Fans Staying Home in Denver

A Rockies game in Denver used to be a big event, both inside and outside the ballpark.

Beer flowed. Baseballs flew. An entire section of downtown known as LoDo was transformed from a run-down row of empty warehouses to a hopping center of Denver nightlife, all centered on gleaming new Coors Field on Blake Street.

These days, the Rockies are terrible and the fans barely care.

“The Rockies are killing us,” said Jason Quinn, a bartender for the last eight years at the Falling Rock Tap House. “We were busy for the home opener. That was Monday. By Wednesday, the next game, it was a ghost town down here.”

As dispiriting as Colorado’s 23 losses in its first 32 games have been, the attendance numbers at home have been staggering. On Thursday night, in a loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Rockies drew an announced crowd of 18,184 -- the smallest in Coors Field history.

Counting their opening day crowd of 47,661, the Rockies averaged 23,625 fans in their first 15 home games. That’s nearly 6,000 fewer than last year, and 24,000 fewer than the peak in 1996-97 when the team led the majors in attendance and the city’s love affair with baseball was in full bloom.

“The honeymoon is over,” said Kyle Hesseltine, manager of the Sports Column, as he looked at his mostly empty bar that also suffered this winter because the NHL’s Avalanche was on ice. “The difference is 50,000 people went by our front door back then, compared to maybe 15,000 now.”

The Rockies’ marketing department decided to promote the 2005 team as “Generation R,” a not-so-subtle attempt to advise fans that this year’s Rockies would be young, spunky and, almost certainly, not very good.

They were right on many levels. But, with only a few exceptions -- a pair of recent one-run wins over the Braves included -- they have been largely devoid of excitement and pretty painful to watch.

“You can blame this, blame that,” said Todd Helton, the team’s only truly recognizable star. “The thing about it is, it’s still early in the year, and instead of looking at everyone else, I’ve got to look at myself in the mirror and see what I can do better to help this team win.”

While Helton took the blame for his own early season slump -- just nine RBIs during April -- there are some things he can’t control.

The pitching staff entered the series with Arizona with a 6.05 ERA, worst in the majors. It led the majors in walks with 164, 21 more than 29th-place Tampa Bay; ranked 27th in hit batters (17), and was last in baseball in strikeouts (170). The bullpen, with no proven closer, had blown nine of 12 save opportunities, most in the majors.

Not to be overlooked has been an overall lack of hitting, especially in the clutch and especially away from Coors Field, where all statistics are inflated. The Rockies recently returned from a 1-8 trip that included four one-run losses. They are batting .239 and are 2-15 away from Coors Field.

Meanwhile, the experiment with rookie catcher J.D. Closser isn’t taking off. He was hitting .185 through Wednesday. Closser and his veteran backup, Todd Greene, had yet to throw a runner out at second.

“His throwing is just a constant thing of finding a comfortable arm slot,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “He’s got to not get too mechanical with it, and just throw where the ball takes him.”

Hurdle speaks often of allowing his young players to “play with freedom,” and not let the day-in, day-out pressures get to them. But in the past week or so, he has been more inclined to bench younger players, saying there are expectations of all big-league players, no matter how young and inexperienced they are.

It is a fine line he walks.

“I don’t think anyone wants to draw expectations from young players,” Hurdle said. “You want to get them into situations where they’re comfortable, give them the opportunity and freedom to play, and when things start to spin out of control, you sit them down and let them think about things.”

Among Colorado’s few success stories is rookie shortstop Clint Barmes, who entered the weekend leading the majors with a .395 batting average. Barmes is the kind of player who might not be playing every day on another team, but he is getting valuable time with the Rockies.

That’s the plan Colorado has set for the future, even if it’s causing some rough times in the present.

“We’ve been coming out and playing hard every night,” Barmes said. “Obviously, we’re trying to get something started.”

When and if they do, though, it will almost certainly be too late. After a 10-game losing streak that dropped the Rockies to 6-21, the local newspapers began comparing Colorado’s pace to that of the 1962 New York Mets, who set the modern-day record with 120 losses.

“I guess maybe they think that’s funny or interesting, but it’s too early in the season to be thinking about things like that,” Helton said.

If things keep going the way they are, though, the loss record might be one of the few compelling reasons for the home fans to keep track of the Rockies come August and September.

They certainly haven’t found many so far.

“They are grumbling. They are tired of watching the Rockies lose 10 games in a row,” said Kevin McAnulla, a manager at Jackson’s Hole bar. “The team isn’t as good as it has been in the past. Attendance is down and our business is down. People are dying for sports, but they don’t want to come see the Rockies play.”