7/20/08

   <——Matt Holliday before the game today against the Pirates. He was awesome today as usual. Check out the glare on his head.

You can see yourself.

 

 Rockies robbed  the Pirates today 11-3, nabbing the sweep.

 

 

Today we had no idea what we were in for.

As my life has been to date, with the good there has to be some bad, so first let me start off with the good stuff.

 

 

 

 

 The kids and I were first to the Rockpile gate.

We knew it was Autograph Sunday, but didn’t know if there would be a batting practice.

 It was hot as hell today reaching the mid 90′s.

Way to hot for a guy who grew  up in Canada. 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were standing around waiting for heatstroke to set in, our friend Alice showed up right on schedule. 

 

 Alice is a nice lady we chat with outside before the games. 

I believe she has been a season ticket holder since 1995.

 We save a spot for her in line every game we attend.

Today she asked if I was a season ticket holder.

 I said “no, I usually buy them at the gate or online”.

She reached into her purse and gave us three coupons redeemable for tickets to a Rockies value game.

Guess what?

There just so happened to be a value game tomorrow night.

 How cool is that!!

Alice watched the kids real quick as I walked over to the ticket window and exchanged those free coupons for tickets to tomorrows game against the Dodgers.

 Pavilion seats baby. Gotta love random acts of kindness.

 

 

 

 

 That was mighty kind of you Alice, thanks for hooking us up. 

Alice, you are true Rockies fan.   

 We hurried inside and this is what we were greeted with.

 No batting cages out and an empty field.

Oh well, sometimes it just beez that way. 

A little bummed, we walked over and got in the line to wait to run to get in line again. I swear !

 Most autograph Sundays the line gets huge. 

When they drop this yellow chain everyone runs like hell over to the first base side so they can pick which one of the four players lines they want to stand in. 

 I’ve mentioned before about how crazy it can get when they let this yellow chain down.

Today I shot some crappy video of it. But I think you can feel what I’m talking about when you watch these two clips. Today actually was kind of a slow day.

Clip #1 Autograph Day Mad rush 7-20-1.AVI

Clip #2 Autograph Day Mad Rush 7-20-2.AVI

      Below are the pictures of the two players we chose to get autographs from : 

They are Ian Stewart and pitcher Juan Morillo. Both players were on time and really nice. The lines were shorter than usual  today thats why we were able to get two players to sign.

 

  Juan Morillo signing Mylee’s Ball and Ian Stewart signing Hunter’s ball. Thank you !

 

 

 

 

 

 The kids and I used the batting practice balls that we snagged earlier this  season to get autographed.

Each of us scored two autographs today.

 

So that was it for autograph day. We nailed it.

 But wait,  if you look closely in the background of one of the autograph pictures you can see that the field was set up like a camera studio.

Wonder what that is all about? We were about to find out.

It must have been bring your family to work day because the players were out on the field taking pictures with their wives and kids.

I felt privledged to be able to witness this event in person. I love photo journalism and this was such a great opportunity. I just wish I had a better camera.

Any Camera Companies interested in sponsoring the Rockpile Ranter? I’ll make you rich. Just throwing that out there.

            Here we go, check out these pictures … this will be long but worth it.

                                         First we have the Grilli Family

                            
                                  Next up we have a couple of the Hurdle family
  

                                        Followed by all of the Holliday family

               
         Now we have the Barmes Family, their little guy is cute                                     A picture of Barmes and Helton hanging out 
                                 Mark Strittmeyer and family (Timing is everything) 
 
                                           Todd Helton and I’m not sure who 

                                                Matt Herges and his son                                                 Kip Wells and daughter 
                                                       Seth Smith
Man that was cool. First time I have ever had an opportunity to take special pictures like that.

Ok, now to the game,  

Aaron Cook was a little shakey in the first inning allowing three runs and four hits. Whatever was mentioned to him at the end of the first inning worked because he came out and pitched six more scoreless innings.

Nice job Cookie. He is now 12-6 for the season.

Heres a quote from Cookie “We’re at a position where these next two weeks are going to make or break our season”, that about sums it up don’t you think?

Jeff Baker and Matt Holliday hit back to back homers in the fifth. Ian Stewart (who signed our baseballs today) had a double double and drove in three runs.

 

 

Rockies  have won their last nine out of ten games at Coors Field.

 Congrats Rockies, this was an impressive run of four games at home.

 It will be interesting to see how things keep rolling with the Dodgers tomorrow.

 Now for the bad like I was telling you.

My key broke off in my trunk and my car is still (as I am writing this blog), parked in lower downtown Denver.

I’m not real cool with that. 

I won’t be able to get a duplicate key made until tomorrow.

  So my free parking on Sunday wasn’t exactly  free. I have no idea what this is going to cost.

I’ll probably be at the game tomorrow as we have those free tickets from Alice.

Hopefully I can take care of this car situation.

Go Rockies…..D