“Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd.” — Jack Norworth
The game that started it all. I had to take a quick trip to Denver to attend a funeral, and at the last minute decided to bring Eli with me. After seeing family for the day, we realized we had the night open and looked to see if the Rockies were in town. I spent many summers growing up in Denver, and have vague memories of Coors Field – but haven’t been back since the late 90s.
Luckily they were playing tonight, so we grabbed a cab from the hotel and bought tickets online on the way over. This was Eli’s first ever live baseball game, fitting that it’s here as it was probably the setting for my first professional game as well. I can’t remember what’s changed, but the atmosphere was great walking in and the crowd ended up decent for a early season game on a Monday.
We first headed to the team store to get Eli a Rockies hat and a ball. Then, we went to check out our seats, front row behind the Rockies’ dugout. There was a small group of people aggregated by the netting near us, waiting for autographs, so I had Eli join them to see if he could get anyone. One player came over – Brenton Doyle – and an usher saw tiny Eli trying to get in and helped him get to the front of the line.
Doyle played for the Yard Goats, our local AA team, and also made his MLB debut less than a month prior to tonight. Eli was super excited to get his first autograph, and said that’s now his favorite player. I kept Eli stocked with snacks throughout the game to keep him content – cotton candy, ice cream, popcorn, soda – and he sat for most of the game until the 7th inning when we decided to walk around.
I wish we checked out “The Rockpile” in center field for an inning – looks like a unique view. Doyle ended up with his first multi-HR game, and tonight was also the debut for Red’s shortstop Matt McLain (17th overall pick in the 2021 draft, out of UCLA). Before leaving, we purchased a game-used Brenton Doyle bat for Eli (which they will ship to us) and a couple of game balls from tonight.
Fun time, with a very tired kid on the cab ride back to the hotel. Hopefully many more father-son baseball games in our future.
