Rockies Fest 2026

It is just a little over two weeks until pitchers and catchers report to baseball spring training camps in Florida and Arizona, and yesterday the Colorado Rockies hosted Rockies Fest 2026 at Coors Field here in Denver. This event opened up the non-public areas to visitors and featured autograph sessions with current and former players, question and answer sessions with players and management, and activities for kids. I attended this fest with my friend Mark and sister Susan, and we all enjoyed it very much. The photograph on the left shows the Rockies Clubhouse, which as you can see looks nothing like the baseball clubhouses you see in the movies, with their bare cement floors and wooden benches facing old time metal lockers. 

In addition to the Rockies and visiting team clubhouses, we also toured the broadcast booths and the Press Box. We were able to walk into the KOA radio booth, and I must say, it was a bit claustrophobic. The Press Box was located directly below the broadcast booths, and was much roomier, looking more like what you see in the movies. I took the photograph on the right of the view out the window, and as you can see, they have a pretty nice view, so much so that I am tempted to wear my Chicago Daily News Press Pass, which I made myself, next season and see if they let me in. Hopefully here in Denver they will not know that the Daily News went out of business in 1978. In any case, while looking around the Press Box, I saw that they were televising a question-and-answer session with the new Rockies management team, which was currently taking place somewhere in the ballpark. Walker Monfort, who now oversees baseball and business functions for the club, was introducing Paul DePodesta, the new President of Baseball Operations, Josh Byrnes, the new GM, and Warren Schaeffer, the Rockies' manager. All seemed to know what they were talking about and were optimistic about the team's future.

We also visited the Toyota Clubhouse, which is a museum with Rockies memorabilia, historic photographs, and artifacts celebrating the Rockies, including a 1993 map of Mile High Stadium, where the Rockies played for two seasons before moving to Coors Field, and seen in the photograph on the left. I remember attending Opening Day that year, along with 80,227 other fans, a major league record, and they won 11-4. The exhibit also showed ticket prices for that season, a fraction of what they are today. And most importantly, that was in the days before "dynamic pricing," where the price of a seat changes depending on the game. Back then an Opening Day ticket cost the same as any other game, while today you will pay over $100 for a seat that will cost just $30 the following week. To watch a game at the beginning of April that might be on a day that is below freezing, if not snowing. But I digress. Time to stop whining.

Our final stop was at the PNC Press Box, which is evidently a prime seating area where you will NOT find a ticket for $30, no matter what day it is. And this is where my good friend Dinger, the Rockies mascot and seen in the photograph on the right, was signing autographs and having his photographs taken with fans throughout the day. Rockies Fest was very well attended, and it was a fun experience for all. The Rockies are still popular here in Denver, despite having three hundred loss seasons in a row, and this past season coming within two losses of tying my South Side heroes, the Chicago White Sox, for the worst record in the history of major league baseball. With the hiring of new management that actually knows something about baseball, perhaps they can actually get those losses under 100 this coming season. With the Rockies, you have to keep your expectations modest, at least for the next 5 years or so.