Fun facts about and Coors Field

By Roger Harris has been a baseball town for many years. In 1862 the “Denvers” played at George Tebeau field, in 1887 the became the first big league team to play in Denver. In 1901 the Denver team was called the Bears and won 3 league titles. Then in 1917 professional baseball disappeared from Denver. Various Denver Bears teams were in Denver 1922-1932, Then AAA baseball came to Denver in 1955. Many of you remember that Denver was home of the minor league Triple AAA Denver Bears for many years. What you might not know is that the Denver Bears were the Kansas City Blues from 1901-1954. They were pushed out of KC when a major team, the Philadelphia Athletics moved to KC. The Blues moved to Denver in 1955 and became the Denver Bears. The team mostly played at Mile High but most knew it as “Bears Stadium”. In 1985 the team changed it name to the Denver Zephyrs (named after the famous passenger train that traveled from Chicago to San Francisco through the Rockies). In 1993 the major came to Colorado. In 1994 the Zephyrs moved to New Orleans where they remained the Zephyrs until 2017 when they were rebranded the Baby Cakes. Kind of a takeoff on King Cakes and Marti Gras. The Baby Cakes had a unique promotion that any child born 2017 or later in Louisiana is eligible for a lifetime pass to the Baby Cakes! In 1991 Denver was awarded a National League expansion franchise that would become the Colorado Rockies. On April 9, 1993, the Rockies played their first home game in front of a big league regular season record crowd of 80,227 fans at ! the first home for the franchise in the bottom of the first inning! That first year they attracted 4,484,250 fans to watch the Rockies play, another major league record. They continued to play at Mile High Stadium for the 1994 season. Construction on a new Baseball stadium began in lower downtown on October 16, 1992. Dinosaur fossils were discovered during construction including a 1000 lb. Triceratops skull. The stadium was briefly nicknamed Jurassic Park. In 1995 a new stadium was completed at 20th and Blake street, it would be called Coors Field. The first Baseball only field built since in 1962. Coors field opened with a game between the Rockies and the NY Mets on April 26, 1995. The Rockies won after 14 innings. That day I was sitting on the top row behind home plate (above the purple mile high row) with a ticket I had won in a raffle that morning. The seats at Coors Field are green except the 20th row of the upper deck that is 5280 feet above sea level and that row of seats are purple. Coors Field combines the nostalgic feel of a 1920’s ballpark with 21st century technology and comfort. The hand laid brick helps the park blend into with great appeal. Coors Field is owned by the Denver Metropolitan Baseball . It was financed with 75% public funds from a 1% sales tax increase and 25% by private funds the Rockies contributed, and it cost $215m to build originally. Coors Field has a grass field and currently seats 50,398. The Coors Brewing Company has the through 2018. The team and the stadium have already had many memorable events. Hosting the All Star game in 1997, and the in 2007. There was even a no hitter game in 1996 at Coors Field. There have been many Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards achieved at Coors Field as well. The record attendance at Coors Field is 51,267 fans. To compensate for the dry thin air and the possibility of home runs, the Coors Field was extended out. However, Coors Field quickly earned the reputation as a hitter friendly park due to the number of home runs, triples and doubles. A room size was installed to store and homeruns have decreased, but Coors Field remains the most hitter friendly park in the big leagues. After the 2013 season the upper right field seats were converted to an outdoor party deck. In 2018 the scoreboard was expanded 258%. Beautiful Park, Great Team, Great View, Cold Beer, Great Friends and Baseball. What more can you ask for on a nice summer evening?