Ballparks - # 27 - Coors Field, Denver, Colorado

8/18/25

Coors Field (16 August 2025)

A summer getaway took us to Denver to visit old and new friends. The lowly Colorado Rockies were home and the league-leading Dodgers began a four-game series the night I added Coors Field to my life list. While the Rockies already have a hundred losses this season, they split the series with the Dodgers after winning this game with an exciting ninth inning walk-off hit. The box score can be found at the link above.

Cornerstone, Coors Field (18 August 2025)

Coors Field was built in the Lower Downtown (LoDo) neighborhood of Denver. The team played its first two seasons in Mile High Stadium, also the home of the NFL Denver Broncos.

The Colorado Rockies began as an expansion team in 1993. In 1992, major league baseball had two divisions in each league. The American League’s East and West Divisions each had seven teams. The National League’s two divisions had six teams so the Rockies joined, along with the Florida (now Miami) Marlins, and the league’s then organized into three divisions to better spread the teams geographically…and expand the playoffs…to make more money…and extend the season further toward the winter. Five years later, the game expanded again to its current roster of thirty teams when the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Rays joined the game.

(Modest) Wall of Fame, Coors Field (18 August 2025)

Like many other ballparks, Coors has a place of honor for the retired uniform numbers of star players. Like all other venues, Jackie Robinson’s number 42 is included. The ‘KSM’ honors team president Keli Scott McGregor who died suddenly in 2010 at age 47. The ‘17’ and ‘33’ recognize Todd Helton and Larry Walker, respectively. Shame we in the east did not see much of these two…who had fantastic careers with a mediocre team in an inconvenient time zone.

Both players are in baseball’s Hall of Fame. Helton, with a career batting average of .316, played first base for seventeen seasons. Walker, also a career .300 hitter and a Canadian by birth, had an awesome run. In the three seasons, 1997-99, Walker batted over .360, something no player had done since 1929-31. As I write this, the Dodger, Freddy Freeman, is leading the National League with an average of .300. We may see a league leader finish with an average below .300. This makes Walker’s three-season run over .360 even more remarkable.

Bleacher Wilderness, Coors Field (18 August 2025)

Instead of a dark wall in straight-away center field (every ballpark has some alternative to brightly clothed fans so batters can better see incoming pitches), the field has a living representation of the Rockies environment with evergreen trees and water features.

Dodger Blue Everywhere, Coors Field (18 August 2025)

It’s pretty clear that Dodger fans are everywhere. I don’t know if it’s their long storied history or the Big City vibe or their origins in New York (the Center of the Universe for many). Just as their fans outnumbered the locals in Oakland last year (as Yankee fans did when I attended the Angels game in 2022), Dodger Blue was clearly evident across the stadium this night.

Even non-baseball fans know that the altitude here makes Coors a park known for home runs and scoring. To address that (and present a better case when you try to recruit pitchers), the fences have been raised and moved back to give Coors the biggest outfield in the game…thus creating the park with more doubles and triples than most. Also, because it is the dry air more than the altitude that makes balls fly far, since 2002, a humidor room has been installed to store baseballs in an environment that mitigates that effect.

Coors Field (18 August 2025)

Again, due to its short history, few notable events have occurred here. In 2016, Ichiro Suzuki notched his 3000th hit here. Another nod to Japanese big leaguers goes to Hideo Nomo. Despite the park’s overwhelming hitter-friendly rep, the Dodger pitcher threw a no-hitter here in 1996…before fence realignments and humidor use…to date, the only no-hitter in the park’s history.

Scoreboard, Coors Field (18 August 2025)

Like most modern scoreboards, this one is ginormous and packed with information. Curiously, my slow-motion collecting of ballparks has often included Shohei Ohtani. When I visited Angels Stadium in 2022, he homered for the home team. When I saw a Tiger game at Comerica Park in 2023, he pitched a shutout for the Angels. Last year’s game in the Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, Ohtani, now a Dodger, homered again against the A’s. You’d think I was some kind of ‘Swiftie’-inspired fanboy. Just a coincidence.

Celebration, Coors Field (18 August 2025)

Not sure what to make of the team’s mascot…a purple pot-bellied triceratops. It turns out that ‘Dinger’ (cool slang name for a home run) dates to the construction of the stadium when dinosaur fossils were found in the excavation.

Thanks to Larry and Kate for making this night happen.

Shot of the Day - # 54 - Hoover Dam Art

Winged Figures of the Republic, by Oskar Hansen [1935]

Hoover Dam (11 May 2009)

In 2009, I went to Las Vegas to stink up another tournament and see some of the nearby sights. The burgeoning Vegas metropolis could not exist without the ready source of fresh water in nearby Lake Mead. And Lake Mead would not exist without Hoover Dam.

Hoover Dam is one of those great Depression-era projects that many believe we are incapable of producing anymore. By 1936, a consortium of companies completed the job two years ahead of schedule…all after figuring out how to build a dam on a scale never attempted before.

Then, like the cherry on the sundae, they added some artwork. The dam straddles the Nevada-Arizona border and on the Nevada side, you will find two bronze giants.

Shiney Toes

Winged Figures of the Republic, by Oskar Hansen [1935]

Hoover Dam (11 May 2009)

Since the toes are the only part within reach,

visitors have (of course) rubbed them to a full shine.

I’m drawn to the heroic scale, the balance and the stark depiction of this classic art deco style…and then there’s this special abstract background of the jagged canyon rock wall that anchors the dam.

The winged figures are thirty feet high. As you can see, if you want to take a top-to-bottom, all-in picture, it becomes a stick figure. Sadly, I didn’t have enough sense then to get close and shoot just the torso and head but there’s always the miracle of cropping.

Winged Figures of the Republic, by Oskar Hansen [1935]

Hoover Dam (11 May 2009)

With the bronze figure more than a half inch thick, each statue contains more than four tons of metal. The figure rests on large blocks of polished igneous diorite. The clever way the blocks and statue were placed without any damage is noteworthy. Each was first positioned on a block of ice and slowly and precisely guided into place as the ice melted.

The sculptor, a Norwegian immigrant waxed poetic that the figures represent the triumph of the American spirit. They express "the immutable calm of intellectual resolution, and the enormous power of trained physical strength, equally enthroned in placid triumph of scientific accomplishment." [emphasis added]

Maybe someone at MAGA Central can confirm that was when America was great.

One day, we will return to Lake Mead because it presents a vivid illustration of the challenges of populating the arid west. While the dam is a marvel of twentieth-century engineering, the dwindling reservoir behind it portends something far more serious.

Passed Chief Justices - # 4 – John Marshall

 

Bust of Chief Justice Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court,

Washington, D.C. (11 April 2019)

The G.O.A.T.

I sometimes think this abbreviation is a recent addition to our lexicon. It stands for ‘Greatest of All Time’ and became more prominent when footballer Tom Brady, the most successful player at the most prominent position in the nation’s most popular sport, was wrapping up his career. Of the seventeen Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, there is no doubt the GOAT moniker belongs to John Marshall.

As we continue to present the last resting places of our nation’s sixteen passed Chief Justices (in order), Number Four will stand apart from the rest. The first three might have set the stage to shape the new country’s judicial system, but they actually adjudicated few cases in the eleven years of the court’s existence. John Jay, John Rutledge and Oliver Ellsworth resigned from the court because they had other priorities. Every Chief since has either retired (4) or died on the job (8).
  

Portrait of John Marshall by Robert M. Sully [1830],

U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, D. C. (11 April 2019)

John Marshall was every bit one of our Founding Fathers. He was a soldier in the Revolution and served with Washington at Valley Forge. He was elected to the Virginia legislature and was a delegate to the Constitution Convention in 1788. Having served in the House of Representatives and as John Adams’ Secretary of State, Marshall is on that short list of individuals who have filled constitutional positions in all three branches of our government.

Often called the “Father of the Supreme Court,” Marshall solidified the body as a co-equal branch of government. The 1803 Marbury v. Madison decision continues to be cited today as the cornerstone case that established the Court’s role in judicial review and its responsibility to determine whether laws are constitutional.

He was the longest-serving Chief Justice. With over thirty-four years on the bench, only three of all 116 Associate Justices have had longer tenures. When he died in office in 1835, the Liberty Bell was struck in Philadelphia. Some believe that was when the bell cracked and was never rung again.
  

Bust of John Marshall,

Virginia State Capitol, Richmond (5 April 2019)

Marshall’s importance to the nation is reflected in the monuments and tributes one can find in public spaces. Inside the Virginia capitol in Richmond, the old House Chamber is preserved as a museum that honors the many Sons of Virginia that have contributed to the Nation. In addition to the eight U.S. presidents, our fourth Chief Justice is recognized.
   

John Marshall, Judiciary Square, Washington, D.C. (11 April 2019)

In 1884, forty-nine years after his passing, this bronze depiction of Justice Marshall was dedicated on the west front of the U.S. Capitol. The inauguration of Ronald Reagan in 1980 began the practice of staging that ceremony in the same place and the statue was moved inside the Supreme Court building. In 1982, this replica of the sculpture was placed in the John Marshall Park near Judiciary Square just off Pennsylvania Avenue. Another replica can be found in Philadelphia.
   

Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia (6 April 2019)

Shockoe Hill Cemetery was founded in 1820 when the in-town church graveyards reached capacity. The burial ground holds many veterans from our Revolution and War of 1812. John Marshall’s beloved wife Polly passed first, and he was known to make regular visits to her grave.
  

Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia (6 April 2019)

It was a damp, gloomy morning when we visited John Marshall’s

last resting place. The gray atmosphere served to highlight the

weathered, stained, 150-year-old graves and faded inscriptions.

Also buried in Shockoe Hill are twenty-seven of the victims of the Browns Island Disaster. On March 13, 1863, a munitions factory on the James River exploded, killing fifty workers. The memorial stone inscription notes that most of the victims were “...girls under age of 17 who helped fill manpower needs and whose small hands were useful in such work.”

It seems fair to suggest that much of Marshall’s greatness stems from the fact that he led the court that finally established its presence in federal government. During his tenure, the court cranked out a thousand decisions, half of which were written by the Chief Justice. Just as George Washington’s legacy is enhanced by the fact that so many of his executive actions were precedent-setting, the Marshall court laid down the legal framework for the growing nation.
   

The Marshall Family Graves,

Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, VA (6 April 2019)

A weather-worn tablet covers the judge. The inscription is no longer legible but says -

John Marshall

Son of Thomas and Mary Marshall

was born the 24th of September 1755

Intermarried with Mary Willis Ambler

the 3rd of January 1783

Departed this life

the 6th day of July 1835

   

Grave of John Marshall

Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, VA (6 April 2019)

Name – John Marshall

Born – 24 September 1755; Germantown, VA

Died – 6 July 1835; Philadelphia, PA (age 79)

Nominated by – John Adams

Preceded by – Oliver Ellsworth

Succeeded by – Roger Taney

Served as Chief Justice – 4 February 1801 – 6 July 1835

(34 years, 152 days)

Resting Place – Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, VA

Date Visited – 6 April 2019

Shots of the Day - # 53 - Looking Back on a Triple-Digit Day

One day this week, the temperature in Baltimore hit 104 degrees. I give thanks for air conditioning.

As I shelter in place, I worked to select favorite images to set aside in a ‘Best of the Year’ folder…a practice I’ve employed since going digital in 2005. A set from February caught my attention. You can imagine that pictures of fresh snow could be particularly attractive on a scorching day. I paused my review of the rest of this year’s shots to post some thoughts.
   

Hungry Cat and Dismembered Monkey (12 February 2025)

When it snows here, I enjoy taking the camera down our wooded paths to find images. This snow was of a consistency that made it cover vegetation in a particular way. I suggest (even without mind altering substances) one can see familiar figures in natural settings. We do it with clouds. Instead of ink, these are like white Rorschach tests.
    

When You Come to a Four in the Road… (12 February 2025)

While this snowfall was not particularly beautiful and the images have limited aesthetic appeal, I believe they have achieved ‘Best of’ status because of their titles. As I noted in 2017 (S.O.D. #5), my image titles are almost always mundane, ‘place-date’ affairs. Once in a while, there is this urge to call it something else. I do believe a clever title can influence an image’s reception.

Anyway, put another ice cube in your cold drink and know that in six months, you may be shoveling snow again.

Ballparks - # 26 - Oracle Park, San Francisco – Part 2

8/9/24

When I was growing up in New York City, Major League baseball had 16 teams and three of them resided in the Big Apple. No team was further west than Kansas City, Now, there are ten teams between KC and the left coast. After the Dodgers broke Brooklyn’s heart in 1957, the Giants were the second team to head west a year later.

After two years on a minor league field, the Giants played forty years in the infamous Candlestick Park, known for its tricky winds and unpredictable playing conditions. I’m sure some stat heads still discuss how many more of everything Willy Mays would have had if he played all those years somewhere else.
  

103 Splash Hits, Oracle Park (9 August 2024)

There’s a small electric sign near the right field foul pole. It’s a tally of the home runs that (only) Giant players have hit that cleared the stands and everything else and landed in the drink.
  

A Long Way to McCovey Cove, Oracle Park (9 August 2024)

Once you clear the 24-foot-high wall (in honor of Willy Mays jersey number), the homer has to pass a few rows of seating, the inside promenade and the outside promenade to land in that portion of Mission Bay named for a former Giant great. Some fans will paddle kayaks on the cove hoping to net a splash homer. Why? I don’t know.
  

Juan Marichal Statue,Oracle Park (9 August 2024)

Modern ballparks (unlike that sad reminder in Oakland) make it desirable to wander their perimeters. Not only are there more food and merchandise vendors, there are monuments and plaques and reminders of the team’s past greats. I remember the high kick of Juan Marichal. He threw from every angle in every way.

Here’s something for today’s fans who see most pitchers exit after five innings and throw complete games only once or twice times a year. In 1963, at Candlestick, Marichal dueled 42-year-old future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn as both pitchers threw shutout ball...for 16 innings! Willy Mays homered in the bottom of the 16th to seal the 1-0 win. Those were the days.
   

Lou Seal on our night (left) and other times (right)

The Giants’ mascot made a brief appearance before our game. In my attempt to learn about this cute but rather dumpy and immobile mascot, I discovered that ‘Lou Seal,’ the team’s popular mascot was inducted last year into the Mascot Hall of Fame. Who knew? The second image is taken from the web. When we were there, it must have been regular Lou’s night off since this less gregarious version waddled off the field early.
   

Giant Retired Uniform Numbers, Oracle Park (9 August 2024)

It stands to reason that a team with such a long and successful history would have a number of outstanding players. Like other ballparks, Oracle has a space that honors past greats. The two ‘NY’ markers on the left are for legendary manager John McGraw and pitcher Christy Mathewson, who was one of five members of the Baseball Hall of Fame inaugural class. They played before uniforms had numbers.

Of the numbers to the right, all have been elected to the Hall...except for Will Clark (# 22) who was the leader of the club in the 80’s when they ended a long stretch of mediocrity. I cannot say why numbers 24 and 30 are highlighted as they are except to note that Willy Mays and Orlando Cepeda both died less than two months earlier and they might have been recognized this way.

Since we were flying back to the east coast the following morning (before dawn’s early light), we didn’t stay past the fifth inning. At that point, the Tigers were up 2-0 and the Giants had not gotten a single hit. The local fans went home happy because their boys scored a run in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings to win 3-2. You can see the box score of the contest by clicking on the date at the top.

Ballparks - # 26 - Oracle Park, San Francisco – Part 1

Oracle Park (9 August 2024)

The California visit that included the Oakland A’s stadium (posted April 30) was planned to nab the Giants’ park as well. The day before returning home we saw an interleague match against the Detroit Tigers. This was a visit interesting enough to break the story into two posts.

I don’t dedicate posts much, but this one is for Bill, another Bronx kid who’s been a Giants fan since they played in the Polo Grounds, which was just across the Harlem River from old Yankee Stadium. Imagine two major league ballparks within sight of each other. Bill was steadfast in his support when they moved to the west coast and when they weren’t any good. Although the team has been to twenty World Series, there was a 27-year dry spell before the earthquake appearance in 1989…more on that later.

 

Oracle Park (9 August 2024)

Dating to 1883, the San Francisco Giants franchise is one of the oldest in the game. Three years later, the New York Gothams became the Giants forever more.

Oracle Park has been the home field since 2000. In this quarter-century span, Oracle is the stadium’s fourth name…Pacific Bell, SBC and AT&T each had their names on the facade before 2019. With Mission Bay on one side and downtown on the other, the stadium is not surrounded by parking lots. Fans arrive from all directions via many forms of public transportation that get you there and back. It is a baseball-only venue that seats a bit over 41,000.

Because the team had played in the infamous Candlestick Park, the architects put extra effort to design and position a field that would be less influenced by the Bay winds. However, being an outdoor venue, they can do nothing about the chilly temps that sweep in after sundown. One is advised to pack extra layers.

Left Field and Beyond, Oracle Park (9 August 2024)

The days of stadiums with upper decks across the outfield are over. The days of designing stadiums to accommodate baseball and football are over. A ballpark is so much better when the seating is shaped by the field and bleacher seats remain level high. The views beyond often make it worth it.

Oracle Park (9 August 2024)

Plus, we need that space for ginormous video screens,

scoreboards and billboards. Fans have spent their entire day

staring at screens, so we want to keep the vibe going.

Scoreboard, Oracle Park (9 August 2024)

Older fans recall the 1989 World Series, a cross-town affair with the A’s playing the Giants. On October 17, the Loma Prieta earthquake caused major damage to the area. There was a 12-day gap between Game 2 and 3, but in that time, enough services were restored to complete the Series, won by the A’s in a 4-game sweep.

We had the same kind of announcement at the Oakland game…instructions about where each area of seating should exit in case of “an emergency” (they don’t say ‘earthquake’). I hope the folks pay attention.

At The Willy Mays Gate, Oracle Park (9 August 2024)

Young fans pose with the ‘Say Hey Kid’ before entering the park.

Many consider him to be the best to have ever played the game.

Imagine a New York kid whose love of the game blossomed at a time in the city when it had THREE major league teams...with THREE future Hall of Fame center fielders...Willy, Mickey and the Duke. In the ten-year period from 1949 to 1958, a New York team was in every World Series. In six of those years, that team played another New York team. A run like that helps explain that New Yawk attitude the rest of the country loves so much. It was a pleasure to close the loop and be at the Giants’ field after all these years.

More on this ballpark to follow in Part 2.

Passed Vice Presidents - # 23 – Adlai Stevenson

Grave of Adlai Stevenson (15 July 2023)

Served under Grover Cleveland

4 March 1893 – 4 March 1897

Preceded by # 22 – Levi P. Morton

Succeeded by # 24 – Garret Hobart

Born – 23 October 1835

Died – 14 June 1914 (Age 78)

Buried – Evergreen Cemetery, Bloomington, IL

Date Visited – 15 July 2023

Adlai Stevenson was born in Kentucky. After his family moved to central Illinois when he was a teenager, he became a lawyer and engaged in state politics at the same time Abraham Lincoln and Steven Douglas rose to prominence in the mid-1850’s. Like the Tafts in Ohio and the Kennedys in Massachusetts, he began the most prominent political family in the state’s history. Four generations excelled in public life. His son was Secretary of State. His grandson was Governor and United Nations Ambassador. His great grandson was a U.S. Senator.

The Stevenson Family Plots,

Bloomington Cemetery, Bloomington, IL (15 July 2023)

After a couple of terms as U. S. congressman, Stevenson accepted the position of Assistant Postmaster General in the first Grover Cleveland administration. Despite the civil service reforms that had begun at the time, the postal system remained a spoils hotbed and Stevenson fired thousands of Republican postmasters in favor of Democrat replacements. At the end of Cleveland’s term, he nominated Stevenson to a judicial position, but the Republican majority Senate would have none of it and he returned to Illinois.

Vice President Adlai E. Stevenson

Four years later, Cleveland won the presidency again, this time with Adlai as his running mate. Stevenson can be included on the list of ‘Almost President’ since Cleveland’s oral cancer was successfully treated in secret in 1893. Even the vice president was kept in the dark about the surgery.

The Footstones of Vice President Adlai Stevenson and His Wife

Bloomington Cemetery, Bloomington, IL (15 July 2023)

Although Stevenson wanted to be promoted in the next presidential election, the 1896 Democrats were smitten by the mercurial William Jennings Bryan but lost to the McKinley/Hobart ticket. In 1900, Stevenson agreed to be Bryan’s running mate and lost the election to McKinley/Roosevelt. He would have joined George Clinton and John C. Calhoun as the only VPs to serve under two presidents.

Sign Identifying the Grave of Vice President

Adlai Stevenson I, Bloomington Cemetery,

Bloomington, IL (15 July 2023)

Some cemeteries are rather discreet when it comes to promoting

the location of residents with any notoriety. I think Evergreen

Cemetery’s approach allows interested visitors to locate graves

of the famous without traipsing about over the dearly departed.

Sign Identifying the Grave of Adlai Stevenson II,

Bloomington Cemetery, Bloomington, IL (15 July 2023)

Also interred with the family is the vice president’s grandson and namesake, who rose to prominence in the 1950’s as a two-time losing Democrat Party nominee for president. The former governor of Illinois could not carry his own state in the 1952 and 1956 elections as Dwight Eisenhower steam-rolled him on both contests.

Stump Sculpture of ‘Old Hoss’

Bloomington Cemetery, Bloomington, IL (15 July 2023)

Another interesting feature of this cemetery is the chainsaw sculptures that were made on a couple of dying trees on the grounds. One is close to the grave of a Hall of Fame pitcher, Charles ‘Old Hoss’ Radbourn. His 1884 season was mind-blowing compared to what pitchers do now. Last season (2024 - 162 games), the leading pitching stats in major league baseball were 208 innings thrown, 228 strikeouts, 18 wins and an earned run average of 2.38. In 1884 (a 112-game season), Old Hoss threw 678 innings, struck out 441 batters and won 60 games with an ERA of 1.38. Those were the days.