Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Coors Field vs Fenway

This morning as I was driving to work, one of the morning crew on the Ticket (sports radio station in Dallas) was describing his visit to Fenway park the previous week. I couldn't help but compare his experience at Fenway with our own experience at Coors Field in Denver last week. I've been to games at 1/2 dozen major league stadiums, and Fenway is on my list of places to visit, but so far, the closest I have been to one of the great ball parks was a snowy early March tour of Wrigley Field.

As the radio host was describing his experience at Fenway, it lived up to and even surpassed expectations. I can't really say the same about Coors Field...

The stadium is in a reviving area of downtown Denver, and it looks good in its setting. We spent our first night in Colorado in downtown Denver, and were within a free shuttle and a few blocks' walk of the stadium. Denver, while a mile above sea level, sits on the plains at the edge of the Rockies; it was 96 degrees the afternoon that we got there, but the Cubs were in town and we decided to go to the game.

Games in Colorado start at 6 pm, and having never been to the stadium before, I requested seats that were not directly in the sun. I was assured by the guy behind the window that our seats would get only indirect sun. We ended up sitting about 2/3 of the way down the right field line, facing directly into the sun, and just sat there sweating and downing bottles of water. The seats are angled slightly towards home plate, but if you sit back in your seat your line of sight reaches a point just beyond the pitchers mound. So we sat sweating and leaning forward craning our necks in an effort to see the whole field. The crowd was lethargic, the game presentation was bland, and there seemed to be more Cubs fans than Rockies fans. Overall, easily the least enjoyable major league game that I have been to, although we were treated to a very fine sunset as the sun finally sank behind the mountains in the background.

2 comments:

Larry James said...

I agree with your comparison of Coors to Fenway. Nothing compares to that old, claasic park. Every seat seems so close to the field and the pitch of the seating slopes back away from the infield sort of like the edge of a beautiful like hillside. Of course, the "green monster" is one of a kind and the fans are fun to be with. Wrigley is great, as well, but Fenway is the field of dreams, at least in my view.

Anonymous said...

Finally achieved my dream of seeing the Sox at Fenway exactly 1 year ago. Sox v. Yankees....Schilling v. Mussina. Sox lost in extra innings in what was to be the downturn of their season. However, the Fenway experience was even better than I imagined it would be. Now, your sister in NH is waiting for you to come visit and take her to a game!!!