Fans swarm to Coors Field for Colorado Rockies Opening Day 2013

It is a celebration that never gets old. It is the unofficial end of winter and beginning of spring.

Regardless of what the Colorado Rockies record was the previous season, fans flock to Coors Field to be a part of the Opening Day celebration. It is the most accepted day to play hookie from work and head down to the park. It is the day when everyone wants to be there to see the rosters announced, the flag unfurled and the National Anthem sung as fighter jets streak across the sky. There is simply something special about Opening Day that cannot be described.

The restaurants and bars around LoDo do a great job of helping keep the atmosphere festive. Even though only 50,000 fans can go to the game, at least twice that number head down to the restaurants to take part in the atmosphere. In recent years, the weather has done it’s job, bringing blue skies and temperatures in the 70′s for the past six years.

Almost any fan can remember something special about Opening Day. It may have been the first time a parent pulled them out of school to go to the game. It may be the first time Major League Baseball was played in Denver. It may be a memory of a parent of friend who is no longer here. Rarely is there a time where someone can’t recall a distinct memory from Opening Day.

The Rockies are doing their part to bring back the memories for Opening Day 2013. The team is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this year, and with that, they will be reminiscing on many of those early memories. Before the first pitch is thrown on Friday, members from the 1993 expansion team will be honored.

For those Rockies fans who have stuck by the team through thick and thin, the memories shared on the jumbotron and the players introduced should bring back memories that are etched into the lives of the fans.

Opening Day is a day to forget the criticism, the speculation, the negativity and critiques of the team and enjoy the fact that Denver is a city that has Major League Baseball. There will be time for criticism later. There will be time to call for someone’s departure, firing, or demotion. That day will come. It isn’t Opening Day, however.

The first day of the season is the day to throw logic to the wind. It is a day to believe in the team on the field, regardless of what the stat sheets say, regardless of what a sane mind would suggest. It is a day to imagine the team on the field going on a run and playing out of their minds for six months and seeing the dreams of a fan base come true again, much like the state of Colorado felt in 2007.

Opening Day is special. No other sport does Opening Day the way baseball does. Maybe it is because it happens in the spring. Maybe it is because baseball is so strongly rooted in the fabric of America. Whatever the reason, Opening Day is a day of celebration. Take it all in. Breath the spring air, sit back and admire the perfectly cut green grass. Relish the fact that this town has a stadium as beautiful and well-maintained as Coors Field.

Enjoy it. It isn’t something to take for granted. Take a step back and soak it all in.

Follow me on Twitter @RockiesReview. Like me on Facebook, search “Rockies Review”