Love and Hate: Grand Junction rookie ball edition

 

The Colorado Rockies are playing some of their best baseball so far in 2016 and a lot of that is related to the legacy of the Grand Junction Rockies. After moving to GJ from Casper, Wyoming the rookie level team saw and helped develop an explosion of talent including Jon Gray, David Dahl, and Carlos Estevez,

Clan Creasman has made attending these rookie level games a part of our family religion, and as such thought we would offer a special edition of “Love and Hate” revolving around the experiences one can have when checking out some pro ball in Grand Junction Colorado:

I love, love, love rookie ball.

I hate fans screaming at players when they make mistakes, especially players this young.

I love that concession food, beer and wine is reasonably priced and pretty darn good.

I hate that the service is terrible.

I love seeing brand new pro players pitching, hitting and fielding and for the first time and getting paid for it.

I hate rookie mistakes, especially throwing errors. You always have time to make a good throw.

I love the “Beer Batter.” (Promotion whereby the crowd gets cheap beer if a designated opposing hitter strikes out.)

I hate that it no longer applies to all beer just Bud Light. Which is barely a beer.

I love locals singing the national anthem.

I hate the crowd not standing and singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

I love the crowd cheering for our team even when losing.

I hate the crowd not standing and cheering for any player hitting a home run.  Come on give the kid some love.

I love purple frozen margaritas.

I hate that they aren’t ready by game time.

I love sponsors buying tickets to help fill the stands.  I hate that when there is a large crowd the concession lines are so long it takes 20 minutes and I miss a whole inning to get a beer.  I wonder how long it would take if a game is ever sold out.

I love $1 hot dog night.  I hate it is only one night per week.

I hate it is only one night per week.

I love that Corky the Cyote runs the bases with kids after the game AND that there are always kids wanting to run.

But I hate baseball mascots.  They creep me out.

I love when the crowd chants and cheers on the team.

I hate the wave especially when it detracts from the game.

I love our seats.  I hate that the section is often only have full.

But most importantly, I love baseball and getting to witness the start of so many promising adventures.