Bizarre Colorado Facts: What is the Coors Field Effect?

When the Colorado Rockies were established in 1993, the team had four standout players affectionately known as the 'Blake Street Bombers.'

Read More: Flashback: Colorado’s Coors Field Under Construction |

These players were Andres Galarraga, Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla, and Larry Walker.

While all four have been hailed for their playing in the team's infancy and have effectively become Colorado sports royalty, a certain bias surrounding the team's home stadium of Coors Field likely contributed to the long delay in Larry Walker's induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Colorado's Major League Baseball Stadium + the Coors Field Effect

The Coors Field Effect is a theory surrounding the Rockies' stadium and the massive number of fly balls that have historically been hit at the park.

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While it initially sounds like something out of the National Enquirer, the Coors Field Effect is actually a scientifically proven phenomenon attributed to the high elevation of the park.

For example, Coors Field sits at roughly 5,200 feet above sea level, a figure that dwarfs every other major league baseball stadium. In fact, the second-highest Major League stadium is located in Phoenix and sits at only 1,100 feet above sea level.

It's the thin air that is attributed to so many fly balls being historically hit at the park, and is also the reason that Coors Field has such a large outfield and higher fences than your typical major league ballpark.

It's widely believed that the Coors Field Effect is directly responsible for it taking roughly a decade for Larry Walker to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, a span of time that almost surpassed his period of eligibility.

Luckily, Walker was inducted in 2020 with 76% of the vote behind him.