colorado rockies

The one thing missing from Rockies games

Jeromey Balderrama

Spring is here, and with the beautiful weather comes the start of the baseball season.  The Rockies had their Home Opener today (which they won), and with it I wanted to re-tell a story from 2 & 1/2 years ago and re-iterate my plea for the Rockies to incorporate an important aspect of the game day experience into their game:

Back in 2007, when the Rockies were on their historic hot-streak, we went to the last game of the season.  This turned out to be a pivotal game, which required the Rockies to win and the Padres to lose, which led to that 1-game playoff for the Wild Card.  The atmosphere was amazing, and being a loyal Broncos fan I turned to my tailgating kit to help us prepare for this game.  We brought out our well-used grill to cook some steaks, when we were approached by stadium security (who was an off-duty police officer). I was shocked to find out that Tailgating at Rockies Games are not allowed!  The officer was really nice about it, and even made an editorial statement to the effect of “I don’t agree with the rule, but I need to enforce it.”  He let us finish grilling our steaks, but made us put our tailgating equipment away.  Sure that security had it wrong, I turned to their web site for the definitive word, and sure enough tailgating is not allowed:

Tailgating is not permitted in any Rockies operated parking lot. Persons may not consume alcohol in the parking lots, including inside their vehicles.

There are a lot of high expectations for the Rockies this year. Most analysts say playoffs are a given for the Blake Street Bombers, with the possibility of going deep into October.  Rockies Management: do your part to make sure that your talented team have the passionate fans they deserve – allow tailgating for at least some games.  It doesn’t have to be all 80 remaining home games, but at least the big ones: holidays, fan-favorite rivals, the inter-league games, and the late September games – that’s all we need.

It’s not like tailgating at baseball games are unheard of. I went by the Padres ballpark a few years ago, and they had a whole parking lot devoted to tailgating – sound familiar Broncos fans?  I find it funny that if you do a search for “Rockies Tailgating” you’ll find a ton of product licensed by Major League Baseball, yet you’re not allowed to use it next to their stadium.

Seriously Rockies Front Office, let’s bring Tailgating in some form to Coors Field. If you need to rope up part of the lot and charge a little more, so be it.

Graphic Design Project: New Rockies Logo

Jeromey Balderrama

Speaking of the Rockies, I’m taking a graphic design course this semester. I needed to get some elective credits and figured this would be a pretty fun class.  Our first project was to either re-design the Colorado Rockies logo, or the University of Colorado logo. I decided to do the former and go for a replacement of the “CR” letter logo, going for a more classic look.  I’m anxious to hear what you think:

Part of this project was to create an identity package, which includes hats, jerseys, a bus and a plane.  I’ve applied my logo to those as well:

 <br />    <br /><img border="0" alt="Rockies Logo" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/3010994652_ba7bcec00f_o.png" width="500" height="172" />     <br /><img border="0" alt="Rockies Logo" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3049/3010994604_e7a887178d_o.png" width="500" height="192" />

Once again, I’d be anxious to hear your thoughts!

Holliday’s an A?!? Say it ain’t so!

Jeromey Balderrama

The news came across today that the Rockies traded Matt Holliday – arguably their most popular player – to the Oakland A’s.

I’m not a big baseball fan, but I just wanted to put this out there and say that while this was a good trade, it’s going to be perceived as a boneheaded Rockies move.  The young talent that we received for a player in the last year of his deal – a deal that’s too expensive for the Rockies to re-sign – will make this trade worth it. Rather than have nothing to show at the end of next year when Holliday would have left, we’ve managed to get something for it.

Nonetheless, one can’t deny that Holliday is a popular player and put fans in seats.  We’ll see how this plays out next year, especially if the Rockies aren’t competitive.

Begin: Rockies Ticket Disaster Part II

Jeromey Balderrama

By now everyone is sadly aware that the Rockies ended up getting swept by the Red Sox, and thus there is no game 5. The tickets to game 5 that I was lucky enough to buy are now essentially useless. Next step: trying to get my money back for the canceled tickets.

I went to the Rockies web site this morning and clicked on “Ticket Refund” information, only to find this extremely vague statement:

TicketDisaster2

I understand why we’re supposed to mail the actual tickets (for the poor folks who resorted to buying eBay’ed tix), but how the heck can you expect a refund when you’re not instructed to send them more information? Would it be too hard for someone in Rockies management to make a quick form that you can print, fill-out and mail with your tickets? I guess I’m going to write a letter asking for my refund and include it with the tickets.

After the debacle that was the sale of World Series tickets, would it be too much to ask to not have a potential cluster**** with the return of the tickets? Geez it’s going to suck going through the 50,000+ tickets by hand, hoping the people in the ticket office can read the return address.

And the Rockies go to the World Series!

Jeromey Balderrama

Simply Unbelievable!  Not only did they get there, but they got through the National League undefeated, sweeping with the Phillies and Diamondbacks!  It was a bit of poetic justice that our winning out came from Eric Byrnes, who went off after game 2 about how the Rockies were outplayed and just lucky.  I have to admit I smiled when he laid on the ground after sliding to first, realizing that they had just been swept.

As Tom Petty says, "the waiting is the hardest part".  Now we have to sit back for 8 more days until the World Series kicks off.  It doesn’t matter if the Indians/BoSox series is settled in 5 games they’re still going to start.  Nothing will be more classic than watching a World Series in Colorado with snow falling on the ground.  Thanks to the MLB for their rigid scheduling.  And while we’re thanking MLB for bonehead moves, thanks for scheduling the NLCS so late that I’m up until midnight when I have an early morning at work ahead of me.