DENVER — Despite the rain, snow and cold temperatures, fans took to Lower Downtown to enjoy the Rockies home opener Friday.
Locals, like Mike Blowmeyer, have set up their own party to celebrate Opening Day just a block away from first base for decades.
"It's like the first day of summer for everybody," Blowmeyer said. "Everybody's been cooped up since Christmas, and friends I haven't seen in a long time. It's a tradition."
A tradition he takes seriously. Though, he isn't the only one sticking by tradition.
Eric and Christie Garcia have been enjoying Opening Day games since before they were even played at Coors Field.
"This started back in '93 the Mile High Stadium," Eric said. "I brought my parents for 25 years to opening games. I'd fly in, get the hotel, everything, and this is just a tradition."
The Garcia's don't live in Denver, or even Colorado for that matter. They live in Salt Lake City, Utah, but have stood by the Rockies for all those years.
"Rockies, is it!" they said. "You know, this is, this is our team."
Adding there's just something special about the home opener, which is why they've kept the tradition going for so long.
"It's different atmosphere, right? It's not your normal game," Eric said."There's a festivities, and the Rockies do it, the organization they do a great job of having bands, and you just get into the mood of this is like, this is it the major leagues, right? It's a great fun atmosphere."
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When it comes to the temperature and overall conditions, the Garcia's agreed, they've been through worse and the cold wasn't going to stop them.
"It's been colder," Christie said. "I just have to deal with it, because, I mean, you just have to get into the game and the cold goes away."
Others, like Colleen and Steve Olson shared in that sentiment, bundling up for the game.
"I don't like to be cold," Steve said. "Especially the hands, yeah, so my hands are plenty warm right now, nice and toasty, so I should be fine."
"And when you're holding that beer, you have the cold beer, you have to have the warm gloves on," Colleen added.
When asked their projections for the season ahead, those we speak with shared in their feelings toward their team, they're going to stick by them.
"They're still good players. Yeah, they're good games, even they lose, they're fun," Colleen said.
"My expectations aren't that that high for them, but you know, if they can just keep improving, I'm happy," Steve added. "You know, it's, it's baseball, and I like to come down to the ballpark and watch the team play. They're giving everything they got, yeah?"
"It's another year, I think it's gonna be good!" Blowmeyer added.
"I hope that we go further than we have been," said Eric. "Hopefully someday we go back to the World Series and at least get there, or make the playoffs, or the postseason, would be nice, because we would definitely come down for that as well."
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