Coors Field ready for baseball after overnight snow
May 10, 2015, 1:48 PM
Alan Bossart, visiting clubhouse manager for the Colorado Rockies, shovels snow off the outfield in Coors Field after a wet, heavy snow Sunday, May 10, 2015, in Denver. Groundskeepers are hurrying to prepare the field for the baseball game scheduled for Sunday between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Rockies. The spring storm that left the snow in Denver has wreaked havoc across the state, triggering flood warnings in northeast counties while dropping up to 18 inches of snow in the southern parts of the Centennial State. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
DENVER (AP) — Coors Field is shoveled out from a May snowstorm in time for the Colorado Rockies to play the Los Angeles Dodgers.
An overnight storm dropped up to 5 inches in parts of the Denver area. The grounds crew spent Sunday morning shoveling the outfield and taking the snow out of the stadium in small bulldozers.
An hour before Sunday’s first pitch, the sun was shining, the field was completely clear of snow and the infield was dry and ready for baseball. The series finale began on time after the first two games were affected by the wet weather that has socked Colorado for the last week. Temperatures were in the low 40s at the start Sunday.
A similar scene played out at Coors Field two years ago after a much bigger storm hit Denver in mid-April. Rockies owner Dick Monfort and other team executives were shoveling so Colorado could get in a doubleheader with the New York Mets.
“I was shocked that we played a couple of years ago when we had that much snow,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. “Today I’m not. The weather is nice enough today I figured it was going to melt.”
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly wasn’t worried about the field conditions jeopardizing the players.
“Most fields are so good now with draining, it soaks in, so by game time it will be pretty good footing, I’m assuming,” he said. “The umpires at some point will walk the field to make sure that it’s good. Anything can happen, but it can happen any day.”
Friday’s game was shortened to five-plus innings because of heavy rain. Saturday’s was postponed by rain that turned into snow in the early evening. The snow stopped early Sunday.
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