6-11-10                             Blue Jays vs Rockies Game One
                                          Weather: 58 degrees, cloudy.
                                            Wind: 8 mph, In from RF.
                                             Time: 1:55 (2:25 delay).
                                               Attendance: 31,101

      My friend Todd and I have been trying to attend a game together for a long time.

                            “T”s the guy I had the Rockies/Giants bet with last year.

 One bet turned into two bets. The most wins between each team overall(loser had to wear the other’s jersey for a day), and most wins when the Giants and Rockies face each other(loser had to cook hot dogs for the people we work with).

                        I won the overall and he won between our two teams.

We settled on Todd wearing a Rockies jersey for this Rockies game and I would buy him a hot dog at the game. Todd has been staying away from meat and up to today it’s been a month since the man has eaten any beef.

I convinced him to eat a Denver Cheesesteak during the game instead of a hot dog. He totally killed it.

Both bets are now paid off. We do not have a bet going for this season.

Todd and I hooked up after I got off work and headed for the downtown for a drink and a bite to eat. Upon walking up to the “Old Blake Street Tavern” we discovered it was closed and was re-opening today at 3pm in it’s new location just up the street.

             At this point it was 2:55 so we waited Here are a few shots of the inside:

 We asked about food and drink specials but were told there were none as this was their opening week??

Great atmosphere, very cool staff, great place to go before or after the game or to watch a game. While we were having a bite to eat and waiting for batting practice it started seriously raining. It lasted thirty minutes or so and then the clouds seemed to break up.

      At that point we headed over to the Rockpile gates to get in line for batting practice. 
First in line that is. Well we were until we found out that batting practice had been cancelled five minutes before we were set to go inside(we then bailed). The sad part of that was the sun was out and it was some of the best weather we had seen all day.

        When we finally entered Coors Field it was still somewhat sunny. All systems were go.

                                              The beer was ready.

                                              The brats were cooking.

                                         But dammit the infield tarps were out.

                                                     Everything was wet.

 
       The game gets rain delayed before it starts to rain. We all knew it was coming.

                               Todd and I walked around and I took pictures.

                                                 Dan and Emily.

                                       Another interesting Rockies outfit.

          Because of ”T” we have a “Coors Field Crack of the Game” “T” spotted it.

                                                Dancing in the rain.
                              Todd and the foul pole next to our seats.
                                      The rain literally came down in sheets.

We ran into Robert and hung out for a while over by the Rockpile. Out of nowhere John walks up and hands Robert a game rubbed game baseball.

We were all like WTF?? Then John explained that he had read about Robert’s run of bad luck snagg’n lately on the Rant and he wanted to help a brotha out.

 We all got a good laugh out of that.

Robert kept the ball and spent the next hour bragg’n how he was the only one to snag a baseball today. It’s true, that ball counts. 

                                 I like that John, keep up the good work.

With the weather delay in full effect Robert, Todd and I headed back to the Blake Street Tavern to ride out the storm. Forty-five minutes later we heard the game was starting so we marched back to Coors and stood on the concourse waiting for the rain to stop.

It never really fully stopped raining so we headed down to our wet seats anyway. Here’s Todd and another fan sporting two teams stuff who sat beside us.
 In the second inning Todd Helton hit a foul ball along the first baseline. I stood up and that ball was sailing right for me. At the last second it curved into the seats directly to the left of me and hit one of the chairs and bounced down.

There were a few seconds of chaos and in the end the guy sitting next to me with the red arrow above his head scored the ball.
 Had he not been sitting there I would have gloved that foul ball easily. That was fun.

In the third inning Aaron Hill hit a home run to left field. I mention to Todd that it looked like Robert had snagg’d that ball. Five minutes later Robert called me and I said “Did you see me miss that Todd Helton foul ball by a foot?”

 Robert yelled at me “No, did you see me get robbed of that Hill home run ball?”

I said, “What?” Robert excitedly informed me that after he had posession of the home run baseball another guy swiped the ball from his hands.

                         Here is Robert’s side of the story in his own words:

Here’s a picture of the guy who went home with that ball. This picture was taken and labeled by Robert.

                   Here’s the link to the video: Aaron Hill’s Two Run Homer.

I really didn’t take any game pictures because it was raining so hard and cameras are expensive.

                           Here are some video clips from the game.

                         Spillborghs solo homer in the second.

                    Gonzalez’s solo homer in the fifth.

                           Ubaldo’s six strikeouts

Great day, strange weather. In the end they call the game after 6 innings and the Rockies get the win 5-3 over the Blue Jays. By the time Todd and I made it to the truck I was soaked head to toe.

One thing I’m learning about Ubaldo is he likes to pitch in warmer weather. Cold or rain has the ablility to throw him off his game. 

Quote from Ubaldo : It wasn’t easy to be out there. I didn’t have any feel for any of my pitches, even my fastball. I was trying to throw hard and I couldn’t. … The ball just slipped out my fingers most of the time. Everything was wet. I couldn’t push off the mound.”

My next entry will be about the upcoming  ”Bloggers without Borders” during the Rockies/Red Sox game on Tuesday, June 22nd. I will swap places with “Dr Rocker” writer of Sox Rocker which is his Red Sox blog.

Also…. If you haven’t seen the very cool email from Mark Strittmatter in the last Rant entry you should go back and read it.

I’m “D” The Rockpile Ranter here to tell you that I still hate the rain, still love the Rockies and every now and then wish they would have put a retractable roof on Coors Field.

                                            Thanks to “T” for a great day.

                                                    GO ROCKIES…”D”