It’s 10:55 a.m. on a Wednesday, and the school children fidget anxiously in their seats. The teacher distributes the day’s assignment. At their age, it’s no mean feat to concentrate on worksheets in the face of so many distractions: spring fever, the booger on Jeffrey’s sleeve, foul balls …
Come again?
That’s right. These kids aren’t reporting for homeroom. They’re rooting for the home team.
It’s “Baseball Math Day” at Security Service Field, the home of the . The highest professional ballpark in the nation at 6,531 feet, the field has been home to the Colorado Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate since 1993. It’s the last stop in the minor leagues for certain ballplayers en route to The Show. In minor-league parks across the country, it’s also about the sideshow.
On this day, the sideshow that draws seemingly every elementary and middle-school student along the Front Range is mathematics. Between innings, the PA announcer takes to the roof of a dugout and directs the students to their worksheets.
“Hitting for ‘the cycle’ means that a batter hits a single, a double, a triple and a home run in the same game. If a batter hits for the cycle, how many feet does he run all together in actually running out each of these four hits?”
Before I get a chance to spy over Jeffrey’s shoulder, most of the kids have scribbled the correct answer. At the next intermission, the PA announcer calls for the answer.
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| Post / John Leyba |
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Rockies star Todd Helton played May 2 and 3 for Triple-A Colorado Springs on a rehab assignment. At the time, after a bout with acute terminal ileitis, a painful inflammation of the small intestine. |
Nine hundred feet!
Ballpark franks fuel the brain.
Math Day is only one of many promotions staged by the Sky Sox staff to lure fans to this field nestled oddly between a residential subdivision and an office park, 68 miles south of the University of Denver campus. In addition to fan-interactive standards between innings (a teacher in a tam-o’-shanter chips a golf ball toward a portable green) and a foxy mascot (Sox the Fox), special events include: $2 parking, tickets and beers on Tuesdays; hot dogs for 25 cents on Sundays; and invitations to bring you dog for “Bark in the Park” on certain Wednesdays. There are dozens more.
With tickets ranging between $5 and $9, the Sky Sox offer a more affordable outing for the family looking for a baseball experience akin to the real McCoy. Like their big-league brethren, Sky Sox players swing wooden bats and are introduced by batter clips, and they are only one rung (or boo-boo) from the majors.
This game between the Sky Sox and the Tacoma Rainiers is coupled with a minor-league team’s best friend: the rehabilitation assignment. It’s become routine for big leaguers to test themselves at the minor-league level between recovering from injuries and being activated from the disabled list.
Chicago Cubs star pitcher Kerry Wood pitched five innings yesterday (his first start since July 20, 2005) following two rehab starts in the minors. His first came with the Single-A Peoria Chiefs (Ill.) and a capacity crowd of 8,426 on May 7. The second came May 12 vs. the Sky Sox with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs and an all-time record crowd of 13,830 in Des Moines.
On this May day on the eastern edge of the Springs before brainiacs brandishing Domino’s and Dippin’ Dots, Rockies star Todd Helton is manning first base. It’s the second of a two-day rehab assignment as Helton recovers from an inflammation of the small intestine.
Let’s see here. Nine bucks for one ticket five rows behind the dugout … that’s five divided by nine, multiplied by 60.5 feet to the 9th power, over 3.14159265 … where’s Jeffrey and his booger – er, I mean logarithm … eureka … that amounts to a whole heckuva lot less than I’d spend at Coors Field to watch one of the game’s masters in action.
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| Post / Bryan Boyle |
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Todd Helton waits to bat at Security Service Field on May 3 during the second of his two-day rehabilitation assignment with the Colorado Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate, the Sky Sox. At the plate is Jeff Baker, who made his major league debut by starting at third base for the Rockies on opening day in 2005. At right on a dugout is the team’s mascot, Sox the Fox. At an altitude of 6,531 feet, Security Service Field in Colorado Springs is the highest professional ballpark in the United States. |
An online exclusive that runs each Friday, examines the memorable, less visible and lighthearted aspects of Colorado’s sports landscape. DenverPost.com sports producer Bryan Boyle can be reached at bboyle@denverpost.com.
From the columns
“April is the cruelest month, T.S. Eliot wrote, breeding ‘lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.’ Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry puts is this way: Things will be fine once they stop playing like crap.”
From the mailbags
“I do think too many of us in the media, myself as much as anyone, did not read enough into the fact that their 3-point shooting looked like it would be an issue all year, and we probably did not take into account the injury histories of Kenyon Martin, Marcus Camby and Eduardo Najera enough.”
From the message boards
“I feel Pryce contributed greatly to Shanahan’s Cleveland Browns gamble and the new Browns lineman is no Pryce. Shanahan will find that out next year.” — FloydLittle
From the online exclusives
The Colorado Rockies treated a sellout crowd at Coors Field on April 3 to a 3-2, 11-inning victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Denver Post photographers captured the sights and sounds of opening day at the yard and put together this online slideshow, which includes a video montage.
A look back
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| Post / Cyrus McCrimmon |
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In this photo shot June 25, 2004, Sox the Fox stands on a dugout during a Sky Sox home game against Memphis. |
