Ambience was there but production wasn't

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Apr 5, 2008 | by MILO F. BRYANT

DENVER - All the pomp and circumstance was there.

Banners lined the fences and walls on 20th Street, which runs just south of Coors Field.

Fans were lining up to get inside the stadium more than 41/2 hours before the game's 2:05 p.m. start. Friday was a school day, too, but sons, fathers and grandfathers made the trek to the park. Daughters, mothers and grandmothers joined.

Coors Field didn't have the standing room only of last season's playoff race, but it was close. I guess the army of Blake Street ticket scalpers didn't do as well as they should have. And they were out, too, in full force.

Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine units marched Old Glory onto the field. Simultaneously, a mixed group of service members unveiled a flag about the size of a football field.

Then a quartet from the Air Force Academy sang the "Star Spangled Banner" as the crowd joined them.

The flyover drew oohs and aahs.

"It's a real good feeling for the organization in a lot of ways," Colorado Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "To come in on the home opener where you're the defending National League champions. ..

".. . You've taken strides with this organization, you home grow your own players. You see the benefits of that. You've been able to contractually put together a nucleus."

The fans noticed. They appreciated.

Then the game started.

Pomp and circumstance sprinted away. Dismay and obscurity entered.

The home team, the defending National League champions, laid an egg, dropping the home opener to the Arizona Diamondbacks 8-1 in front of announced regular-season-record crowd of 49,233.

Rockies pitchers combined to give up 13 hits, including two home runs. It looked like a Diamondbacks batting practice. The visitors also left 11 runners on base.

"I didn't set the tone," Rockies starter Mark Redman said, understatedly.

Redman didn't get much help either.

Normally sure-handed, Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki had another error, his second of the season -- in the same week, no less. Left fielder Matt Holliday, who entered the game batting a whopping .100, struck out four times, once looking. Holliday's average dropped to .071.

"Couldn't get any worse," Holliday said, through a sardonic smile. "It's part of the game. Timing is off, they have pitchers locating pitches; it's not a good combination.

"It's one of those things where it's magnified because it's opening day. We've got a lot of games left. Hopefully we can get through some of our early season kinks and start playing good baseball. We have some good players, and we all seem to be swinging the bat not too good and doing it at the same time. Somebody's going to pay at some point. Hopefully, it'll be soon."

More often than not, players and coaches don't put much credence into early season games. Five Rockies players and their manager said something to that effect Friday. Maybe that's coach-speak or player- speak. Either way, Friday's loss counts as a loss. It's a loss now. It'll be a loss in Game 161 when wins back in Games 4, 5 or 6 could've helped.

Sure, it's early. But it should be no less serious.

"It was not too much to get excited about," Rockies first baseman Todd Helton said. "We didn't give the fans too much to cheer about."

The Rockies have six more home games before heading off on a ninegame road trip.

Those are six chances to figure out what helped generate Friday's atmosphere.

Contact Bryant at 636-0252

or milo.bryant@gazette.com.

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