Batter up: Baseball in Colorado
- Andrea
- Nov 23, 2024
- 12 min read
Updated: Jan 5
Why I was in Colorado⚾
This post documents my 2012 trip to the United States on a baseball tour with our son, who was 14 at the time. D, as he is referred to in this post, was part of a state invitational team – the Queensland Dolphins – playing in a Little League tournament in Denver, Colorado. Players, parents, and coaches spent two weeks together, participating in the tournament, exploring Colorado, and doing the tourist thing in Los Angeles on the way home.
A little baseball background ⚾
D began playing baseball when he was 11 years old, after we moved from a western Brisbane suburb to the bayside area. D got into baseball via a new school friend and rapidly picked up the game. I didn’t know much about baseball then. I hadn’t ever experienced the world of high-level amateur sport and all its competitiveness. This alone has left a lasting impression on me. My anxiety and introversion [and general lack of competitiveness] made me an alien in this new world, but supporting our son gave the whole family a raft of incredible experiences. D played for his club, school, division, state, and for his country. He coached younger kids and played in the adult league for his club. My husband was involved in coaching and managing the club and playing in the Master's league. We were all completely immersed in baseball for six years, until such time as D left school to pursue an electrical apprenticeship and gave up the sport.
In 2011 and aged 13, D played for Australia in the Cal Ripken World Series tournament in Maryland. That's D with the Australian team in the below shot. My husband accompanied D on that trip. We decided I would go with D on the Denver trip. Read on for our adventures…
The tournament ⚾
The Queensland Dolphins invitational team secured a place in the American Amateur Youth Baseball Alliance [AAYBA] World Series in Denver. This under-14s tournament began in 1989 in St Louis and expanded to include Colorado, Tennessee and Texas. I’m not sure if it’s still around, as a recent web search did not yield any results.
Things didn’t get off to a great start as we experienced a major delay in Los Angeles after we arrived off our flight from Brisbane. The poor kids were full of excitement but being stuck at LAX for hours dampened all that. I can’t recall now what the problem was with the aircraft, but think I’m right in remembering that it was around eight hours of waiting for the next flight. We eventually landed in Denver in the evening, but missed the Rockies game for which we had tickets. Not that anyone cared by then!
Luckily we had a couple of days before the tournament began to acclimatise and recover from the flights. Those first two days were a whirlwind, though. It was was July so we'd come from winter in Brisbane to temperatures in the mid-30s in Colorado. It was hot, but the heat was dry and completely different from the humidity that plagues our home city.
Unfortunately, D wasn't feeling the best over that first weekend and had to be taken off the field on the second day when the kids were practising at the tournament venue. He and I had hardly eaten anything since we arrived, and I'm sure that didn't help. That was one of the tour cons, that we didn't have easy access to food. Meals weren't always planned well and it was kind of an "eat when you have the opportunity" kind of thing. There was only junk food at the tournament canteen [that awful American orange liquid cheese] and no grocery stores close to our hotel. It seemed like the food was either overwhelming - massive, mass-produced stuff at the chain restaurants we went to - or there was nothing available.
There was shopping over that first weekend along with tournament preparation. Actually, shopping featured a lot on the tour! We drove out to a giant outlet mall outside of the city and everyone bought loads of clothes and shoes. This was back in the day when the Australian dollar matched the US one and everything seemed cheap. I'm not much of a shopper but I did get into the swing of it with the other parents, even if spending money made me nervous. It was difficult and expensive to obtain baseball stuff in Australia then, as the sport is not widely played, so we did take the opportunity to buy gear at a massive sports store in the city.
We stayed in the Comfort Inn in Denver. Nothing fancy, but I remember that the rooms were pretty decent, as was the daily included buffet breakfast. The tour was...well...a tour, and we went wherever the coach had planned for us to go and ate in the places he had chosen for our meals. It is an expensive way to wander the world. We'd paid a significant amount for the flights and accommodation, tournament fees, bus hire, and excursions, but other than breakfast in the hotel, we still had to pay for our meals.
Eating restaurant and takeaway food makes me anxious and I remember that food was hard for me to deal with while on the tour. It was easy having everything arranged, though. However, being at close quarters with the group with no down time was exhausting, as was the pressure I felt for D as one of the top players in the team. Competition is so not in my DNA, especially on the sporting field! That said, as the photos below show, the we all had a blast.
It was an interesting experience being part of the support crew. I hung out mostly with the parents from D’s club team but also made connections with parents from other Brisbane teams. We had a bus with the same driver - a lovely man, I remember - and each day we'd have breakfast in the hotel then head to the field. The experience is not something I would have had without D involved in baseball, and I will always be grateful for the opportunity to take me out of my comfort zone. As I noted above though, I felt the anxiety of the team’s performance, knowing how D was feeling about living up to expectations.
One of the fun things we did was swap pins with kids from the American teams who were fascinated by us as Australians. Super cute! That's me in the bottom left hand photo in the badge exchange process. That's also me in the middle left hand photo asleep! There were some long days at the field...
On the first day, there were lots of celebrations and games to open the tournament, in typical American ra-ra fashion. D took part in the timed sprint competition. Since I have zero sporting ability, I thought he did amazingly well. Look at him go! I still remember thinking: 'That's MY child. Wow."
The tournament was a wonderful experience for the boys, but they couldn't compete with their American counterparts playing their national sport. The Queensland team was invitational rather than competitive entry like the Cal Ripken tournament that D played in the previous year, and the team was a mixture of abilities. D did well on the field, but I remember him struggling with his pitching. It was fun to be part of it all, though, and the Australian kids were welcomed with open arms and treated like royalty.
The below collage provides a snapshot of the Colorado tournament experience. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I'm glad I went on tour with D. Baseball is such a big deal in America so it was fun to gain some insight into it the game and be part of such a major cultural phenomenon.
D spent time with his mates and he got to experience playing in the US for a second time. It was part of his wider experience playing baseball at a high level throughout high school, where he had the privilege to travel to the US and around Australia and be part of a team and a sporting community. Baseball was a good outlet for his energy and gave him something to work at and focus his time on as a teenager. He learnt to interact with a range of people and how to deal with the highs and lows of sport. Baseball was a major part of our lives for six years - not something I had imagined for myself at all - and it gave us all a unique and fascinating experience, even if my introversion struggled with it at times.
Tournament travels🌏
During the tournament week we were able to explore a bit of Denver. I liked the city as it felt liveable to me. Denver has a big city vibe but also felt welcoming and safe. It would be cool to live there, too, for easy access to Rocky Mountain National Park.
We also explored the area just outside the city and took in the mountain views. The shot of the footprints below was taken at Dinosaur Ridge, a segment of the Dakota Hogback in the Morrison Fossil Area, one of the world's most famous dinosaur fossil locations. Cool.
Inevitably, we did some baseball-related things. We attended an evening Rockies game at Coors Field. I'd never been to a major league baseball game before. It's an incredible experience for the spectacle of it all, no matter one's interest - OR NOT - in the sport.
The kids had the privilege of walking into the stadium with the AAYBA teams. A couple of the boys were interviewed for a Denver local television station while we sat in the stadium.
My most vivid memory of the Rockies game, though, was of the food. D and I had ice creams in little plastic baseball caps! There was cheesecake on a stick, too! [See bottom photos below.]
The boys were also treated to a private tour of Coors Field later in the week after playing in the tournament in the morning. It was interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes of a massive stadium and to learn something of the history of the Rockies team.
It was rather nice to be at the stadium without all the crowds and to stand on the edge of the field. It was a bit surreal, though, wandering around enormous the empty stadium!
I'm not a sports fan, but even I could feel why baseball can become such a big part of people's lives. I will even admit that I knelt down on the edge of the field to touch the hallowed ground.
The other baseball-related activity we did was visit the Olympic High Altitude Training Centre in Colorado Springs. This was 2012 and the London Olympics were due to start. It was awesome to see the training centre in an Olympic year! It has a stunning location, too, with views of the surrounding mountains. The boys had fun with the interactive exhibits and we were also able to watch some athlete training sessions. [Colorado Springs is 114km south of Denver. See map later in this post.]
I bought the below t-shirt at the Training Centre. This is me wearing it the following year during our Hawaiian adventure for our 20th wedding anniversary. I wore the shirt out, but I'd not be prepared to wear it these days, anyway, in the Trump 2.0 era!
I'm not sure how I feel about this one, but we did have dinner at Hooters on our way back from Colorado Springs after our visit to the Olympic High Altitude Training Centre. I can't believe a place like Hooters is still standing, but it does seem to be. I found the below Reuters article, written in 2022.
The restaurant chain Hooters, known for servers wearing revealing uniforms, is not shutting down or rebranding, contrary to claims circulating online.
The falsehood was shared widely online in December with claims that the decision followed the release of a study indicating that millennials are not interested in breasts.
“There is no validity to this story,” a spokesperson for Hooters told Reuters, adding that the “concept is here to stay.”
Right-o, then!
We went to a Skysox game in Colorado Springs after our Coors Field tour. The Colorado Springs Skysox were a minor league team playing in the Pacific Coast League [PCL] until 2017, when the team was relocated to San Antonio, Texas to continue in the PCL as the San Antonio Missions. Loved the mascot!
The boys had the honour of taking the field with the Skysox team for the national anthem at the start of the game. This was such a lovely experience for D and the team. To be welcomed like that and given the privilege of taking the field with professional players was incredible for our little group from Down Under.
I enjoyed the Skysox game as it had a real community vibe to it. It felt less overwhelming than the Rockies game at Coors Field with all those people. No less rah-rah, though, including a cool fireworks display. I went to the team shop to buy some souvenirs and had a lovely chat with the store assistant, who was super thrilled to have an Australian team watching the game.
And more soft serve ice cream in little plastic baseball caps! The below shot is my favourite of D and me from the whole trip. It is my strongest and most treasured memory of the whole baseball experience.
The highlights for me of our time in Colorado were the visits to the Rocky Mountain National Park and the Royal Gorge Bridge.
We didn't have a lot of time in the National Park as we drove up there in the afternoon after the tournament had finished, stopping at Boulder for something to eat. All i know of Boulder is Robin Williams and Mork and Mindy! What I remember now is the fast food restaurant of our pitstop and the 1 litre soft drinks some of the boys had. D and I had a smaller meal so we could have a Dairy Queen afterwards. Dairy Queen! It was giant, of course! Sadly, I have no photos...
What I do have is loads of photos of our visit to the park, despite our relatively short time there, and it is hard to choose the best ones. The below collage doesn't do the magnificent mountains justice, but I the photos give some sense of the stark beauty of the mountains. The national park covers 1075 square kilometre, encompassing the whole spectrum of mountain environments. We really only had a sneak peek at the vast landscape.
We drove along Trail Ridge Road. US Highway 35 inside the park that is closed during the winter season due to the snow and harsh conditions. We stopped a couple of times at viewing points along Trail Ridge Road, and had a poke around the gift shop at the top, sitting at 3585 metres.
D is wearing the sweatshirt in the above collage that we bought at the Trail Ridge Store. Below is a shot of me with the t-shirt I bought, on a hike to Manoa Falls in Hawaii the next year. I remember passing a couple on the hike who stopped and asked me if I was from Colorado, as they were. Nope! Just bought the t-shirt!
Our excursion was just enough to take in the views and get an initial feel for the place. I wish we'd had less shopping time over the course of our stay in Denver and more of the mountains, but I don't think my preferences aligned with the other parents on the tour!
Below are my favourite shots. I love the one I managed to capture of the lightning off in the distance as the afternoon wore into the evening. I'm keen to go back to the national park and do some hiking. I mean, look at those mountains!
We visited Royal Gorge Bridge on the day we went to the Olympic High Altitude Training Centre. Royal Gorge Bridge is 200km south of Denver and a further 96km from Colorado Springs. The below map charts our wanderings to the National Park via Boulder and to Colorado Springs and Royal Gorge Bridge.
Royal Gorge Bridge is the highest suspension bridge in the United States. It was built in 1929, spanning 384 metres from rim to rim of the Gorge, suspending 291 metres above the Arkansas River. There are 4100 steel cables and 1257 wooden planks within the bridge's construction. The gorge itself is formed of rock walls made of granite and gneiss, dating back 4 billion years. How amazing is that?
We had a good amount of time at the bridge, walking across it and marvelling at the gorge below, before sitting down to a nice picnic lunch on the other side. Disappointingly, the kids lined up to go on the skycoaster [a swing over the gorge] but didn't get the chance to actually go on it before we had to leave for Colorado Springs. I felt so sorry for the kids as they'd lined up outside the hut that housed the swing for ages, only to find once inside that the line was even longer. Still, it was pretty cool to have experienced the gorge and the magnificent feat of engineering that is the suspension bridge.
Our tour downtime in LA on the way home gave me the chance for some new experiences - Venice Beach, Bubba Gump, and Rodeo Drive, and Sunset Boulevard. Check out my post on my third visit to La-La Land.
Denver is a lovely city [well, the bits of it I saw, anyway], but the best parts of Colorado are the natural landscapes. The Rocky Mountains and the Royal Gorge Bridge are a must-see when visiting Colorado. We only had a few hours at the gorge, and I think at least a whole day is needed to properly experience it. Check out their website for trip planning.
Although I struggled with being on a tour and with the competition, I will always treasure the shared experience with my son.
Going to two major league games was awesome, even for someone who is not a sports fan. The atmosphere, the celebration of the sport, and the crowds just blew me away.
Again, competition is not my vibe, but I did appreciate the chance to immerse myself in the game of baseball and feel the sense of community that sport provides.
The whole tour thing: Being with a large group for an extended period on someone else's timetable was hard.
The food: American [junk] food isn't my thing and the copious amounts of it on the tour was a little overwhelming.
The Royal Gorge Bridge: The spectacular natural beauty of the gorge will stay with me forever. It's somewhere I might not have experienced without the tour.
Professional baseball games: The spectacle! The ice cream in plastic baseball caps!
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