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Fennelly: 'Big H' Helps Rockies Keep Their Cool

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Martin Fennelly/The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 27, 2007

Updated: 10/27/2007 12:44 am

DENVER - Ah, baseball as it was meant to be.

When pitchers come to Coors Field for the first time, they're off to see it, like Dorothy with the Wizard.

They make the pilgrimage to the great steel shrine. They speak of their friend as if it was a person.

'I love the humidor,' Colorado Rockies pitcher Matt Herges said.

The word is 'love.'

The Humidor, the famed Coors Field baseball humidor, which restored sanity to mile high baseball, has been swamped with interview requests this week.

The World Series resumes tonight and the humidor might be the only thing the Rockies, down two games to the Red Sox, have going for them. Wonder how far, in miles, a David Ortiz homer can travel.

Have no fear.

Humidor is here.

No Longer A Launching Pad

Denver was once the place where pitchers went to die, Coors Canaveral, the Land of the Softball Score.

No more.

Well, not as much.

All thanks to preparation H.

It's been on the job five years.

As oddities go, the humidor blows catwalks away.

Players speak of pre-humidor and after-humidor, as if it was B.C. and A.D.

'It's just like that,' Herges said.

The object of his affection sits near the Rockies clubhouse, next to its big brother: a beer-keg cooler.

The savior measures 9 feet by 9 feet and stands 7 1/2 feet high. There's a fat lock on its door. Behind it is the steel-walled magic box that has changed mile high baseball.

The Big H is described 'an environmental storage chamber' or 'an enclosed storage room designed to maintain a consistent specified temperature and relative humidity inside.'

It all began during a duck hunt six years ago.

Yes, a duck hunt.

A employee in the Rockies engineering department noticed his leather hunting boots had dried up and shrunk over the summer.

He wondered if Denver's high, dry air did the same to the baseballs that were rocketing out of Coors - 303 in 1999 alone, still a record.

'We found the balls were getting smaller and traveling farther,' Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said.

Pitchers complained the balls were slick and hard.

'You couldn't get a grip, they were like cue balls,' Herges said.

Turns out the balls didn't meet Major League Baseball specs.

And so Humidor was born.

And everyone wants a tour.

'Everybody expects to see steam coming out of it,' said Jay Alves, Rockies vice president of communications. 'They look in and say, 'That's it?''

Alves led media to the humidor. He turned the key. The door swung open.

That's it?

Forty-nine boxes holding a dozen baseballs sat on metal shelves, across from a single jar of rubbing mud. The Big H can hold 400 dozen balls. It's always 70 degrees inside, with 50 percent humidity.

There are instructions on the wall.

'Balls are to be removed from the chamber as close to game time as possible.'

'Keep This Door Closed At All Times.'

The year before the humidor, there were 13.4 runs scored per game at Coors. That average is down three runs this season. There were 100 fewer homers hit in Coors this season than six years ago.

'It's given our pitchers a level playing field,' Hurdle said.

Hey, since it's a humidor ...

'I have my own humidor for cigars.'

Oh.

It's Still A Huge Help

Coors remains a hitters park. Its vast outfield still turns singles into doubles and the thin air keeps fair balls from curving foul and breaking balls from breaking too much.

'The humidor is still huge,' Herges said.

He showed it to his wife Friday.

Humidor is a star.

There are 'Got Humidor' T-shirts. Rockies pitchers Jeff Francis and Aaron Cook were in a humidor commercial.

There's talk of a 'Dancing With The Humidor' show.

One day there'll be a wedding inside the humidor, guaranteed.

Thing is, a loss tonight in Game 3 and the Rockies won't need a humidor. They'll be hanging in a meat locker.

Until then, in true baseball spirit, they'll take it one day at a time and give 100 percent and make sure the game balls are removed from the chamber as close to game time as possible and keep the door closed at all times.

You know, back to basics.

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