Punk Rockies

While my fellow Oregonians were dealing with torrential rains and winds that were knocking trees from the ground and chilling the region, I was able to enjoy the warmth and sun in Scottsdale, Arizona, the spring home of the Colorado Rockies. As a first-timer to Spring Training, I didn’t know what to expect but was eager to find out. Indulge me as I share the interesting bits of my Arizona experience.

Chase Field Tour

The way our schedule worked out, my only chance to tour Chase Field (home of the division rival Arizona Diamondbacks) was an early morning slot that would give me a chance to see behind enemy lines and check off another stadium on my baseball tour.

The tour was conducted by an energetic (and tan!) 71 year-old guide that offered fascinating trivia on the stadium and team. One nugget was that Jay Bell’s son was responsible for the bobcat mascot of the D-Backs, which makes a lot less sense now that the stadium is no longer the “BOB” (for Bank One Ballpark). Another was that the roof cables keep wearing and could lose parts when the roof opens/closes. Instead of a costly and lengthy repair, the owner basically just built platforms underneath the cables to catch falling parts rather than fix the core issue. Neat!

Chase Field is a marvel itself. Being a retractable dome, it towers over traditional parks and has more of a giant building feel than traditional parks. We saw all the sights, from the outfield pool area unique to the ballpark, up to the press box and down to the clubhouse, out the dugout and even onto the field.

All of my other ballpark visits have been during games, so this was my first tour of a stadium. It doesn’t disappoint and is a great way to notch off another MLB park from your bucket list even in the offseason.

Diamondbacks at Rockies, Salt River Fields at Talking Stick

Immediately after the Chase Field tour, I took a Lyft back to Scottsdale just in time to see the start of the second inning of the second of the Rockies’ spring contests, and second matchup with the D-Backs in their shared facility. The field boasts some great amenities such as grass outfield seating past the left- and right-field fences, numerous concessions (though not very vegetarian-friendly), and a team store for both the D-Backs and Rox. There is covered seating with the Rockies side (right field/1^st base) in the shade for afternoon games, which was welcome in the 80 degree sun.

I was almost immediately greeted by the Rockies’ mascot, the venerable purple dinosaur known as Dinger. The crowd seemed to have more Rockies fans in attendance than D-Backs ones, which I was surprised by not just because the contest was taking place in Arizona territory, but also because I’ve seen the Rockies fans outnumbered by visiting teams even at Coors Field. As a lonely Rox fan in the Pacific Northwest, it was great to be among like-minded (if long suffering) baseball fans.

After I settled into my aisle seat a few rows back from the Rockies dugout, I was passed by none other than the controversial owner of Rockies, Dick Monfort. He climbed the stairs inches away from me, but by the time I recognized him he was gone. I didn’t even get a chance to compliment his purple sneakers.

The game got its first tally with a Yanquiel Fernandez ground out to score Sam Hilliard, who had reached on a single and moved to second when new Rockie Nick Martini was hit by a pitch. Things weren’t really rocking, though, until the bottom of the fourth, when Zac Veen did this.

The 433-foot home run (and legendary bat flip) by Veen put the Rockies up by three and Michael Toglia followed in the next inning with a 3-run jack to the opposite field to left. I’m really bullish on Toglia this season, and of course spring training is just that, but the guy can rake and I could see 40 homers off his bat this year.

An interesting aside to the game was that the in-between innings events squad would set up next to me prior to each performance on top of the Rockies dugout, and I got to hear some interesting exchanges as the fans picked to participate chatted with the events crew. Particularly amusing was a mulleted and neck-tattooed Arizona fan awaiting his turn to cornhole going off about how Zac Veen had stolen his girlfriend. Veen actually was the last out before they set up on the dugout, and the jilted D-Back fan even tried to get Veen’s attention by shouting his name repeatedly, but to no avail.

In the bottom of the seventh, a foot from the row behind me was put on my armrest. As I turned to scowl at the breach of etiquette, I realized the giant shoe on my chair belonged to Dinger, apparently my new best friend. I leaned back and got a quick shoulder rub, but he was gone before I could get my phone out to snap a pic.

I ended the day at the ballpark shopping at the Rockies store in right field, finding a good deal on a spring training Rockies t-shirt.

Other Random Trip Stuff

We stayed at Talking Point Resort just east of the Rockies complex and didn’t realize it was a full-blown casino. The hotel itself is nice and peaceful, but having to go through the weekend crowd at the casino multiple times was not exactly relaxing. One of the waitresses was sporting a Rockies jersey and said that several members of the team had signed it last season, so I guess you get some ballplayers enjoying the party there during their off hours. I looked for recognizable MLB faces but almost everyone there was in the 21-30 demographic on the weekends, so it was too much data to sift through.

Another adventure we took was taking a trip from the hotel into Old Town Scottsdale in a driverless rideshare vehicle. Waymo is a Lyft-like service run by Google that only operates in Phoenix, LA and San Francisco. The self-driven Jaguar can’t go on highways, but did an admirable job navigating the streets of Scottsdale, and a display showed every vehicle and living being within 1000’ in all directions, so it definitely was working with data a human driver wouldn’t have. I appreciated not needing to make small talk or smell the driver’s cologne or listen to their music, but we used Lyft the rest of the time just to support the (human) little guy.