For anyone who hasn’t attended the Fan Fest at Coors Field, it was a really great experience for baseball fans. The Rockies had pretty much the entire stadium open for viewing.
Depending on where you wanted to start, you could head down to the lower levels and walk past the coach’s conference room and into the Rox clubhouse. Very spacious, lots of TV’s (Helton explained they put video of opposing pitcher on while they begin preparing for game). Walking out of the clubhouse you walk past the home team inside batting cage, down a flight of stairs to the entrance to the dugout.
Across the hall by the clubhouse is a large video room with multiple screens for players to view pretty much any video they want to watch. Further down is the umpire’s room where the only access to the room is by the umpires and the attendant who is assigned to the room. No one else is permitted. Interesting fact: after every final game of that home stand, the umpires always get a police escort to the airport due to the tight schedule. Further down is the visiting batting cage and clubhouse.
Heading upstairs to the club level you can visit the TV and Radio broadcast booths as well as the (very spacious) press box. Along the club level concourse there are activities for kids (minor league player autographs (Nolen Arenado and Tim Wheeler stand out) and one of 2 stages where panel discussions by position players took place. I thought this was the highlight of th
e fest. Lots of good discussion and you could really tell who were the comics on the team (my opinion is CarGo is the primary-he was cracking everyone up). The panel discussion I attended was Colvin, Cargo, Cuddyer, Helton and EY2.
They discussed favorite/worst parks to play in (SF was a mentioned often about toughest). Helton mentioned that SF has vocal fans, lots of angry fans, he said they will say anything to you while you are on deck. Just about every one of the players mentioned NL West parks as tough.
Overall it was a great day down at the park. Managed some autographs (De LA Rosa, Cargo, Pomeranz, Arenado,) saw a ton of areas you normally don’t get to see and listening to Tulo and crew talking baseball. Nacasio walked by and he looked very ready for spring ball! Highly recommend it to anyone like those of us on Rox Walkoff!
Go ROX!
DrRockies
DrRox, thank you so much for this write-up and the pictures…This is the next best thing to being there!
Wow great job! Wish I’d gotten off my fat retired butt and attended.Had no idea of that much freedom.Great article and pics.Thanks,DrRockies.
Very cool. What do you guys think of the new jerseys? Sort of boring. I was hoping for a new font.
Thought about going Sunday but decided that I can hear from the attendees like DrRockies! Thanks so much for the pics and comments. It’s the next best thing to spring training. I won’t go this year, but highly recommended for those who have time and money to go down to Scottsdale now that we are playing at SRF instead of some far off stadium known as Hi Corbett Field that looks more like a high school where no ‘A’ players come to play a game there.
Nice job DrRockies!!! Rockies FanFest is definitely on my to do list next off season.
Hey…JB…if you build it, they will come!
thx Guys….highly recommended for sure.
Just some additional thoughts after seeing some of the players. Nolen Arenado is certainly a youngster when you get him around the veterans. Impressed with the way he carried himself. Nicasio physically is impressive..bigger than I expected and he was really enjoying himself. De La Rosa talked about gearing up to begin pitching as soon as he can. Pomeranz is one big kid. …Just listening to Todd, Tulo, Cargo and Cuddyer talk, you get juiced about spring ball.
rockymountainhigh is spot on. The facilities in Scottsdale are amazing. At the Rox practice field next to the main stadium, you are practically standing right down next to the backstop watching BP. Players occasionally walk over by roped off area and sign. As a side note, if you are there for an AZ games, they always sit 2 or 3 players up by their clubhouse side signing and players walk down to the right next to you on both sides. Just a great venue if you get the chance. Looking forward to a few weeks down there.
Go Rox!
I’d add that Charlie Blackmon was really funny. You can tell he’s the clubhouse replacement for Spilly. I saw him in a kids’ Q&A and he was consistently hilarious in a loopy way. In that same session, Belisle came off as a stud and Pomerance looked like a deer in the headlights.
I was able to ask Christian Friedrich if he’d be pitching at Coors this year and he answered with an assured, “oh yea.” One of the fun things at the Fan Fest is the easy access to the minor league guys they are featuring. Wheeler, Arenado, Matthes along with Friedrich were walking around and giving autographs to anyone who’d ask.
It was a lot of fun. I can say I was in shock a few times, for instance when Dex and Cargo walked out the door next to me and shook my son’s hand and talked to my daughter. Unfortunately I was frozen with the camera and pen in hand. We did score a lot of autographs and talked to the Minor leagues. I have to say Dex and Cargo are funny , Tulo is all business. Was kind of funny my daughter (4) said after a Q &A session, “I don’t like Tulo is is not happy” . Overall I had a blast and will do it again.
Thanks for the scoop, Dr. Rockies! I had no idea it was this good. Has it always been at the ballpark?? I seem to remember it being at a convention hall or something, and for season ticket holders only. I wanna go next year!
Is Tierney on the team now? Wonder if she’s as big a baseball fan as I was at her age :0) I hope Tulo can lighten up this year. I think it would really help him stay consistent, and produce in the very spots where he’s squeezing the bat too hard. He doesn’t need to carry the weight of the world as he seems to have done (and been “serious” at the fanfest, too, a place where he could be loose and have fun).
Steve, you should have asked EY what he thinks of the DP alleging he will be traded before the start of ST.
thanks roxnsox…..I asked one of the ushers and they thought it had been going on for 3 maybe 4 years. Sad part of it is my niece worked for the Rox for 8 years, working the fan fest and I was either ignorant of it or maybe out of town. A good time for sure.
Helton never seems to go anywhere without his oldest daughter. You can tell they have a great father/daughter relationship. As far as Tulo, he probably isn’t too far removed from Helton as far as intensity. From inside talk, I know he is very intense and can be “moody” about playing time and results. Not a knock on him and I think having a couple of focused veterans help balance the clubhouse. However I think you have a point that is could work against productivity of any player. Tulo was quoted in an article a few weeks ago that he needs to improve on how he handles the negative aspects of a bad game/peformance.
Mike Raysfan
I crossed my mind but out of respect for Pooter in case he was in the crowd, I declined ; )
Go Rox
My “moody comment was about Helton, but I am sure Tulo has his moments when struggling. Just to clarify.
Go Rox