made me tear up… He said something along the
lines of, “The Colorado Rockies won Denver back, so whether they win
the World Series or not, they did something amazing… they turned
Denver back into a baseball town!” And he was right.. that year,
instead of watching Cutler throw interceptions, we were watching Matt
Holliday sliding into home base and nearly taking his face off… We
were watching Willy Taveras’ and his quick fielding skills, We were at
Coors field chanting, “M-V-P, M-V-P .” After that season, I started
getting more into the Rockies online… I would make tribute videos,
and write on forums, which is something I never did. I started going to
a few games in 2008 and in 2009, I went to 6 and I loved all of it. I
started buying things from MLBSHOP.com and my room has a bunch of
Rockies stuff on the wall. There was a few moments of 2009 I will never
forget. Lets start with the walk-off grand slam against the Giants by
Ryan Spilborghs… I have never seen that man run as fast and jump as
high as he did that night. 
I
also will never forget when Troy Tulowitzki hit for the cycle. How he
slid to 3rd to make his hit a triple, and how Brad Hawpe was supporting
his teammate that night.
And
I also wont forget how Clint Barmes hit an inside-the-park home run
against the Padres. I recently made a 2009 tribute video which some of
you saw on my Twitter. I will continue to love and support this team
and I can not wait for April, 2010… FORGET THE HOLIDAYS… BRING ON
BASEBALL SEASON.
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