Coors Field

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Coors Field, located in Denver, Colorado is the home field of the National League’s Colorado Rockies. It is named for the Coors Brewing Company of Golden, Colorado, which purchased the naming rights to the park prior to its completion in 1995. The Rockies played their first two seasons, 1993 and 1994, in Mile High Stadium before moving to Coors Field, two blocks from Union Station in Denver’s Lower Downtown (or LoDo) neighborhood. The park includes 63 luxury suites and 4,500 club seats.

Capacity 50,200

Opened April 26, 1995

Owner Denver Metropolitan Baseball Stadium District

Cost $300 million

Architect HOK Sport

Coors Field has a reputation as a home run-friendly park that, arguably, equals Chicago’s venerable Wrigley Field. Though the fences are actually more distant than in most other facilities, the high altitude of the city (which is indeed about one mile above sea level), decreases air resistance on batted balls. Perhaps even more significantly, the low air pressure also causes pitches to break less severely and hence be easier to hit. Other factors include the relatively low height of the fences and very limited foul territory area. In an attempt to limit the number of home runs, balls are placed in a humidor before games in order to increase their weight. As of Monday, June 26, the Rockies pitching staff have given up the fewest home runs in the MLB.

Due to Coors Field’s location on Blake Street and its propensity for giving up home runs, Rockies players are informally called the “Blake Street Bombers.”

Coors Field was originally planned to be somewhat smaller, seating only 43,800. However, after the Rockies’ first season, plans were altered during construction, and new seats, mostly in the center field bleacher section, were added. This section has its own informal name: “the Rockpile.”

While most of the seats in Coors Field are dark green, the seats in the 20th row of the upper deck are purple. This marks the city’s one mile elevation point.

The only no-hitter at Coors Field was thrown by Hideo Nomo on September 17, 1996. Another game of note was the 1998 MLB All-Star Game.

There have been two 1-0 games in Coors Field history: July 9, 2005, when the Rockies beat San Diego and April 16, 2006, when the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Rockies.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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