The NFL Stadium Journey is underway! I flew from New York to Denver on Delta, a remarkably smooth process with no lines at check-in or security that left me relaxed and catching up on my NFL preview magazines before boarding.
The flight was on an A319 (above) and I had a left window seat that allowed me to grab a couple of great pictures on takeoff. Below is Manhattan, and below that is Yankee Stadium.
When I arrived, my friend and fellow stadium traveller Meg picked me up and we went to Coors Field to see the Los Angeles Dodgers visiting the Rockies. Interestingly this will be the only LA team I will see on the trip as the NFL still lacks a team in the nation's second biggest media market. Before we entered the stadium, we paid a visit to the National Ballpark Museum, a private, non-profit enterprise that has tons of memorabilia from all the great parks of yesteryear. At $5 it is worth visiting for any ballpark fan.
We entered Coors Field, still one of the most beautiful ballparks around. I last visited here in 2009 when I first started the blog, so I'm not going to recap the experience.
I was hoping to see phenom Yaisel Puig, but he was nursing an injury. In fact, the Dodgers put out their secondary lineup and both starting pitchers (Edison Volquez for LA and Jorge De La Rosa for Colorado) were incredibly slow. A couple of years ago I discussed a statistic called Pitches Per Minute (PPM) to describe the pace of a baseball game. A quick game will have a PPM above 1.75, while a slow one will be below 1.5. Most games fall in the middle. There were 306 pitches during the 3:35 that it took to play the game (215 minutes) for a PPM of 1.42, which might have made it the slowest game of the year. Anybody have the pitch counts and game times for MLB this season?
Needless to say, I was grumpy by the time Puig (above) made an appearance in the 8th inning where he represented the go-ahead run. Manny Corpas struck him out though, and the Rockies held on for the 7-5 victory.
Next Up
I am writing this from Kansas City, where I am resting up after driving from Denver. I'll continue on to Indianapolis for the Colts home opener on Sunday. I'll have posts on that game as well as the Broncos blowout win over Baltimore, so check back regularly as the NFL Stadium Journey will be the focus for the next four months.
Best,
Sean
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