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David O. Williams
Headline RSS FeedSnow flies on Vail Pass like extra-base hits in LoDo
October 3, 2007 —
In the top of the 13th inning of Monday’s Rockies-Padres tiebreaker game (winner makes the playoffs, loser goes home), I was having some serious doubts about my impetuous decision to buy a single-seat ticket (all that was available) and make the 200-mile roundtrip from Vail to Denver and back.
San Diego’s Scott Hairston had just crunched a two-run jack off the Rockies Jorge Julio to give the Padres an 8-6 lead and Coors Field had suddenly gone from a pleasure palace to a house of pain. This could not be the end after such a wild ride the last two weeks, could it?
I seriously considered leaving at that point, trying to get ahead of the sellout crowd that was still mostly in attendance after more than four hours of nail-biting baseball. But, what the hell, I’d stayed for so long at that point, might as well stick around for the final out.
Mostly I was just mad the umps had collectively blown a seventh-inning homerun call on a Garrett Atkins drive that should have given the Rockies a lead for good and made extra innings unnecessary. That and they’d stop selling beer that inning, making for six seriously parched innings after that.
Anyway, I stayed, despite the fact the best relief pitcher of all time, Trevor Hoffman, was taking the mound against the top of the Rockies order. Colorado’s Kaz Matsui led off with a double and the crowd roared back to life. Then NL Rookie of the Year frontrunner Troy Tulowitzki followed with another double, bringing home Matsui and trimming the lead to one, and the place exploded all over again.
The game was practically over by the time MVP candidate Matt Holliday stroked a triple off the wall in right field, tying it up at 8-8 with no outs and Todd Helton coming to the plate. Hoffman walked Helton to get to Jamey Carroll, who promptly slapped a sac fly to right, bringing Holliday headfirst into home plate (who cares if he touched it?) and setting off a crazed celebration at 20th and Blake and throughout LoDo.
At that point I had no second thoughts about my decision to come down on a whim or to stay till the bitter end, especially after running into some friends from Boulder and celebrating the win.
But a couple of hours later, driving over Vail Pass in an absolute whiteout snowstorm, the doubts began to creep back in. I got home at 2 a.m. and my nine-month-old son greeted me with all of his full-on infant energy a few scant hours later at 6:30 a.m.
Exhaustion aside, the question I posed in my previous blog has now been answered. The Rockies seriously may be able to push this run into ski season. If the cooler temps and frequent fronts keep rolling through the state, either Loveland or Arapahoe Basin may open for the season while the boys of summer are still stroking homeruns just down the hill.
In the past, the state’s ski industry has benefited enormously from Denver Broncos games in the fall when the snow is falling on Mile High Stadium and amazed skiers from around the country call in their early reservations.
Could we get a similar hit when the Phillies are in town this weekend and the cameras do a panoramic shot of the snowcapped peaks of Colorado ski country? At this point, anything seems possible where the Rockies are concerned.
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David O. Williams
Rockies so hot and yet so cold
October 1, 2007 —
Driving down the east side of Vail Pass on Interstate 70 Friday, Sept. 28 – en route to Denver to watch the Colorado Rockies suffer an agonizing 4-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks – I noticed a thin strip of what had to be faux snow high on the flanks of Copper Mountain.
On the way home, depressed by what seemed at the time a fatal blow to the Rockies’ playoff aspirations, I sought solace in the coming of a new season - the boys of summer giving way to the boards of winter – and strained to see Copper’s patch of manmade crystals under the glow of the recently full moon.
I couldn’t spot “the ribbon of death,” as early-season skiers so fondly refer to artificially treated trails, but made a mental note to check Copper’s website. Sure enough, they’ve joined Arapahoe Basin and Loveland in cranking up the snow guns for the season.
Then something wonderful happened over the weekend to justify those three resorts’ faith in Mother Nature: while the Rockies were heating up, the Rocky Mountains were gripped by a fall freeze.
Rain spattered the high country Saturday as the Rockies demolished the D-backs 11-1 at Coors Field and wild-card rivals San Diego dropped an extra-inning affair to the Brewers. Then on Sunday we awoke to a skiff of snow in Vail, but the sizzling Rockies sneaked by the D-backs 4-3 in the afternoon while the Pads fell again.
Now, improbably, with Loveland and A-Basin vying to be the first Colorado resorts to open for the season – likely sometime in mid October – and Copper and Wolf Creek in southern Colorado only a month from opening, the Colorado Rockies are weirdly still relevant as ski season rushes at us like the Colorado Buffaloes stampeding the hapless Oklahoma Sooners.
As I picked through boxes in search of a Rockies cap to wear to the Monday, Oct. 1, one-game tiebreaker at Coors Field between the Rocks and the Padres to determine the National League wild-card and who gets to take on the Phillies in Philadelphia Wednesday, I ran across some random ski gear.
The thought suddenly occurred to me that while I’ve been wrapped up in a pennant chase for the first time in 12 years, I need to start seriously getting my ski gear together.
First turns are only a couple of weeks away, and with a win on Monday, it will be very interesting to see how deep into ski season the Rockies can stay hot.
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Dan Davis trekkerphoto.com
Blues Traveler comes up big in Beaver Creek
September 26, 2007 —
The Mountains Win Again.
And so did the three charities benefiting from the largess of the more than 400 supporters of the Millennium Society who turned out Tuesday night (Sept. 25) at the Vilar Performing Arts Center to rock to the jam-band grooves of Blues Traveler.
Harpist and charismatic front man John Popper did lead the band in a killer version of “The Mountains Win Again,” a hit from the band’s multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning album, “Four,” but Tuesday night it was much more than just the name of a song.
The mountains did win again, with another awesome fall fundraiser courtesy of the Millennium Society (www.themillenniumsociety.org), a group dedicated to festive philanthropy in the Vail Valley that has – in back-to-back years – pulled off two huge concerts featuring former H.O.R.D.E Tour stalwarts Blues Traveler and Big Head Todd and the Monsters.
I’m starting the rumor now in a realvail.com exclusive: the next logical act in the jam-band progression would be (no, not Colorado’s own, the Samples) the Dave Matthews Band. You read it here first.
But back to Tuesday night’s show, suffice to say Blues Traveler left an at-times packed house (when they weren’t in the lobby enjoying boutique Boulder vodka company Vodka 14’s product) very satisfied by a nearly two-hour show that included crowd favorites “But Anyway,” “Hook,” and numerous tunes from their latest album, “!Bastardos!”
On a personal note, I was a little late for the show because I was handed the ultimate roadie task of tracking down a carton of Parliament Lights for Popper (at least I didn’t have to sift through M&M’s for the red ones), but that was seriously the only rock-god request from the band.
These guys could not have been more gracious with their time, putting on a stellar show in such an intimate venue, then working the crowd in an after party at the May Gallery that then spilled over into the Dusty Boot, which provided some seriously satiating eats during the show.
Popper even gave one lucky auction winner a private harmonica lesson and autographed harps to others in the crowd. And speaking of the crowd, click on the Blues Traveler ad in the upper right corner of this page and see who you recognize.
And believe me, if you weren’t there Tuesday, next year you’ll want to be one of those faces in the crowd.
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David O. Williams
Introducing RealVail's West Vail deckcam
September 25, 2007 —
The photo that accompanies this blog was shot from my front deck in West Vail and is my best attempt at stoking the fires of early ski-season frenzy. Shots of snow dusting the Gore Range Monday, Sept. 24, tend to get people psyched to throw down for new ski gear and season passes.
Because my wife won’t let me set up a webcam just yet, let’s just call my Canon G7 the realvail.com deckcam for now. I’ll keep working on her on the webcam, but in the meantime you can see that a few inches fell above 11,000 feet and the leaves in the Vail Valley are nearing their peak fall colors.
Try to get up this weekend if you want to catch them in their full fall glory. We don’t have the leaf-peeping spectacle of New England, but the Vail Valley does offer a short-but-sweet leaf season and some smoking hotels deals (www.vailonsale.com).
And if you’re reading this in a drive market and want an excuse for some mid-week hooky from work, get up here tonight (Tuesday, Sept. 25) for the Blues Traveler show at the Vilar Performing Arts Center (note the new name) in Beaver Creek.
Tix are $100 but benefit the Millennium Society (www.themillenniumsociety.org) and three local charities and come with food from the Dusty Boot and premium wines and spirits. Pony up $300 and hang with the band for an after party. Doors open at 6:30, and the show starts at 8 p.m.
If you’ve never seen a show at the Vilar Center, you have to check out this state-of-the-art 500-seat acoustic marvel beneath the ice rink at the Beav. If you can’t make Blues Traveler, the quintessential 90s jam band, come up Thursday for the guitar stylings of Grammy winner Eric Johnson (www.vilarpac.org).
Since this blog has morphed into a bit of a grab bag, let me just take a quick minute to sing the praises of our Boys of Summer, the Colorado Rockies, who for only the second time in their 14-year history have a shot at being the Boys of Fall.
That’s right, going into tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers (in LA), the Rocks are just one game behind Philly and San Diego for the National League wildcard berth. They have won eight in a row, including sweeps of the Dodgers in Denver and the Padres in San Diego.
I’m taking my oldest son Nick down to the Rocks’ game Friday night at Coors Field no matter how they fare in LA. Our ace, Jeff Francis will be going for a franchise record 18th win against the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks (whom the Rocks only trail by four games) and they have earned our show of support regardless of how they do in their three-game set with the Dodgers.
Personally I’m hoping for a little reverse of the Californication our state has endured since the Rocks threw out their first pitch in 1993 (we’ve never finished ahead of the Dodgers in the standings and our state has been slowly consumed by refugees from the Golden State).
I cannot use the term “long suffering” to describe myself as a Rockies fan, because that phrase should be reserved for Cubs and (until recently) Red Sox fans, but I have witnessed some pretty god-awful baseball at the old Mile High Stadium and now Coors Field over the last decade plus.
I was at Mile High when Eric Young (EY sightings are still occurring for various Major League teams) hit a home run for Colorado in their first at bat as a franchise. In fact, I was in the press box, having finagled press passes as the Vail Daily sports editor at the time (they were desperate for coverage in those days).
After a victory over the Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals) I interviewed Andres “Big Cat” Galarraga in the Rocks’ locker room. Those were the heady days when anything seemed possible, and indeed, the team made the playoffs quicker than any other expansion team in 1995. It’s been all downhill since.
Until this season. I’ve attended two other games this year (a Memorial Day win in the midst of their previous season-high win streak of seven and a mid-summer victory over the Dodgers). Nick was with me both times, and I’m convinced we are good-luck charms.
We’ll be there Friday to ensure a playoff berth hopefully and show our support for this team that cobbled together a pitching staff and deserves another shot together next season.
Don’t break up the Rocks!
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