Sitting beside her two friends Friday afternoon on a bench outside of Coors Field, 81-year-old Virginia Phillips munched on a bowl of ice cream and watched as a roaring sea of Rockies fans made their way by.
Phllips, of Lakewood, didn’t have tickets for the team’s home opener, but — as she and her friends have done for years — the group came anyway to feel the excitement of a new season’s promise.
“I wait for spring each year,” she said, grinning. “We come every year. We come for all the fun.”
Lower Downtown awoke from its off-season hibernation on Friday as a bobbing, beaming stream of fans clogged Denver’s streets to kick off the Coors Field season and the team’s 25th year in the Mile High City. The felt larger than normal, punctuated by live music, patio parties, fried food and all the beer the city could drink.
If there was even a sliver of doubt — especially for long-disappointed Rockies fans — that hope springs eternal, it was erased , a Thomas Jefferson High School graduate, took the mound for his Major League debut. He promptly struck out the first Los Angeles Dodgers’ batter he faced and the jam-packed, sellout crowd went wild.
Fans got loud again when Freeland punched his first big-league hit in the fifth inning.
“I just hope we have a winning season,” said season-ticket holder Darrin Revious. “We have some really great fans. I think as long as we have a winning season we’ll be happy.”
Revious was waiting to return to his seats in between hitters with his friend, who said “I can’t think of a better place to be.”
“For me, it’s not about the people,” said Judy Crenshaw, of Castle Rock, as she stood outside the stadium before the game. “It’s about being here and the feeling of the Rockies being back. There’s a certain feeling for me inside. It’s spring. It’s a different season.”
Crenshaw was with her sister Jean Zimmerman. Her husband has been a Rockies usher since he retired, igniting the family’s baseball flame.
“The more you come,” she said, “the more you get involved.”
At last year’s opening day, the talk of fans was in his first Coors Field game. On Friday, people were hopeful about the team’s revamped pitching staff — including Freeland — and the prospects of a pennant race.
“I think we’re going to be strong,” said Kirk Kennedy, of Denver, who has been to 23 opening days. He was standing just above the lower-section seats watching a massive flag be unfurled in the outfield. “Just the energy is amazing.”
Kennedy said his best opening day memory was from the first-ever Coors Field game in April 1995. He and his family had come in the months beforehand to watch the stadium be built.
For Tom Cline, the most memorable opening day in Denver was when the Rockies had their first game in the city at Mile High Stadium and Eric Young hit a home run in front of more than 80,000 fans. It was the first at-bat in the franchise’s history.
Nolan Arenado getting his gold glove
— Jesse Aaron Paul ☀ (@JesseAPaul)
“I’m not into football,” Cline, of Bennet, said.”I’m not into hockey. Baseball is my thing.”
Follow The Denver Post and how the Rocks’ first game in Denver goes.
It’s sure to be a day-long party — lasting well into the night — in Lower Downtown.
