6/9/10                       Astros vs Rockies Game Three

Weather: 80 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 9 mph, In from LF.
Temperature: 2:55.
Attendance: 27,114.

Hunter and I arrived at the Rockpile gates early today and played a little catch. Hunter threw one over my head and it rolled through the fence and stopped about eight feet inside.

No worries, I still had the string attached to my glove from my trip to KC so I figured I’d swing my glove and try to knock the ball back to us. 

It was actually starting to work until the string separated from the glove and my glove landed inside the fence.
Guess I need a bit more work on my glove trick. One of the Ushers walked around and retrieved my glove and Hunter’s baseball…Thank you!

As I was making my way over to my spot in the pavilion Jason Hammel shouted at me “Heads up”. Seconds later a ball bounced about six feet in front of me and I picked it up on the roll for ball number one.

During Tuesday’s batting practice I noticed Dan heading up the stairs to almost the last row in the pavilion. I was wondering what he was doing until I watched Carlos Lee start to blast baseballs all over the concourse.

Today I didn’t want to compete with Dan on the concourse(plus at the time I thought he was a little crazy for going that far up), so I stayed near the top of the pavilion. This paid off because I had play on four of Carlos Lee’s BP homers and eventually I was able to catch one of the last homers he hit.

Dan stayed on the concourse and straight-up caught two of Lee’s homers and snagg’d the third on the roll. Good Call Dan!

                                    My hand still smarts from that Lee homer.

Soon after that I was able to catch a BP homer from Hunter Pence. Hunter hit that ball about 1/3 of the way up the pavilion.

             Three baseballs for the day. That’s a good day snagg’n at Coors Field.

 Here’s Robert showing you on his hands and feet how many baseballs he’s snagged in the last couple of games.

               He’s been on a roll since I made fun of his absence of baseballs.

                                            That’s right…We Bad

Today was a great snagg’n day. Everyone played fair and kept in their own space. I always point out the idiots so I felt obligated to mention one of the days when batting practice goes smoothly. Hunter was shutout today.

                                         I call this next set of photos: 
                                                   ”BUSTED”

                                USHER…..”Hey guys how’s it going?”

                     USHER-”Could I please see your tickets for these seats?”

                                                   DUDE-”Yeah,….. hold on”

         USHER-”Sir… It says right here you should be sitting in the Rockpile”.

                      USHER-”Gentlemen I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”  

Been there myself many times, but still fun to watch the scenario unfold when it’s someone else:)

                                     The Hoser and the Miss Colorado Contestants

Ok, I’ve rewritten this part of the entry three times in the last three days. I’ve had some time to think about how I want to say this so I’ll be short and to the point.

Bullpen Catcher Mark Strittmatter was walking past the crowd and Hunter asked me if he could go over ask Strittmatter  for the baseball in his hand.

I said, “Do it buddy” So Hunter walked over to Mark and asked for the ball.

Strittmatter did what he always does and asked Hunter a question “How many outs in an inning?”

Hunter immediately replied “Three”, which we all know is wrong. Strittmatter told Hunter he was wrong, but didn’t tell him the correct answer and then walked away.

                                   Not a very classy move in my eyes.

These dudes leave huge impressions on kids and I could tell Hunter’s interaction with Strittmatter left him speechless and disappointed.  

So here’s our plan of action next time we have an encounter with Strittmatter.

Hunter plans to trip him up. Hunter will ask him a baseball question. If Strittmatter manages to answer correctly I’ll toss him a baseball. If he answers it incorrectly, I’ll make him feel exactly like he made Hunter feel

               ***************UPDATE***************

I always hesitate when I write anything negative about any Rockies player. I always try to tell the story the way I see it. My blog entries are basically my memory from the games we attend.

This morning 6-13-10 I received an email from Mark Strittmatter with an explanation.

                                                           Here it is:

In the 2 1/2 years I’ve blogging about the Rockies Mark is the first player to write the Rockpile Rant personally. The fact that he cared enough to take time and explain says a lot about his character. Mark… Hunter says “Thanks it’s all cool” and I agree…Very Classy.

            Thank you Mark, thank you for re-affirming why I support the Rockies…”D”  

 Chris Iannetta back to his same routine. First one out, first one to sign.

                   Melvin Mora puts everything into his slides. He’s cool to watch.

                                        Jonathan Herrera playing second.

                                                  Random pavilon shots.

 

                                              Seth Smith in overdrive.

 

         And in the background on deck, game winning, grand slam hitting Carlos Lee.
        Here’s a link if you want to watch the Rockies painful loss in the 10th inning.

                                          Carlos Lee’s Grand Slam 

                                 Told you this guy could crush a ball…It figures.

                                   Rockies lose game three to the Astros 6-2

                              My next game is Friday against the Toronto Blue Jays.

                                                       Go Rockies…D