Top 10 Reasons to Be the Visiting Fan

As you may have noticed, I did not post my Rockies Woman Weekly Report on Saturday. The reason is that I was in Washington DC, to support the Rockies in person. I don’t get to see them in person much, because I live in New York. I’ve gone to see them play the Mets in the past, but this season I decided to see if I couldn’t work out a way to see them somewhere else close by. I was all set to see them play the Phillies in PA on May 19th (the game where Jason Giambi hit three home runs); plans fell through at the last minute. I did get to see them at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium. Then it occurred to me that I might be able to work out a way to go see them in DC. I’d already chatted with a couple of friends about spending a weekend down there this summer, so when I looked at the schedule and realized the Rockies would be there in July, it became a no-brainer. So this season I’ve seen the Rockies 7 times, 6 in other ballparks. Herewith I present my list of reasons why that is actually a good thing.

10. Any Hot Dog is Better Than a Coors Field Hot Dog. Seriously.

9. Excuse to Sightsee

I’m not much of a sightseer, but it never hurts to check things off your bucket list. I visited the Smithsonian and took pictures of the White House for the first time in my life on this trip. Check check.

8. The Other Team’s Announcer

Jerome Hruska, of Nationals Park, is now one of my favorite people. He is amazing. Not least because he recaps every half inning, telling fans how many hits, runs, and runners the hitting team had. He also just has a great pump-you-up voice. He’s a rarity, though. Mostly you just get to listen for how the other guys’ announcer will butcher the names of your players. But that’s fun too.

7. Increase Your Fan Cred

I’ve seen the Rockies in 6 different ballparks. Admit it, for a second you were impressed. For me it’s mostly been a function of getting moved around a lot, against my will more often than not, but it still sounds good. Only a true fan would make the effort to see their team in multiple locations, right?

6. You Might Scoop a Real Reporter

Troy Renck, the most prolific tweeter among the members of the Rockies’ media, wasn’t in attendance at this weekend’s games. There were plenty of other people who were there and who might have thought to pass pertinent information along via Twitter, but I was a lot of people’s only source of information for what was going on. Nothing major happened, but it might have! And then I would have been the one to break the story!

5. Ballpark Quirks

Every ballpark has its own special little things that make it unique. At Nationals Park, when Todd Coffey runs to the mound he really runs, and they time him. Apparently they did that in Milwaukee too, but I’d never seen it, so it totally cracked me up. Also an unmissable sight: the presidents’ race at Nats Park. Must be seen to be believed. I also got to witness the Old-Timers Game at Yankee Stadium in June, which featured Tino Martinez hitting a home run that scored Bernie Williams. You can’t experience these things watching your team play from home. You have to be there.

4. The Tulo Chant

It can and will be done in every ballpark you visit. I promise. And in some ways it’s even more thrilling when you’re not at Coors. You know he can hear you and that it’s giving him a little bit of home.

3. Experiencing Other Teams’ Fans

Nothing makes me prouder to be a Rockies fan than watching how other fans behave. Nats fans are pretty respectable, but there was a Phillies fan a couple rows in front of me at the game on Saturday, and his entire purpose for being there seemed to be to heckle Jason Werth. Meanwhile, his team was back at Citizens Bank losing to the Braves. My philosophy of fandom says, among other things, that you should always spend 99% of your energy cheering for your team. If you need to use a little bit to hate on somebody else, just make sure it’s a very little bit. The baseball community doesn’t need that from you. Mets and Yankees fans, at least the ones who are New Yorkers through and through, turn on their teams in a heartbeat if the wins aren’t happening. And Braves fans leave in the 7th inning no matter who’s winning. I can’t speak for all Rockies fans, but I think in general we frown on all those things, and that makes me proud.

2. Batting Practice

The visiting team takes BP right before the game starts, so you don’t have to get there as early to see your guys hit. There will also be fewer people standing behind the dugout, so you stand a decent chance of getting up close. If you’re in a place like DC, chances are good no one will even check your ticket, so while you might have paid for a seat in, say, section 222, you should have no trouble hanging out in section 116 for just about as long as you want! And this also increases your autograph chances.

1. Finding Other Fans

There is instant camaraderie when you find other fans of your team in a visiting ballpark. I have high fived more total strangers than I can count at baseball games, and I’m not the type to feel comfortable making friends with the guy in the next seat. There’s something so meaningful and comforting about seeing a flash of purple amid all the blue or orange or red or whatever color the home team wears. The feeling you have upon meeting a fan of your team in somebody else’s stadium is like nothing else. Without even exchanging words, you know each other. You feel like you’re in a foreign country and you’ve just come across someone who speaks your language. That powerful sense of belonging is reason enough to see the Rockies play somewhere else. At Coors Field, you’re just a face in the crowd. In another ballpark, the possibilities are endless.