Denver, Colorado – After a four year absence, professional baseball is returning to the Rocky Mountain State. Colorado has announced the details of their new team.
Nickname: Gold Sox
The nickname is an obvious homage to the state’s gold-mining history. Beginning in 1859, 10 years after the California gold rush, the rapid population growth in Colorado led to them becoming a territory in 1861, before gaining statehood in 1876.
Logo:
“We really like the logo,” team owner Jorge Lopez said at the press conference. “It’s simple, but the mountain in the C is a wonderful touch.”
Uniforms:
“They look nice,” recently acquired and Colorado fan-favorite Carlos Gonzalez said. “It’s just nice to be back here in Colorado. But I do like these better than the Rockies, no offense,” he continued, laughing.
The team hats are below:
The organization hired the firm TXRanger & Knuckler to design the logos, uniforms and caps, and couldn’t be happier with how they turned out.
The team also finally announced their new stadium name and dimensions, which had been kept under wraps while the stadium was being built. Coors Field was no longer in playing condition, so a new field was mandated if the team wanted an expansion team.
Stadium: Palmer Stadium
The team chose not to sell their naming rights, instead naming the stadium after William Jackson Palmer, a businessman and philanthropist in the Denver area throughout the 1860’s and 1870’s. He was instrumental in several technological advancements in the railroad industry in the United States.
[Editor’s Note: No relation to Walter Palmer, the douche lion killer from Minnesota]
Distances and Wall Heights:
LF Line – 318 feet, 22 foot wall
LF – 341 feet, 9 foot wall
Left center – 372 feet, 9 foot wall
CF – 416 feet, 9 foot wall
Right center – 372 feet, 9 foot wall
RF – 341 feet, 9 foot wall
RF Line – 318 feet, 22 foot wall
The park is expected to be a hitters park, but not quite as hitter friendly as Coors Field was back in the day. Of course, nobody knows how a stadium will actually play until they start playing games in it. The team chose to have the same dimensions in right and left field to avoid teams loading up one side of their lineup in Colorado.
The Gold Sox also announced they will open the season against back-to-back champion Vallejo on April 2 at home. Talk about getting thrown right into the fire. Quite a treat for the Colorado fans though, after waiting four years to watch baseball again, they get to see the league’s best right away.
