Open Stance - The Blog

Open Stance delivers the thoughts, rants and raves of an opinionated and passionate baseball fan. Originally published as a think-piece column in Boston Baseball magazine in the 1990s, Open Stance now comes to you in blog form. Please see Open Stance - The Columns for the online archives of the print predecessor.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

I've seen the HOF Class of 2015 Play

Congratulations to the Hall of Fame Class of 2015! I was fortunate enough to see each of them play several times. Craig Biggio Saw hi...

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Charles & Phil

I haven't posted anything here for about a year and a half. It's not that I didn't have g...

Thursday, September 13, 2012

It's the Humidity

I got a little more camera time last night. I was over by the batter's eye wall when Wilin Rosario hit one right at my seat. I ran...

Sunday, September 9, 2012

The Tipster

I saw this thread from Troy Renck, the national baseball writer for the Denver Post , on Friday: Since I kind of pay attenti...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Don't Call Us, We'll call You

I found out that I wasn't chosen for a cameo role in the Rockies 2012 TV commercials (see previous post .) The bad news came in an email...

Monday, January 9, 2012

You Saw It Here First

When I was at Coors Field for my TV commercial audition on Saturday, I got to longingly gaze over the field. Of course, I checked on my seat...

Saturday, January 7, 2012

All Right Mr. DeMille, I'm Ready For My Close-Up

I got to do something cool this morning: I was one of about 100 season ticket holders chosen by the Rockies to audition for a cameo in this...

Monday, June 20, 2011

Milestone

I recently achieved a personal milestone: I attended my 1,000th Major League game . 194 of those games were working as a Coors Field usher, ...

Sunday, June 19, 2011

A Pretty Good Day at the Ballpark

I had a pretty good day at Coors Field today. To wit: •I got Carlos Gonzalez to autograph the home run ball that I caught last year. •I got ...

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Harmon Killebrew and Me

On August 21, 1987, I attended the Red Sox / Twins game in Boston with a Roof Box ticket. This was prior to the upper deck renovations at Fe...

Saturday, May 7, 2011

I Demand A Recount!

Over the last few days, I've spent several hours with my ticket stub book and Baseball-Reference.com to document the double headers tha...

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Baseball Detectives

Which Red Sox Game Was Featured in The Town ? The above question refers to the bank robbing / shoot 'em up film shot in Boston. The fi...

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Caveat Emptor

I got a paper copy of Holiday2010 - The Official Catalog of MLB.COM in the snail mail today. It's also available in a clunky and typic...

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Fenway Park: Back To The Future?

As only The Onion can. Funny because it's true? ©2010 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Sparky

©2010 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Friday, October 29, 2010

But Who's Counting?

Here's the top headline at this moment on my ESPN.com-MLB RSS feed: The San Francisco Giants are halfway to their first World Series ch...

Ballpark Relics

I've just published a new section in the Ballpark area my Web site, Open Stance . It's called "Relics," and it contains ...

Food Fight

The Denver Post ran this quote today: " Your average Rangers fan is not going to carry a plate of sushi to his seat for fear of being...

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Alerting All Pigeons!

Those whack-jobs with the Milwaukee Brewers have decided to erect a 7-foot statue of Allan H. "Bud" Selig outside of Miller Park. ...

Thursday, April 29, 2010

New URL for Open Stance - The Blog

Please note the new URL for this blog: http://blog.openstance.com/ . If you subscribe to the feed, please update your feed subscripti...

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The New Worst Ballpark in Major League Baseball

Congratulations, Tampa Bay Rays and St. Petersburg, Florida! With the advent of Target Field in Minneapolis, Tropicana Field replaces th...

Monday, April 12, 2010

Follow Open Stance on Twitter

After over a year of dormancy, I'm firing up the Open Stance Twitter account. Click the button below and join the bandwagon! ©2010 Doug...

Happy New Year!

I attended my 29th consecutive Major League Opening Day on Friday. Gawd! Even after all these years and games, I still get excited, and I ...

Sunday, December 27, 2009

When Counting To Ten, Start With One

I found this post on mlb.com last night: 2009 brings memorable end to decade From Buehrle to Yanks, season was perfect in many ways By Mark ...

Friday, October 23, 2009

MOTY & Me

Congratulations to Rockies manager Jim Tracy, Sporting News ' 2009 National League Manager of the Year. Let's hang out again soon! ...

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The 60/60 Rule

I'm not sure whence I first heard this adage - it may have been from George "Sparky" Anderson - but it goes like this: Every t...

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Rocktuber!

©2009 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Today's Rant to the Denver Post

From today's paper, Page 4C: Mariners vs. Rangers • SEATTLE >> Ppd., rain If you knew anything about Major League Baseball, yo...

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Call Me Scoop

I was watching the Dodgers game last night, and Vin Scully said that LA had just acquired Jim Thome from the White Sox. I was also sitting ...

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Read Your Own Paper (And Try To Retain A Little Bit)

I had a great relationship with the sports writers and the sports editor at the Rocky Mountain News . They were generally good-natured, and...

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Old Timer

The Pittsburgh Pirates are in town to play the Rockies. Both the Rockies radio and TV teams have claimed that Pirate Lastings Milledge wear...

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Seeing The Cycle

I saw Rockie's shortstop Troy Tulowitzki get credit for hitting for the cycle last night. The triple was a bit specious: Alfonso Soria...

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Media Rants

I'm continually finding factual errors in the media, both sports and news, and I always find myself compelled to fire off a note to corr...

Monday, June 29, 2009

Thanks To Me?

I'm watching the Red Sox play the Orioles on MLB Extra Innings. They've only got the home feed, so I have to watch Mid-Atlantic Sp...

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Box Score Revelations

After writing my previous post about my encounter with Bill Veeck , I took a closer look at the box score from that game in Wrigley Field o...

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Bill Veeck and Me

Yesterday, Today in Baseball had a piece on the anniversary of Bill Veeck becoming a Major League team owner. It reminded me of my encoun...

Monday, June 22, 2009

Vin Scully and Me

The multi-dimensional Keith Olbermann posted a pretty cool blog entry recently about Vin Scully . A couple of the anecdotes were about the ...

Friday, June 19, 2009

Train Renck

Here's a letter I sent to the Denver Post this morning. I dragged my feet on it -- the offending article appeared last Sunday -- so who...

Friday, May 15, 2009

I've Lost A Friend

I found out right before the start of yesterday's Rockies game that my friend, Bob Duprey, lost his fight with Hodgkins lymphoma on W...

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The GM & Me

I went down to Colorado Springs to see the Sky Sox yesterday. I was listening to the game on the radio, and I heard the announcer s...

Monday, July 28, 2008

My favorite headline of today!

Just saw this on Boston Red Sox News : Colon sees light at end of tunnel ©2008 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Conflicted Interests

Friends have been asking me for a couple of weeks: "Who you gonna root for?" From time to time, I've been ambivalent abou...

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Something cool. Could be much cooler.

Here's an email I just sent to espn.com. I'll let you know if/how they respond. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Hi – Your Bas...

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Couch Potato Heaven

I'm not one to use this space to plug commercial ventures, nor do I advocate giving the cable company even more money, but in this case,...

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Department of Redundancy Department

One of my many pet peeves is redundancy in language. When I hear people use terms like "ATM machine" and "PIN number," ...

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Roof, Roof, Roof for the Home Team

I've been to Houston. Twice. My sole purpose for setting foot there was to see games in the ball parks. Why on Earth else would anyone g...

Sunday, October 9, 2005

Houston = Bush

A beautiful night last night, a beautiful day today, yet the Astros insist on having the roof closed on their plastic ballpark because they ...

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Ball Haul

Continuing my habit of visiting the local minor league team(s), I drove down to see the Colorado Springs Sky Sox last night. It was "$...

Wednesday, August 3, 2005

Riff Raff

Just a hunch, but could it be that Rafael Palmeiro has been so cryptic about his steroid use in order to protect someone else? Like a teamm...

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Getchah Cabbage Coolahs He-ah!

The Korea Baseball Organization is way ahead of MLB -- they've already banned the vile frozen cabbage ! ©2005 Douglas T. Dinsmoor

Dibble Drivel

If Brendan Donnelly is going to get a 10-game suspension for having a little pine tar in his glove... Listen, when I played, everybody was c...

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Sticky Situation

" I'm not using it to cheat ." This brilliant defense was served up by pitcher Brendan Donnelly of the Los Angeles Angels of A...

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Freedom From Religion

I was taught that our Constitution not only allows us freedom of religion, it also allows us freedom from religion. So, I'm exercising ...

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Segregation Now!

MLB is patting itself on the back for what they perceive as the success of this past weekend's interleague play. Their official release ...

Monday, May 2, 2005

O, Baby!

Wednesday nights at Coors Field this season are Ladies Nights, sponsored by Big O Tires. Insert your own joke here. ©2005 Douglas T. Dinsmoo...

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Silver Anniversary

It was 25 years ago today that I attended my first Major League game. I remember it well. It was a blustery Chicago day, and t...

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Grounded Out

I had the Braves / Nats game on in the background the other day. I wasn't paying all that much attention, so I don't know which TBS ...

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Root, Root, Root

I watched a woman in the stands sing part of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" at the Rockies game today. I'm still not sure if s...

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

My First Big League Opening Day

I set foot in Fenway Park for the first time 23 years ago today. I moved to Boston in February of 1982, and I took advantage of my fi...

Saturday, April 9, 2005

Fevah Pitch

I saw "Fever Pitch" tonight. I thought it was good, not great, but certainly enjoyable. They did a pretty good job of capturing ...

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About Me

Douglas T. Dinsmoor: Yeah, I'm a baseball nut. I also love the ballparks, and I consider myself an aficionado. I've seen over 2,000 professional baseball games in 54 MLB parks and 123 minor league venues.

I lived in Boston for over 20 years, and I continue to be a die-hard Red Sox fan, as well as a card-carrying member of Red Sox Nation.

Now back in Denver again – I was born 12 blocks from Coors Field – I also follow the Rockies. I've grown fond of them and I'm now a genuine fan, but my relationship with them isn't yet the same deep emotional and cultural investment I developed with the BoSox, but stay tuned.

I consider myself a baseball purist, and I loathe interleague play and the DH.

I've never worn a tie to a ball game.

View my complete profile

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