I’ll be the first to admit I’m not much of a baseball fan, in fact the title of this blog post is an inside joke with some of my friends. A couple weeks ago I was invited over to Julie’s house to watch the Rockies play and I believe my exact words were, “I’d rather scrape my nuts off with a cheese-grater than watch baseball.” As time went on though and the Rockies kept their unbelievable winning streak alive, I became more intrigued. Well the Rockies kept winning and eventually found themselves in their first-ever World Series. Then it was time to purchase tickets online. Originally I wasn’t interested but then at 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday, I decided to try to get some tickets, more as a challenge to myself since I’m a web-programmer by trade. Since the rest of the world had a 45 minute head start on me, I didn’t think my chances were that great, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. I didn’t hack into the system but I was able to read and decipher the JavaScript code the website was using to side-step the 2 minute countdown and access the correct URL directly. I got in rather quickly on 2 separate screens and as I was completing my transaction for 4 Rockpile tickets to Game 3 and Game 4, I got an error on both and had to start all over again. Luckily I was still “inside” and was able to purchase 4 tickets to Game 3 but the Rockpile was sold-out for Game 4. Now all I had to do was decide if I should cash in on eBay or go to the game, and if so who should I take. Hmmm, decisions decisions.

Well it was decided that Amy, Julie, and Charlie were the lucky ones so we loaded the shuttle in Boulder Saturday afternoon. We were really excited to be at the first-ever World Series game to be played in Denver and the stadium seemed to be charged with electricity.

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Coors Field, Game 3 of World Series. Notice I'm the only one not wearing a down coat.

All the pre-game festivities got everyone fired up and ready for the game to finally begin, especially the fly-by of 4 jets out of Buckley Air Force base. The Rockpile was rocking, there were even a couple of Red Sox fans who flew in from Boston sitting directly in front of us. After some good-natured ribbing from us and the Red Sox fans we knew we were in for a fun game.

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Almost game time at the World Series

The atmosphere was buzzing through the first few innings and the game remained scoreless. Charlie and I went on a beer run and we when returned the Red Sox had lit up the scoreboard taking a 6-0 lead in the 3rd inning. Things weren’t looking good until the 6th when the Rockies finally got on the board. Matt Holiday’s 3-run homer to make the score 6-5 brought life back into Coors Field. The Red Sox fans in front of us were wanting the Rockies to make it interesting, well the game just became r e a l l y interesting!!

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The Rockpile when the crowd was actually cheering

Things in the Rockpile also started to get interesting as well and not in a good way. We were standing up along with the guys from Boston and people around us starting yelling at us to sit down. WTF??? It is 6-5 in the first-ever World Series game in Denver and Rockies fans all around us are yelling at us to sit down? We kept standing and tried to ignore the verbal abuse to limited success. One of the Boston guys had a good point and told the crowd, “It is 6-5 in the 7th inning, if you can’t stand up now when can you?” My feelings exactly, and this coming from a guy who would rather use a cheese grater to…you get the point. Unfortunately the people around us in the Rockpile didn’t share this mentality and several folks became more insulting and hostile. People were yelling at Julie and Amy to “sit down b!tches” and one lady even grabbed Julie’s jacket hood and tried to pull her down. Julie finally had enough and was arguing with the lady when an usher came by to calm things down a bit. We explained that we didn’t pay $65/ticket to sit down and that everyone should be standing up. I told the usher that if the game was in Boston you’d be hard pressed to find anybody sitting down, to which he retorted, “Well this isn’t Boston.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and the guys from Boston we’re astounded that an usher would ask them to sit down in the 7th inning of a 1-run game. Sad sad sad. The usher finally relocated the lady having a conniption fit but we continued to take abuse from the Rockies fans around us.

On the field the Red Sox became too much for the Rockies to handle and the game began slipping away until it was finally over. We had a great time at the game despite all the lousy fans we got stuck sitting by. With the Rockies eventually getting swept in 4 straight games it is obvious that they could learn a lot from the Red Sox about rising to the occasion on the big stage. In their defense, it was their first time to the big show.  Even more sadly however, a lot of the Rockies fans could learn a much bigger lesson from 3 guys from Boston who were the nicest and most fun people we encountered during the entire game, they were a shining example of what a true fan should be.  Rockies fans take note, “support your team all year, be respectful to the opposing team’s fans, and when the entire season is on the line, STAND UP AND CHEER!!!”

Those crazy Russians are at it again.  This time free-soloing in Siberia including downclimbing unroped head first.  Um, no thanks, but check out the video clip anyway.

Here’s another video to get everyone fired up for winter.  I had to find this video after seeing a photo in the latest Patagonia catalog.  The first part of the clip is the most interesting as a skier descends an insanely steep face on Mt. Waddington, check it out.

Winter is fast approach and I figured this little clip of Chris Davenport’s Ski The 14ers project would provide some stoke for the upcoming snow-sliding season.  Chris skied from the summit of all 54 14ers in one calendar becoming only the 2nd person to do so.  He also raised the bar a bit over the first guy to ski the 14ers, Lou Dawson, since Chris skied from the exact summit of Mt. Wilson and El Diente which Lou Dawson did not when he finished his project.  I’m not sure if this movie will ever be released in full, Chris was having trouble with the Forest Service because he filmed in National Forests without a permit.  This isn’t allowed for commercial projects and Chris has made several appeals that were rejected.  Technicalities aside, check out the video of this fantastic accomplishment. 

click images for larger version
Rocktober was a smashing success!! About 20 of us invaded Indian Creek, UT for some self-induced torture on the famed splitter cracks. Over the course of 3 days we climbed at Donnelly Canyon, the Supercrack Buttress, Way Rambo, and the Cat Wall. Some of the routes we climbed include:

Chocolate Corner	Generic Crack
Keyhole Flake	Blue Sun
Tom Cat	Chest Full of Kind

Here’s just a few pictures from the weekend, you can click on any image to see a larger version.

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Me near the top of Generic Crack, Photo by Ray

For a larger version of the slideshow below click here.