It is an annual rite as much as Opening Day. It is a final farewell to summer, a thumb in the eye to the coming cold. You just have to go.
It is a day for fathers and their children, for good friends to play hooky together.
It is the last day of the regular home season, the last time for months a mother can pack up her kids, sit deep in the centerfield stands and afford it.
Bless them, the Rockies are bound for the playoffs. But the playoffs are priced for the corporate suits. This day is for the true baseball fan.
I always get there early to bask in the giddiness of a day to be spent as if it were June. Some on this day have traditions that must be honored.
Vanessa Roux, 27, who works for a Denver book publisher, for years has devoted one day to blowing off work and taking in a ballgame.
“I simply love baseball,” she said. “That the Rockies can go to the playoffs is a bonus.”
Shawn Wedemeyer, 46, of Erie was awakened Thursday by his children, Erin, 10, and Ryan, 7. They pleaded in whispers to skip school and head for the ballgame.
“Mom doesn’t know,” he said of his wife, Deanne, who was at work when I met up with the trio outside the main gate.
“They are huge fans. So I said to heck with it, let’s create some memories. We’re going to take a picture once we’re inside and send it to my wife at work. I’m probably in trouble, but hey, somebody’s got to support us.”
Heidi Manning, 28, of Westminster was standing at the end of the ticket sales line. She was outfitted in a Rockies cap and jacket, and literally bouncing as she waited for her turn at the window.
“I decided to come an hour ago,” she said. “It is the last game. I’m a student at Metro State and figured my history class on Rome could wait.”
A bartender by night, she sent out a mass text message to all of her friends to see who wanted to join her. At this hour, she stood alone.
“They all are probably still sleeping,” she rationalized.
All she wants is a ticket in the Rockpile, the cheaply priced, far-away centerfield bleachers.
“Hey, I’m a student here,” she said.
To truly understand the last game of the season, you have to come with me to the top row of the Rockpile.
Christopher Hawkins, 46, of Aurora is in the very top row, with his son, Marcus.
“Today is my birthday gift to my son,” he explained.
Marcus turns 4 next week. He is an out-of-his-mind baseball fan, his dad tells me. Until this moment, he had never been inside a major-league ballpark.
“I woke up this morning and decided to take my boy to the ballgame,” Christopher Hawkins said.
What was he doing here, in possibly the worst seat in the house?
“He’s little. If I’d bought box seats way over there, and he wants to go home in the third inning, I’d be upset with him. I want him to have a good time, so we’re here.”
The trick was on dad. It was the bottom of the ninth. The crowd was going wild with two outs, the Rockies about to punch their ticket into the playoffs.
When the last batter struck out, I looked to the top row of the Rockpile.
Marcus was on his feet in his little red jacket and Rockies cap, and like everyone else in the stadium, he was jumping up and down.
I am going to miss baseball.
Bill Johnson writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 303-954-2763 or wjohnson@denverpost.com.
