Baseball In The Daytime: 5-21-08

In the bigs, teams play in one of three kinds of parks. You've got your old classics, your Fenways and Wrigleys, and I include the revitalized yards in LA and Los Anaheim here. You've got your shiny new facilities. And then you've got those dumps that make the fans stay away.

Two day games take place in the majors today. One, at shiny and relatively new Coors Field, features a couple clubs that enjoy acclaimed home stadia. The other, coming at you from the Al Davis Creepatorium, will showcase two teams looking for new digs. After the jump, all the basebally architecture you can handle...

San Francisco @ Colorado, 1:05 Mountain If the Rockies were a dog on a farm, they'd have been taken out back and shot by now. It seems incredible that a team which enjoyed so much success last year is playing out the string before Memorial Day, yet here we are. If I can offer my brainy expert analysis as to why this club is awful, it would be this: they suck at every aspect of the game of baseball. They don't hit, especially in late, close or clutch situations. They don't get anybody out, either with their pitching or their defense. And I'm pretty sure that Clint Hurdle has had a tanning bed installed in the dugout. Today the Dominican Walk Machine, Ubaldo Jimenez, tries to avoid any further embarrassment for this franchise. His doppelganger is Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants, who's dirty.

Tampa @ Oakland, 1:35 This one's a rematch of Super Bowl XXXVII, only with a smaller ball, fewer pads and Frank Thomas playing the role of Warren Sapp. Both the Bay-Rays and the A's sit in second place these days, after briefly inhabiting the top spot of their respective divisions. They were also the only two teams to sport green unis, until Tampa bitched out, ditched the "Devil" and bought some new born-again threads. Today's starters are Dana Eveland and Andy Sonnanstine, a pair that sounds as if they'll be applying for a civil union at the Alameda County Courthouse following the game.