Coors Field July 4th Madness!

Since I didn't have any plans today for the 4th of July, I let my parents twist my arm enough to convince me to go to the Rockies' game/fireworks bonanza. I was never heard from again...

I met my parents outside of Coors field after about 20 minutes of trying to find a parking spot in the backstreets of downtown Denver. We then went to a nearby bar to get some beer and dinner before the game started. I had my traditional beer and buffalo chicken sandwich. There is no better food/drink combination on the planet. It also gave me the opportunity to watch this year's hotdog eating contest on TV! What luck! The Japanese guy won again. I have to say that it worries me a little bit that the Japanese are so good at shoving weiners into their mouths, but I digress.

My dad blew $40 on a ticket 10 rows up from the third base line with the hopes that I could move down later in the game. Attendance was pretty high because of the fireworks extravaganza, but of course it just happened that there was a plethora of empty seats around my parents and I had no choice but to go join them. This meant having to listen to my dad's nonstop amateur commentary which include such gems as "pop flies usually lead to easy outs" and "he needs to throw a strike here". I think he should work for TV broadcasting. Really!

Anyways, there had been a light rain for most of the night but it really started to come down in the middle of 6th inning causing the game to become rain delayed. Everybody packed in tight to the concourse to wait out the rain. It was so packed that it took me ten minutes to move about 30 feet to go buy a drink. We were standing near a very drunk and surly man for most of the delay. He kept saying "LET'S PLAY SOME BALL! YER ALL A BUNCH OF WIMPS!" while clapping his hands despite the torrential downpour and hurricane winds. This man is my new personal hero...

It rained as hard as I've seen it rain in Colorado for quite some time. It seemed inevitable that they would have to cancel the rest of the game, but I guess they were hesitant to do so because they wanted to go ahead with the fireworks. Eventually the rain stopped and play resumed after about an hour and fifteen minutes.

Throughout the night my parents had been trying to pressure me into wearing this incredibly dumb looking pancho. I had resisted most of the night but finally gave in after the rain delay. About a minute later I look up into the jumbotron and notice the profile of my face for everyone to see. I froze up and had a look of absolute horror on my face. It was like my worse nightmare had come true! Of all the drunken goofy dancing people in the stadium that would do anything to be on a big screen they pick the goofy looking kid in a pancho minding his own damn business. There's no justice in this world! Anyways, I eventually got over the trauma and the Rockies won 6-1.

The fireworks show was actually pretty decent. My one complaint would be the song selection, especially two songs in particular. The first song I'm not sure of the name of, but I've heard it before. It's that hardcore redneck country song that has the lyric "We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way" (referring to Iraq or terrorists or liberals or something). This song pretty much is an anthem for ugly Americans and still pisses me off whenever I hear it. The other song was a not-so-stirring rendition of "Yankee Doodle Dandy". The song is dumb enough, but this version was a weird insipid, cartoonish sounding version. Needless to say I found it less than inspiring. After that I said goodbye to my parents and came back to Ft. Collins to write this blog.

I really need to find better ways to end these stories....BOOBS!