When wildlife starts changing behavior, we’ve been locked down for too long. With the return of some normalcy, of course, a cat wouldn’t take the hint.
Coors Field is one of my favorite empty places. Home to the hopeless Colorado Rockies baseball team, sometimes having an empty field is preferable. As a former employee, I loved sitting in the outfield seats and admiring the place without fans. It’s a perfect setting—a giant field of green grass with the sounds of the fountains on a hot summer’s day.
Opening Day weekend brought fans back to the stadium for the first time in 18 months. While the stadium was only half full, it must have been confusing for the full-time residents.
In the middle of a game, one of those residents had had enough. Sneaking down to the field, a gray cat dashed from the visitors’ dugout to the outfield faster than any player. The cat was clearly displeased by all of the fans and collapsed in the middle of the field, temporarily stopping the game.
In a series where the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers dismantled the Rockies, it was the highlight of the weekend. Rockies radio announcer Jack Corrigan says that you see something new in baseball every day. A wild cat telling all of the fans to go home was just the new thing for that day.
The cat also outed a secret kept by many who know the stadium well. A bunch of cats live at Coors Field. Elizabeth Hernandez documented the whole story in the Denver Post. I was able to provide this quote.
“The idea of living at a ballpark is so cool,” Kessinger said. “Coors Field is great for fans, but there’s nothing better than being one of the only people in the stadium. If you were a cat, that’s a perfect life — just laying out in the sun at the ballpark.”
After being removed from the game, the cat managed to escape. It once again lurks within Coors Field, ready to strike again. We have no idea what might set the cat dashing onto the field. The cat gives Rockies fans another reason to return to Coors Field as capacity increases and the lockdowns subside. In fact, a wild feline may be the main reason to return to normalcy.