Dex and I showed up in Denver last Wednesday after a 16 hour drive from St. Louis.  We left directly after the game at Busch and only stopped to sleep for 45 minutes and once to check out Kaufmann Stadium in K.C.  It was a brutal drive, the hardest day of the trip.  I learned that after an afternoon of beers and sun with thenerdhater it's real hard to stay up all night.  But at least we knew we'd be watching the Padres that night.  It was the only thing that kept us going.

We showed up at Coors and walked around a bit taking it all in.  There's a statue at the main entrance with a player to be named later.  I hope they swap it out soon with Dante Bichette and those crazy eyebrows.

Dex and I were early so first we headed up to the "purple row"...exactly one mile above sea level.  It offered great views but it was really hard to find a Coors usher that was in decent shape to follow us up and take a picture.  This usher could only make it half way up the upper deck.

With about 90 minutes to go before the first pitch Dex and I weren't sure what to do.  Then we looked down at the field.  Who are those guys out there?  We figured we better go investigate so we headed down to field level.  Turns out the player hold some sort of practice before the game.  I thought MLB had done away with that after the '03 season.

Turns out practice is just like I remember it back at the Q.  Bunch of dudes letting themselves go, playing grab-ass and flirting with girls that are probably friends with their daughters.  Jake was loving it.  He couldn't resist "stretching" and blowing kisses to a particular group of fans.  It went on and on.  Later he would discuss with other players which girls he'd be taking back to his hotel room after the game.

Here's some video of some girls flirting with Peavy:

Trevor had finally had enough of the warm ups.  He walked over to where we were standing with a bunch of other Padre fans.  Trevor started taking pictures and signing autographs for everybody.  I figured I'd get him to sign my jersey.  I took off my jersey and was wearing my gaslampball shirt underneath.  Trevor caught a glance.  Not these Internet jerks.  He signs for everybody except Dex and I then heads over to the infield.  I'll show those Gaslamp Ballers I'm not through.  I can still play shortstop.

Here's video of Trevor Hoffman warming up at short stop and practicing a double play:

As far as the game itself, well I'd rather not comment on the game.  We all now what happened.  Padres totally got their asses kicked.  And to make it worse Denver decided to unleash a mighty wind on us full of rain and dirt.  Not sure where all the dirt came from, perhaps the mountains to the west.

Despite everything we really had a good time at Coors.  The next day we thought we'd seen the end of the Rockies, but no, the mountains ahead would have fun with us.  Slowing down the mighty Canary One to a not so mighty 30mph.  ARGH...still two days to go!