Lehndorff: Superdogs unleash spirit of opening day

Published April 14, 2006 at midnight

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Spring did not begin until about 2:45 p.m. on April 3 when I bit into my first hot dog of the year. My son and I wolfed down foot-long superdogs ($6.50) laden with condiments in squishy white buns on opening day at Coors Field. I hadn't eaten a dog since that cheese-drowned wiener at Wrigley Field late last summer. I only eat them at ballparks.

Those were just two of the approximate 16,500 hot dogs sold to the sell-out crowd. According to Al Wolfe, general manager for Aramark food services at Coors Field, dogs of various types are the most consumed item.

Wolfe had told me that many new items had been added to the Coors menu including 1 1/4-pound baked potatoes loaded with beef brisket, bacon, sour cream, nacho cheese and barbecue sauce. Also now available on the concourses are rice or noodle bowls, Chinese chicken salad, and cheese-stuffed breadsticks.

For our second course, we opted for lemonade ($5.50) and the new official pizza of Coors Field, Papa John's ($6). The "personal pizza" was an upgrade of last year with a decent crust, sweet sauce, pepperoni and plenty of cheese, but its dimensions were made for an itty bitty person.

We followed a longstanding family tradition and bought a bag of plain M&Ms ($3.50) in the fifth inning. I decided that if we only ate the blue ones the Rockies would win. Don't laugh. Soon thereafter, pitcher Jason Jennings drove in a run.

Watching through the tense extra innings, we fortified ourselves with a blah cheesesteak ($6) that lacked enough of that cheese-like substance. After a cup of Dippin' Dots ($4), the Rocks won.

The most exciting Coors roster upgrade is the new Zaler's stand near section 144. For my next game, I'm grabbing an all-kosher, rabbi-certified garlic dog, or maybe an all-beef dog, hot pastrami sandwich, kosher pickle or halvah bar.

For the first day of the season at least, the Rockies, the weather and the food were pitcher perfect.

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