Coors Field facts for kids
Coors Field is a famous baseball park located in downtown Denver, Colorado. It is the home stadium for the Colorado Rockies, Denver's team in Major League Baseball (MLB). The stadium is named after the Coors Brewing Company, which bought the naming rights before it was finished in 1995. The Rockies played their first two seasons, in 1993 and 1994, at Mile High Stadium. Then, they moved to Coors Field, which is close to Union Station in Denver's Lower Downtown area.
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Building Coors Field: A New Home for Baseball
Coors Field was the first new stadium built in Denver during a time when many sports venues were being updated. It was also the first baseball-only park built in the National League since Dodger Stadium in 1962.
The stadium was designed to be easy to get to. It is near Interstate 25 and has direct exits. You can also reach it by light rail from nearby Union Station.
Coors Field was first planned to be smaller, with seats for about 43,800 people. But the Rockies had a huge number of fans in their first season at Mile High Stadium. Almost 4.5 million people came to their games, which was a record for baseball! Because of this, the plans were changed during construction. More seats were added in the upper deck in right field.
The bleacher section in center field is called "The Rockpile." When the team played at Mile High Stadium, which was used for both football and baseball, the Rockpile seats were very far from home plate. This same idea was used at Coors Field. The Rockpile is located high up in deep center field. The original Rockpile seats cost only one dollar each.
During the building of Coors Field, workers found many dinosaur fossils! They even found a 7-foot-long (2.1 m), 1,000-pound (450 kg) triceratops skull. Because of this discovery, "Jurassic Park" was one of the names thought of for the stadium. This also led to the team choosing a triceratops as their mascot, named Dinger.
Coors Field was the first major league baseball park to have an underground heating system. This helps keep the field in good condition, especially in colder weather.
Cool Features of Coors Field
Most of the seats at Coors Field are dark green. But the seats in the 20th row of the upper deck are purple! These purple seats mark the exact spot that is one mile (1,609 meters) above sea level.
The Blue Moon Brewery at The Sandlot is a special microbrewery and restaurant located behind the Right Field Stands. You can enter it from inside Coors Field or from Blake Street. The brewery is run by the Coors Brewing Company. They use it to try out new craft beers on a small scale. This brewery has won many awards at the Great American Beer Festival. The very popular Blue Moon beer, a Belgian-Style Wheat beer, was actually invented here! Now, it's made in large amounts by Coors.
Behind the center field wall, there's a beautiful landscape that looks like the Rocky Mountains. This area has a waterfall, fountains, and pine trees. After a Rockies home run or a win, the fountains shoot high into the air!
The park also has two large LED video screens and a long ribbon display in the outfield. These screens show lineups, player statistics, and the score.
After the 2013 season, parts of the right field upper deck were changed. This area became an outdoor party deck for fans to enjoy starting in 2014.
Why Coors Field is Known for Home Runs
Stadium designers thought early on that Coors Field would have many home runs. This is because Denver is 5,200 feet (1,580 m) above sea level, making it the highest park in Major League Baseball. The air is thinner at this high elevation, which means baseballs can travel farther. To make up for this, the outfield fences were placed very far from home plate. This makes Coors Field have the largest outfield in Major League Baseball today.
For many years, Coors Field was known as the most hitter-friendly park. It had the most home runs, and also the most doubles and triples. Some people even called it "Coors Canaveral," like Cape Canaveral where rockets launch!
Before the 2002 baseball season, studies found that it was the dry air, not just the thin air, that made balls fly farther. Baseballs stored in drier air become harder and bounce more when hit. So, a special room called a humidor was installed. This room stores the baseballs in controlled humidity. Since the humidor was added, the number of home runs at Coors Field has gone down. Now, it's much closer to other parks.
Even with the humidor, the high elevation still affects the game. The ball still moves more easily through the thin air, leading to longer hits. Also, a curveball doesn't curve as much in thin air as it does at sea level. This can make it harder for pitchers.
Coors Field has twice broken the major league record for home runs hit in one season. In 1996, 271 home runs were hit there. In 1999, the current record was set with 303 home runs. The number of home runs has dropped since 2002, and even more since 2005.
Even though the number of home runs has decreased, Coors Field is still considered a very hitter-friendly ballpark. From 2012 to 2015, the Colorado Rockies scored the most runs in home games, but the fewest runs in away games. This shows how much the low air density at Coors Field helps hitters.
Special Moments at Coors Field
The 1998 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was held at Coors Field. This is a special game where the best players from different teams play against each other.
On April 23, 2013, the Rockies and Braves played in the coldest game since MLB started tracking temperatures in 1991. The temperature was only 23 °F (−5 °C)!
There have been nine games at Coors Field where the final score was 1-0. All of these low-scoring games happened after the humidor was installed in 2002. Here are some of them:
- July 9, 2005: Rockies beat the San Diego Padres
- April 16, 2006: Philadelphia Phillies beat the Rockies
- July 25, 2006: St. Louis Cardinals beat the Rockies
- August 1, 2006: Milwaukee Brewers beat the Rockies
- June 11, 2008: Rockies beat the San Francisco Giants
- September 14, 2008: Rockies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in 10 innings
- September 17, 2008: Rockies beat the San Diego Padres
- July 6, 2009: Rockies beat the Washington Nationals
- June 12, 2010: Rockies beat the Toronto Blue Jays
Games 3 and 4 of the 2007 World Series were played at Coors Field. The Boston Red Sox won both games and the championship.
On August 7, 2016, Ichiro Suzuki got his 3,000th career MLB hit at Coors Field. It was a triple!
Coors Field has also hosted other big events. On July 3, 2015, the Zac Brown Band played the first major concert at the ballpark. About 42,000 fans attended!
In February 2016, Coors Field hosted two outdoor ice hockey games. On February 20, the Denver Pioneers college team beat Colorado College 4-1. A week later, on February 27, the Colorado Avalanche played the Detroit Red Wings as part of the 2016 NHL Stadium Series.
Coors Field in Pop Culture
Coors Field has appeared in movies and TV shows. It was shown in the movie The Fan (1996), which starred Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes. The ballpark was also featured in two episodes of the cartoon South Park: "Professor Chaos" (2002) and "The Losing Edge" (2005).
See also
In Spanish: Coors Field para niños
