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Mike Fiers

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MLB

Roster Doctor: Battling the Coors Field Syndrome

By Jonah Keri at
Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

You learn a lot of weird and wonderful things when you move to Colorado. This is a craft beer paradise, but also somehow the fittest state in the nation. It's a place where a light weekend activity involves bagging another 14er. And it's a place where you can head to 20th and Blake with buddies, throw down a couple cold ones, converse about your latest 14er, look up … and see a 16-7 score in the fifth inning.

Coors Field is back, and it's angry, my friends. The Colorado Rockies' home park is boosting offense at a higher rate than it has in more than a decade. Theories abound as to why one of baseball's most offense-friendly parks has ramped hitting back up to the Blake Street Bombers days. Some contend the Rockies have stopped using humidors to store baseballs and thus dampen offensive levels … but the evidence suggests otherwise. It might be Denver's weather this summer, with temperatures uncharacteristically hitting and sticking in triple digits far more than they have in the past, thus creating a hot and dry launching pad for hitters. Or maybe it's just our old friend random chance.

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ABOUT LAST NIGHT

About Last Night: Aly Adds to Her Collection

By Shane Ryan at

In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Tuesday.

  • American gymnast Aly Raisman won a bronze medal on the balance beam event final, and followed that up with a gold on the floor exercise. Beleaguered U.S. gymnast Jordyn Wieber finished seventh in the floor exercise when she experienced an unfortunate bout of Apparatus Confusion Disorder (ACD), leading her to mistake the floor for the uneven bars and jump around making weird swinging motions until she was tranquilized by her coach.

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