My friend Mark - who works at the University of Denver's Anderson Academic Commons (the library) and seen in the photo on the right - and I drove down to Colorado Springs to check out the Rocky Mountain Vibes yesterday afternoon. The Vibes are a Pioneer League team, which consists of recently signed baseball rookies. They replace the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, a AAA team that moved to San Antonio due to low attendance and the refusal of Colorado Springs to build them a new stadium. The level of play is much lower (many more errors than the Sky Sox), but the prices are still the same. That kind of bothered me for a bit, until I thought about it a little more. The quality of play might be much worse, but I imagine the expenses of running the operation are still the same. And if anything, there are even more minor league promotions going on every half inning than before.
As usual, it rained a bit during the game (always bring an umbrella when you go to that ballpark), but the rain eventually stopped and it actually turned out to be a nice evening. The crowd was not as big as when the Sky Sox played there, but on the plus side, you could arrive just before the game began and park right next to the ticket office. We were able to sit close to the field at half the price of an upper deck outfield seat at Coors Field in Denver, and there was no loud rap, heavy metal, or techno music blasting from the speakers like at that esteemed ballpark. There were lots of families in the crowd, with lots of kids, as opposed to 20-something hipsters, which was nice, too. Best of all, they now have two mascots to entertain the crowd - a new one, Toasty, and the old Sky Sox mascot, Sox the Fox, if you happen to be into mascots (I am not, but the kids seem to like them). All in all, a very pleasant night.
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