Rant: Coors Field Heat

Who doesn’t love a magnificent Rocky Mountain sunset? Anyone sitting on the lower-level, first-base side for a summer night game at Coors, that’s who.

When the temps shoot past 75 degrees, the relentless, early-evening glare means you’d best be prepared to squint, sweat, and have almost no idea what’s happening on the field until about halfway through the game. (If it’s above 90, you might as well schedule your skin cancer treatments now.)

Part of the problem is the Rockies’ unusual evening start times—most MLB teams throw their first pitches just after 7 p.m.; the Rockies start at 6:40 p.m. We don’t know why. The result is that first-base fans bake like Christmas hams until at least the fourth inning. It’s about safety as well as comfort; the part of the ballpark that’s most likely to get peppered with screaming foul balls is also the part where fans’ singed retinas are least likely to see the liners coming.

In addition to adjusting the start times, maybe the team could erect something above the Buckaroo’s store in left field that would break up the light, start casting shadows a few innings earlier, and give some desperately needed relief to the microwaved faithful. Whether it’s a trellis, a curtain, or something else, even a structure two or three stories tall shouldn’t compromise the upper deck’s view of the mountains, which you can’t see from the lower levels anyway. Besides, given the atrocious state of Rockies’ pitching this year, it’s not just fans on the first-base side who have spent most of the game covering their eyes.

Rave: Denver Dumb Friends League

For more than a century, the DDFL has been caring for our fuzziest loved ones by providing shelters, adoption services, and affordable medical treatments. We recently took our six-month-old Himalyan kitten to one of the organization’s mobile clinics—check the group’s website for days, times, and locations—for his dreaded, but humane (and much-needed) neutering procedure. (Nothing calms a hyperactive pet like the old nether-region snipperoo.) For only $25, far less than what most veterinarians charge, we dropped off our little furball first thing in the morning with the DDFL’s helpful and professional staff and picked him up a few hours later—a whole new man. ddfl.org

—Image courtesy of ShutterStock