Coors Field, Denver (And why a person who never leaves a game early left with the score tied in the bottom of the 9th)

I have a personal policy of never leaving a baseball game early, but I broke it today.

Baseball doesn't have a clock, so even if you're behind by 10 runs with two out in the bottom of the 9th, you have a chance to win. The chances are thousands to one against it, but I figure if it happens to be that "one," I want to see it. Kerry does not have the same policy. For games in Phoenix, we've settled on something like the college softball run rule - if the difference is more than eight runs after five innings or more, she will often leave (particularly if the Diamondbacks are the ones behind by eight). At Coors Field, enough runs are scored that there's always a chance of a runaway, but there's also always a chance of a comeback. 

But today we had a different issue. We looked at a forecast yesterday noon, and it said that there was no more than a 15% chance of rain up until noon today, then a 50% chance at 1 p.m. and a 75% chance from 2 p.m. through the evening (it was a 1:10 p.m. start). That sounded an awful lot like a situation where they'd start the game, play a couple of innings, go into rain delay, and finally suspend the game two or three hours later. Those are ones where I don't feel obligated to stay.

Although today dawned sunny in Denver, we kept checking the forecast. At first, it said the chances were 75% from 1 p.m., but then the storm apparently slowed. By noon, it was back to 2 p.m. when the chance of rain jumped up. By game time, it was 3 p.m. 

We got in five innings, and it still hadn't rained. 

Six innings, still no rain, but getting darker.

Seventh inning, it started to drizzle, a few minutes before 3 p.m.

In the eighth, it was raining only a little harder, but the National Weather Service called a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, so they evacuated the upper deck, where we were sitting. They didn't evacuate the lower deck, nor did they pull the players off the field, which surprised me a little.

At this point, the Rockies had just tied the game 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth, and had runners on base. So we went downstairs to the main concourse, and just as we got on the concourse we could hear the crowd roar, then groan, then groan again. A spectacular diving catch in the outfield turned what could have been the go-ahead hit (roar) into a double play (the first groan for the catch, the second when the runner was doubled off second base).

As the top of the ninth, the rain started in earnest. But we had found a good place to stand, just behind the seats behind home plate.

The Padres got a run, aided by an error in the outfield when a ball skipped past the fielder on the wet grass, and scoring on a wild pitch that might or might not have been influenced by the fact that it's harder for a pitcher to get a good grip on a soaking wet baseball. 

By now, the crowd in the lower deck had all left their seats, except for a few hardy souls with umbrellas and/or complete rain gear. It was getting pretty crowded in the main concourse, with most of what was left of the 30,000+ crowd standing about 10 or 12 deep.

When the Rockies came to bat, it was really getting too wet to play, but it was almost over, plus the umpires had given the Padres a chance in those conditions. Normally, the  outfielders play a leisurely game of catch before the inning, but this time, the Padres' outfielders were throwing the ball to each other on one or two bounces (to see how wet the grass was) or in a high arc (to see if they could see a fly ball through the rain).

The first hitter, Ryan McMahon, hit a long home run to tie the game. 

Now the game was tied, it was absolutely pouring, and the umpires quickly suspended the game and the grounds crew covered the infield with the tarp. 

At this point, even if the rain ended after only 20 or 30 minutes, it would be at least an hour before the game resumed. Plus, the forecast, which hadn't been wrong yet, said the chances of rain were only going to go up for the next several hours. Plus, there were no seats out of the rain, so it would mean standing for that length of time.

We left, and went and had dinner with Rob and Robbie, the friends we'd come to the game with. It rained while we walked to the parking garage, it rained as we drove out of Denver's LoDo, it rained as we drove through a few miles of stop-and-go traffic on I-25. But by the tie we got to their house, the rain had actually stopped. Every once in a while, I'd check my phone to see the status of the game, and it was always still in delay. 

After dinner, I checked once more, and the game was over. The Rockies won, 5-4, on a walk-off home run.

I love a walk-off home run, but the decision to leave is not one that I'll second guess. As I've said, I travel for the adventure, and today was definitely that.

The rookie

I'm always fascinated by the human side of baseball. When we went to the game in Albuquerque a few nights ago, there was a player on Albuquerque named Coco Montes. When they announced the starting lineup today, the Rockies' second baseman was Coco Montes. I looked it up on the web, and confirmed that this was his first major league game. One of the Rockies' stars broke a hand yesterday, so they called up Montes.

Announcers tend to make a big deal out of a player's first at-bat in the majors, but I always watch for the first fielding play, too. One time, we were sitting in our seats near left field in Phoenix when someone hit an easy fly ball to left to a guy playing his first major league game, who hadn't had a ball hit to him all game. Several in the crowd yelled, "Drop it!" as they always do, and it clanked off his glove, which never happens. Ouch.

In the second inning today, one of the Padres hit a pop fly. Montes raced out, the center fielder raced in. Montes caught it, but collided with the center fielder, and the game stopped for several minutes while the training staff checked out the outfielder. He was OK, but if you've played baseball, you know that on a ball where an infielder is going out and an outfielder is coming in, the outfielder has the right-of-way. So he messed up his first major league fielding play, although he got the out.

Then he got his first major league at-bat, and lined a single into right. That's a pretty good debut.

He struck out in his next at-bat, but then he came up in the 8th, with a runner on base and the Rockies behind by two, and hit a game-tying home run.

That's an excellent debut.

 

Tomorrow: Why does a Diamonbacks season-ticket holder own a Rockies cap and a Rockies jersey? My Rockies necktie wouldn't have been appropriate attire.