Scattered thoughts upon visiting Coors Field

Last Saturday, I attended a Rockies game at Coors Field for the first time. It has one of the best locations of any ballpark I've been to. LoDo of Denver is a great neighborhood.

When building the stadium, they were faced with a decision of orienting the ballpark to view the mountains or the skyline. It's perfectly situated for a dramatic view of the skyline while the mountains are somewhat distant. They chose the mountains and they chose well. What other MLB city has a chance to see mountains from a sports venue? When you have that opportunity, you go for it.

What's so remarkable about the ballpark is that it's wholly unremarkable. It's everything a newish ballpark should be. It has open concourses for a view of the game at any point on the lower-level. It has a small section in center field with plants and rocks native to Colorado. It has a waterfall that turns into a fountain at the beginning of a game, during the 7th inning stretch, and after a home run.

It's a massive park with a full upper deck that starts down the left field line and goes three quarters of the way around the stadium. In straight-away center is the "rock-pile", a section that features four dollar seats.

It has all these features and if it was in competition with Cinergy Field, Fulton County Stadium, The Kingdome, and Shea Stadium, it would be considered among the best ballparks in the country. But with Progressive Field, PNC Park, Safeco Field, and AT&T Park, even wonderful ballparks are entirely average compared to the rest. With the closing of the Metrodome this year, we are left with only a handful of sub par parks: Tropicana Field, whatever they're calling the football stadium in Miami (and there is a new park in the works there), the Coliseum, and the Rogers Centre.

When the average ballpark is a 4 out of 10, the 8s shine. When most parks are 8-10s, the 8s are average, and that is great for baseball. Not every ballpark can pull off a perfect 10, and that's ok. But we now have a lot of ballparks that provide a very enjoyable experience and that's a great thing for fans.

I do have one complaint though. Baseball has this racket where they can charge different rates for different games. We just happened to go to a game when the Cubs were in town. This, apparently, gives the Rockies license to charge an extra 10 bucks per seat. That's crap.