Monday September 6th was Labor Day here in the United States, and I'm in Colorado to see the Rockies open a homestand with a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds. The forecast was for a sunny day with the temperature preductd to hit 32C/90F again. I made sure that I had used the factor 50 sucream that I had bought the evening before, as today's game was a day game, with first pitch at 1.10pm.
I have tickets in the club level again here, which was handy, as the air-conditioned club level is much more pleasant than the other levels. Fortunately, the third-base side of the club seats are in shade, even during day games, so I didn't have to sit in the direct sunlight. It was surprisingly windy too, so there were lots of hotdog wrappers flying through the air. Whilst the skies were clear over Denver, the mountain view was obscured by some low cloud.
The 7th inning stretch today featured a rather good trumpet solo from a US Navy sailor performing God Bless America. The crowd were invited to sing along, but participation was somewhat limited, but he got a deserved cheer at the end as he departed the field. This was immediately followed by the traditional Take Me Out To The Ballgame, which more people joined in with. After that, we had "Hey! Baby" (apparently, originally a hit in 1962). This received almost total crowd participation, and with its chorus's closing line of "will you be my girl", is an excuse for the camera crews to find lots of good-looking women in the crowd to be displayed on the big scoreboard screen.
The Rockies had their ace pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez going against the Reds' Aaron Harang. Everything was cruising along for two scoreless innings, and then in the third inning everything set off. The Reds scored 4 runs in quick time and with a coaching visit to the mound, it looked like "U" could be out early, but Jim Tracy decided to stick with him - he had fewer than 50 pitches, despite the high-scoring inning, and he re-paid the manager's faith by closing out the inning with just the 4 runs conceded. The bottom of the 3rd inning, Colorado also managed to put 4 runs on the board, with some hard hit balls to the fence. However, Dusty Baker didn't leave his starter in, pulling him after 2 2/3 innings, having thrown 72 pitches.
In the end Jimenez threw 122 pitches in 6 innings and left with a 5-4 lead that the Rockies would never surrender, as they added on another 5. Lots of baserunners all over the place in this one, and the game took 3hr15 even though only 8 1/2 innings were needed.
The poor Colorado catcher, Oliva, had a nasty moment in the top of the 9th, when he was caught awkwardly by a foul ball and collapsed in obvious agony. At first the crowd were concerned, until Tracy and the trainer came out and just stood next to him without touching anything - at which point it became clear what the point of impact was. It was clearly a tough one, because Oliva was on all-fours and tried to stand up after a while, but collapsed back down again immediately. Still after a couple of minutes, he received an ovation and carried on, although once the strikeout of the batter was completed and he threw the ball around to the first baseman, he managed to short-hop it, so was clearly still feeling it a little.
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