SB Nation User Blog: oo_nrb

August Schedule Wallpaper - DONE and Ripe for the Picking!

oo_nrb — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 06:59:25 -0000

Just wanted to create a placeholder for my August 2008 Schedule Wallpaper. Yes, I did start it a week ago, but between papers and other things, it just kind of fell by the wayside. Regardless, I hope to have it up sometime tomorrow night, hopefully in time for the first pitch of the Marlins game. If not, then definitely when you wake up on 8/2.

What's been occupying my time over the last week? Oh, nothing in particular.

Go Rockies!

EDIT

It's done! As you can see, my new favorite Photoshop tool is the Gradient tool, which has been put to great use in the previous two wallpapers. This one is nicknamed "Purple Rising"; as you can tell, the purple is settling over the downtown Denver area...soon it will be impossible to escape the purple!

As per usual, low-quality JPEGs are attached below as previews, with the actual desktops under the previews - simply choose the resolution that fits your computer. A word of caution, though. I discovered with the All-Star Game wallpaper that the JPEG previews contain less color information than their high-quality BMP brothers; this means that the previews looked an awful lot more "yellow" than what the wallpaper actually looked like. So if it's a color issue that's turning you off, check the full version and you may be more inclined to download :) . Also, these take forever to download. It is worth it, trust me, because the picture will come through clear and not grainy, but it will take ages. Let me know if you have any troubles.

And please leave comments if you like it or don't! I'm still playing around with the calendar...this month it's two rows again, but the days of the week are now above each box for reference. Also, I made the logos a bit smaller this time around.

Anyway, happy wallpaper-ing! And Go Rockies!

(obligatory reference to www.soxtalk.com , whom I borrowed the idea from)

"SQUARE" SCREEN

1600 x 1200 | 1400 x 1050 | 1200 x 900 | 1024 x 768 | 800 x 600

WIDESCREEN

1920 x 1200 | 1680 x 1050 | 1440 x 900

All Star Game Wallpaper - It Actually Looks Good!

oo_nrb — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:52:08 -0000

In case you couldn't tell, this has been the wallpaper that I have spent the most time on, and it's the one I am the most proud of. A few errant pixels here and there, but I think that the final result is a quality product.

As always, below are very low-quality JPEG previews of the real deal. In order to view the Widescreen preview properly, please switch your Purple Row Viewing mode to "wide mode", which can be done at the top of any page on the site. The resolution options are listed below their respective previews. These will link you to very high-quality BMP files, which will take forever to download. It'll be worth it in the end, but please be patient. If you have a particularly wonky resolution, leave me a comment and let me know, and I'll bake up a special one just for you.

And as always, please leave comments! I strive to make each one better than the last, and any constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

Go Rockies!

Let me know if you need a different resolution than the ones offered below, and I will be more than happy to make one for you :D .

"SQUARE" SCREEN

1600 x 1200 | 1400 x 1050 | 1280 x 960 | 1024 x 768 | 800 x 600

WIDESCREEN

1920 x 1200 | 1680x 1050 | 1440x 900

*** If you would like a 1920 x 1200, please leave a comment below - turns out that file is above the size limit on my hosting service.

Schedule Wallpaper, Now in July Flavors!

oo_nrb — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:16:19 -0000

Yes, for the first time ever, a July schedule wallpaper! Let's celebrate with fireworks! :D

The credo this month: The simpler, the better. I gave everything some breathing room, and made sure to leave plenty of room for your icons. You know, so the desktop still actually functions as a desktop. I hope it's adorned enough, though, to avoid falling into the "spartan" category.

Astute viewers will note that this month features a new calendar. I decided that I was sick of simply copying and pasting the calendar off of the Rockies website and overlaying the opposing team's logo, so I took matters into my own hands. Opponent name and game time have been relocated to the bottom of the box to make room for the logo of the TV station it will be broadcast on. Also, the opposing team's logo has been reduced in size, to hopefully clean up the appearance of the entire calendar. And finally, I decided on a dual-row layout this time around, as the standard layout seemed to crowd the image too much. Let me know what you think, as I spent a good deal of time on this admittedly small, yet important, redesign.

And as always, please leave comments! I strive to make each one better than the last, and any constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

Go Rockies!

Let me know if you need a different resolution than the ones offered below, and I will be more than happy to make one for you :D .

"SQUARE" SCREEN

1600 x 1200 | 1400 x 1050 | 1280 x 960 | 1024 x 768 | 800 x 600

WIDESCREEN

1920 x 1200 | 1680x 1050 | 1440x 900

Leaving a Legacy

oo_nrb — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:54:50 -0000

First off, I know all of what I'm about to say pales in comparison to what happens on the field. I understand that. I just wanted to open up a discussion.

I took a trip to the Altar of the Purple on Monday to watch the Rockies play...er, take on...er, put up a valiant effort against...er, put on uniforms and go out onto a field against the Braves. A fun game - not only was it the first Rockies game for one of my rommmates, but my dad and brother got upgraded seats through my dad's company (Loaf and Jug) and got to sit 4 seats away from the Rockies dugout in the first row. All of that, and I got my "mini" trophy, which actually eclipses most of my desk decorations.

But I digress. While I was at Coors Field on this trip, I began thinking about certain things. The ballpark is beautiful, the team is (mostly) fun to watch, and it's all in all a great atmosphere.

So why does it feel like the Rockies are a minor-league club playing in a major-league ballpark?

I think it can be summed up in this: there is no sense of tradition at Coors Field. Sure there are all those baseballs crammed into the entryway at homeplate that list off the team's milestones, and sure, there's that big white flag-lookin' thing below our neon sign. But there's no real sense that Coors Field is a Rockies destination. It feels more along the lines of "the place where the Rockies play".

Through the magic of Photoshop, I have a few suggestions. Please throw your own in here, as well, as I'm rather curious if other fans feel the same way. Alright, first off...

General Qualms

Nooks and Crannies

Quiz time: Where is the Rockies 2007 NL Pennant? Easy one, it's above the video screen. How about the flag that says the same thing? Easy again, on the flagpole, near the left field foul pole. Alright, how about the Warren C. Giles trophy? Ah, a little tougher. It's in a display window over in the left field Buckaroos team shop (and it's unlabeled). How about #42 for Robinson? Pretty easy, on the RF wall, near the out-of-town scores. How about #57, for Darryl Kile? If you've been a fan long enough, you know it's above the Rockies bullpen. How about the recognition of all the Rockies feats over the years? They're lining the walls of the home plate entrance, of course. Find me where Larry Walker's batting title baseball is, then. That one is tough...you have to sift through every single one of the baseballs, which all look pretty much the same, to find the one you're looking for.

My point is this - a lot of things at Coors Field seem like they have been placed either arbitrarily or just "fit in" wherever there was space. They had to have somewhere to stick that pennant, so why not above the video board? Never mind that there's no room up there for more than one. Where should we stick #42? Oh, it'll look awesome right here. Where would we fit our next number? Ah, we'll worry about that later. Nothing seems to have been placed with anything specific plan in mind - things just happened, and there we go. It makes for a really awesome scavenger hunt, but if I was a visiting fan and I wanted to see the NL trophy, I'd have no idea it's in an unlabeled window out in left field.

Onto more specific things...

Retired Numbers

I know this has been brought up before, but it bears mentioning again. When Joe Sakic retires from the Avalanche (probably sooner rather than later), the Avs will have 2 numbers retired (technically 3, but I don't count Borque since he only had one year of service to the team). Assuming Sakic's number is retired, the Avs will have retired 2 numbers over the span of 12 (give or take) years. The Rockies, operating since 1993 (15 years now), will have retired 0. While I can appreciate the Denver Broncos approach (retired numbers must fall into "greatest of all time" category as to not loose their luster), the Broncos have something the Rockies don't, which is a fan base that has sold out their stadium since 1960. The Rockies fan base is disconnected from the ballclub, especially in recent years. A link to the past, like retiring a number, can provide to the fans a link to the team; if the older guy can support the younger guys, then why shouldn't I?

Besides, what a boon for ticket sales! Do you remember Patrick Roy night for the Avalanche when they hoisted his number to the rafters? It was the hottest ticket in town. The Rockies are perfectly capable of holding a "Larry Walker" night or a "Vinny Castilla" night (let's not get into the semantics of who deserves it right now) that would sell out the stadium. This is, of course, assuming they would do the ceremony right. Not 20 minutes before the game, with a 2 minute video tribute and that's it. It would have to be post-game, and probably built-up between innings. Win or lose, the ballclub, fans, and city of Denver would win that night.

But where do they go?

As I imagined seeing a number unveiled in the stadium, I realized a critical flaw in my plan - there's no space to actually retire a number in Coors Field. Jackie Robinson's 42 has some prime real estate next to the out-of-town scoreboard, and in fact, it's got the only real estate. If we retire numbers with the same size as Robinson's, our options as to where to actually put the numbers are limited. This will especially be true if we all the sudden start retiring numbers and take the NL Pennant approach of placing them where we have room. The numbers all belong together, and should all stay together. Here was a solution I thought up:

Click me for a picture!

Take Robinson's number and place it on a sturdy metal backing, and mount it on the edge of the seats. Do the same for subsequent numbers. Advantages? We can have close to 20% of the available numbers retired before we run out of space, and they're very visible. I also took the liberty of including a purple-backed number for Helton, more as a demonstration than what I want to happen. The black on purple is hard to see, I know, but I think that some distinction needs to be made between the players. Boston has it the most right, in my opinion - all the Red Sox numbers are in red, and in the signature Boston number font, while Robinson's is in Dodger blue and in the traditional block font he wore. If we must leave Robinson's the same, so be it, but then make the future ones noticeably "Colorado", and not just another number out there. Even keep the black on pinstripes, if we must. Change Robinson's to blue and blocky, then. Some way to show the difference between them. Years don't need to be on there, either (I think that drifts too much into hockey and basketball), I just included them to give a general idea.

Anyway, retired numbers, and where to stick them. Thoughts?

Celebrating What We've Earned

Pennants

I admit, I didn't like the pennant, and it's still taking a real hard time growing on me. But I can say one good thing for it, and that is that it is there. For some reason, our team insists on only celebrating the highest achievements. Against a great deal of odds in 1995, we won the National League Wild Card. An adornment for this accomplishment hung in left field, until it was taken down, presumably so the team doesn't celebrate mediocrity. Apparently, then, the team decided to forget that the 1995 ballclub was in 1st place in the NL West as late as Sept. 26th, lead the NL in hits (3rd overall), and lead the NL in home runs (2nd overall), all while giving Denver its first taste of professional playoff baseball. Why aren't we celebrating this? We all know the exploits of the 2007 squad, who were only a half a game away from the best record in the NL. Some may argue that recognition of the team's Wild Card win in 2007 is redundant, since we have an NL Pennant to trump it. But why not celebrate what we've done?

So many pennants, so little wallspace...

The main issue I have with our current pennant, aside from the fact that it looks like it was bought on the cheap, is that it is, like everything else, stuck in a nook. Where else are we going to hang our future (or past) pennants? If we win another NL championship, do we hang that one there and relegate the 2007 feat to a baseball in the entry hallway? Surely there has to be a more dignified way to do it. I found myself a little stumped with this one, here's what I came up with:

Click me to see

We're not doing anything with those square girder things out there, so why not make use of them? Mount the big NL one on the front corner of one, and make two smaller ones for the Wild Cards and place them on the other one. This is, however, a stop-gap measure, as there have to be better places to hang these things. Part of me really wants to make use of the girder space around the scoreboard, but if they were squeezed inbetween the ads, it'd look worse than it does now. I think that, if that were to happen, we'd have to get rid of one of the advertisers (or move their ad somewhere else), and use the space for the team. And I mean, really, if an advertiser raises a ruckus about being asked to move their ad so that the team can celebrate, should they really be one of our sponsors?

Memories

At US Cellular Field on the south side of Chicago, all of the blue seats were torn out and replaced with green seats, save for two. These two seats represented where balls landed that helped the White Sox win the 2005 World Series. Coors Field has a unique feature as well, the purple row, but the stadium has nothing similar to what exists in Chicago and other ballparks. The only thing that comes close is not even near Coors - in the parking lot for Invesco Field at Mile High, a marker is placed where the home plate inside the original Mile High Stadium was. Granted, the Rockies do not have very many walk-off World Series-winning home runs, but we have our share of memorable landings. Here are a couple of my suggestions, both coming from last year:

Click me, click me!

How about a marker that marks the spot where Holliday's triple to tie up game 163 landed? I'd say that, aside from Carroll's ball which landed in a glove, that ball is one of the most significant balls to ever have landed somewhere inside Coors Field. If not for Holliday hitting it there and Giles missing the grab, we probably wouldn't need to be talking about where to put a pennant. Why not commemorate what happened in one of the most memorable Rockies games of all time with something that will last forever? Something a parent can point out to their kid and say, "you know that video I showed you? That's where it landed."

Click for a present!

This one might not level up to the significance of winning a World Series, but I think it still deserves to be recognized. Helton's blast off of Saito to start the run last September is, aside from Holliday's slide to the plate, the defining moment of the 2007 season. One of, if not the most recognizable Rockie, who will more than likely have his number sitting next to Robinson's, sparkplugs the Rockies on a ride of a lifetime. The seat doesn't even have to be painted - maybe a small plaque on the seat. Maybe instead of a number on the back of the seat, make it a baseball. Something, anything.

It's little touches like these things that make a ballpark more than just a stadium, and turn it into more of a "home", for both the ballclub and the fans.

Alright, I think I've rambled on enough for you to see my point. I am very curious to see the thoughts of other Rockies fans, though. Do you think the team does enough to honor the past? Do you think the team should honor the past at all? I would love to hear your thoughts. Who knows? Maybe it'll make the time until the next first pitch pass a bit faster.

Oh, and as always, Go Rockies!

June Schedule Wallpaper! Futility Never Looked So Good!

oo_nrb — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:49:14 -0000

I kid, I kid. I love my boys in purple, and nothing, not even this horribly abysmal start to the 2008 season, will rattle me off the wagon.

Apologies to everyone who waited with bated breath for the May edition - as I said, finals got the best of me, and then once those were finished, I got halfway done with the wallpaper...before I had to move apartments and train for a new job. However, your moment of vindication is here! ...because, technically, the June edition is the May edition with a different calendar. But it is here and done, now, for all to enjoy!

Before we get to the wallpaper, I have to insert a couple of quick apologies. First, to any widescreen 1920 x 1200 users, I apologize: your wallpaper is at a slightly lower quality than the others. The reason for this is because, for various reasons, I ended up using the 1680 x 1050 version as my "master", rather than the 1920 x 1200. The result is that the bigger one is a blown-up version of the smaller one, rather than an original and a shrunken copy. Second, my apologies to users of the 1600 x 1200 "square" wallpaper, as your flag picture is a slightly lower quality than the other flag pictures. It turns out that the original picture I snapped at Coors Field was only 1100 pixels high, so I had to stretch it up a bit to get it to fill the screen. The result is that it is of a lower quality, but in my opinion, it's not really noticeable.

And now, without further adieu, the wallpaper! As always, below are very low-quality JPEG previews, and the resolution options are listed below them. These will link you to very high-quality BMP files, which will take forever to download. It'll be worth it in the end, but please be patient. If you have a particularly wonky resolution, leave me a comment and let me know, and I'll bake up a special one just for you.

And as always, please leave comments! I strive to make each one better than the last, and any constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

Go Rockies!

EDIT >>> In order to actually see the Widescreen preview, you need to switch your Purple Row viewing mode to "Wide mode". On the homepage, this option is right underneath the Purple Row logo in the upper-left.

"SQUARE" SCREEN

1600 x 1200 | 1400 x 1050 | 1280 x 960 | 1024 x 768 | 800 x 600

WIDESCREEN

1920 x 1200 | 1680x 1050 | 1440x 900

The Rocky Rockie Road

oo_nrb — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:28:09 -0000

I took a trip to Coors Field recently to watch the much-heralded match-up of Esteban Loaiza vs. Jorge De La Rosa. While I was there, I decided that it was probably a good idea to snap some photos of my own; now I can quit "borrowing" other people's photos for the schedule wallpaper :) . Speaking of, I should have the May edition up by the end of the week; I apologize for the delay, but Finals/papers/projects had to take precedence over other things. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos I took, and don't be surprised if you see some again by the end of the week :)

via img.photobucket.com

I thought this was pretty cool; sometime between the Opening Weekend and now they added these markers to the upper deck concourse, marking 1 mile above sea level. Here's a wider shot:

via img.photobucket.com

When I first saw it, it underwhelmed me a lot, but it's growing on me. Looks right pretty up there :) .

via img.photobucket.com

Snagged this off the intro video on the jumbotron.

via img.photobucket.com

Check out De La Rosa's ERA. I took this a bit too late, so I couldn't catch it when his ERA was 108.00. The first inning wasn't good.

via img.photobucket.com

The view from my seats.

via img.photobucket.com

Check it out, the random truck now has a distance behind it. I thought it was cool.

via img.photobucket.com

The Purple Row.

via img.photobucket.com

And finally the Coors Field entrance sign.

Wow, Barmes is looking good...

oo_nrb — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:16:05 -0000

(Go to Google and run an image search for "Clint Barmes". Trust me on this.)

Looks like he's been working out a bit, what does everyone here think? Looks like he's been spending some time tanning as well. I don't see a glove or bat, though, and no uniform, so it must've been well before practice started. Quite a following that he's generating, though, judging by the crowd behind him!

Threads of the Game

oo_nrb — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:17:21 -0000

(not to be confused with Game Threads, of course).

Rockies-Related Frivolities, Part II
(for Part I, see You call THAT an outfield?)

Well, I've had this data sitting on my computer for a long while now, and I figured that now would be as good a time as any to dust it off and do something with it. Below, I've listed all of our 163 regular season games from the 2007 season, along with our opponent, whether we won or lost, and, most importantly, which jersey kit we wore that game. Before we get into the nitty-gritty, a caveat: these are based off of our jersey tops, of which there are 5; getting into tops combined with bottoms combined with hats is just asking to be more trouble than it's worth. To make sure everyone is on the same page, here are illustrations of our jerseys:

When I say "Home", I am talking about this jersey:

When I say "Road", it is this one:

And now for the alternates. This is the "Purple" jersey, as I'm sure you might've guessed:

This is the "Black Vest", though nowadays it's a lot more common for us to be wearing it with a black undershirt:

And finally, our "White Vest" uniform:

(and before we go any further, a huge thank you to SportsLogos.net which, when it's up, is the best logo site on the internet, bar none.)

So now that we're all on the same page, it's time to get to some dissectin'. Here are the game tables, which I've screen-capped from Excel and put into image format, as to keep all the table-colors in place. See if you can spot some trends...

It's a lot of colors, I know, but a fair amount of things stand out (at least, to me they do). Let me break it down for you:

Jersey Records
Home: 2-6 (.250), 8 games total
Road: 10-10 (.500), 20 games total
Purple: 28-18 (.608), 46 games total
Black Vest: 28-27 (.509), 55 games total
White Vest: 22-14 (.647), 34 games total

Those are the totals for the entire season. Among the 3 alternates, which we wore a lot more than the regulars, we played a fair amount better in our White Vests and Purples, but were still 1 game over .500 in our Blacks. I took these stats and then broke them down again, this time by how often we wore each kit both at home and on the road:

Jersey Appearances
Home: 8 home, 0 road
Road: 0 home, 20 road
Purple: 20 home, 26 road
Black Vest: 20 home, 35 road
White Vest: 34 home, 0 road

That surprised me a fair amount, I must say. I didn't expect to see that we only wore our White Vests at home, and that the home appearances of the other two alternates would be evenly split.

Of course, we all know that the big hullabaloo towards the end of the season last year was that we wouldn't change out of a winning jersey. Arizona tried to capitalize on this in the NLCS by wearing their black kit and forcing us into a different color than our "lucky" blacks. Well, obviously, it didn't work (for the NLCS, at least). However, it turns out the team is a bit superstitious about their jerseys. In all, the jersey was changed after 55 losses; only 18 losses went without a change in the jersey. Sometimes, as can be seen during the 22nd-27th of June, jersey changes happened continually until the team found something that worked (that stretch of 6 games, by the way, ties the longest stretch of a different jersey for each game all season. The 16th-21st of August also featured 6 games with different colored Rockies each night).

6 also seems to be the important number when looking at consecutive games with the same jersey worn.

Consecutive Appearances
Home: 2 (May 10-11, Sept 15-16)
Road: 6 (Sept 21-27)
Purple: 6 (May 25-30)
Black Vest: 5 (Sept 9-13)
White Vest: 6 (July 2-8)

Of course, now I know you're asking yourself what the longest stretch in between wearings of each jersey is. To save you the grunt work...

Longest Absences
Home: 92 (!!!) (June 2-Sept 14)
Road: 27 (Aug 19-21 Sept)
Purple: 28 (Sept 2-Oct 1)
Black Vest: 14 (Sept 13-29)
White Vest: 24 (June 6-July 1)

Now, to finish this one off, here are some interesting things I noticed:

* Over 10 home games from July 2-26, we only wore our White Vest kit.
* The 17th and 29th of each month were nearly always Purple days. 4 out of 6 of the games on those days were played in Purple.
* From the 23rd-26th of both July and August, we only wore our White Vests.
* Similarly, from the 2nd-5th of both August and September, we only wore our Black Vests.
* The 21st and 22nd of May, June, July, and August were played in Black Vests.
* 5 out of the 6 last days of a month were in Black Vests; all but June 30th at Houston.
* Except for April 7th, the 7th of each month was "sleeveless"; each of the 7th's in the last 5 months saw a vest of some kind.

And, as a final note, we have yet to wear our Purple jerseys in the 2008 season, meaning that we haven't seen it in regular season action going back 36 games now.

My (actual) 2008 Opening Day

oo_nrb — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 04:12:53 -0000

Quoth the Squeaky...

"Lame festivities. Lame game. I feel completely ripped off. Urk. Ridunkalous."

That about sums it up. I know that part of it was the fact that the game didn't turn out nearly as well as anyone wanted, but I do feel slightly...well, slighted by the Bros. Monfort after the game today. It really didn't seem like anyone was on their "A" game for welcoming the defending NL Champions back to Colorado. Let's see...

-A very nice tribute to Bob Howsam turned out rather lame. It was well before game time when the stadium was about 1/4 full, had no moment of silence, and it just felt rather forced. Without this man, there would be no baseball in Denver, and they couldn't even afford to run spell-check on their screens... "Cincinnati" was misspelled.

-The in-game tribute to a member of the Rockies organization was very poignant, and was well-executed, as was Joe Kennedy's family performing the first pitch ceremony. One of the few things done right this time.

-The Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force brought flags out onto the field. As they did that, the Army, Navy, and...Coast Guard songs played through the loudspeakers. They started playing the songs late, so they didn't even get to the Air Force song, even though that was the branch that got the loudest applause.

-I don't know how Reed Saunders managed to get chosen as the new Rockies PA Announcer, but he really needs to go. Anything he says that's not a player introduction just puts people to sleep, and the player names are so out of character when compared to the rest of what he says, it's just distracting.

-The team introductions took a very long time, and you could tell the team was just going through the motions. No one had any enthusiasm. Maybe that's because they never showed the NL Championship trophy, which was sitting on a pedestal near the team's line-up, on the jumbotron. Took me a while to identify what that shiny thing was from the top deck.

-The radar gun and pitch type didn't start working until at least the 5th inning.

-Along those same lines, at the end of the game, the typical screen that displayed winning pitcher, losing pitcher, time of game, and attendance was...not working...I'm not sure what the deal was there, but someone really dropped the ball. Reed had to announce it all.

-The team tried a new gimmick, where three people made hotdogs and were judged on how creatively they spread mustard on the table. You couldn't tell what you were looking at when they showed it on the jumbotron, and the whole thing was a mess.

These were a few things that stuck out in my mind...everything just seemed very unprepared. Not to mention the things that have already been mentioned here, such as like the team waiting until Saturday to do the pennant and Sunday to do the rings. I wonder if this is their way of trying to make up for forcing early buyers to purchase 2-game packs. I just really hope the replica NL pennant giveaway is cool...

Anyway, I guess you could just say that there wasn't really anything that made this feel like an "Opening Day". It just felt like a regular day at the ballpark, and I'm kinda sad that I decided to miss a day of classes for it. Granted, the worst day at Coors is better than the best day in classes, but everything was still lacking...that something special.

Also, I was down by the scoreboard before the 5th inning, but I couldn't find anyone (I doubt anyone could find anyone...the entire RF 3rd deck relocated to the concourse, and you couldn't move at all. I actually was stuck not moving for so long that I managed to get a small bit of sunburn.

Anyway, now that I've had my little yelling time, what did anyone else think?

April 2008 Schedule Wallpaper! No Foolin'!

oo_nrb — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:31:02 -0000

Just in time for... * cough * Opening Day, here it is!

It took me a little while to fine-tune things this time around, but I suppose it's a good thing; I was able to move 3/31's game to 4/1 without too much trouble. I spent a good deal more time on this wallpaper than I have in the past (about twice as long), however it still didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it to. The scoreboard is just full of holes (the actual thing as well as the workmanship), and the NL trophy is a bit pixelated. However, I was rather happy with the way the Purple Row ad turned out.

Just a warning - the calendar is vertical. I know, it's odd...but it was the only way I could really get it to fit. Our scoreboard is just so darned huge, it's hard to fit anything else next to it! The only differences between the "standard" and "widescreen" versions this time around are the "april 2008" labels and the frame of the scoreboard (more is visible in the widescreen).

As always, please leave me lots of comments and critiques, and I'll work suggestions in for next month. Also, I promise to do a player image next month (I tend to stray away from them, cause they're really hard to get right), but I have a neat idea that I want to try out; so, be considering who you would like to see grace your May desktop, and I'll have a FanPost up circa the Phillies series to get suggestions.

And, as usual, the previews are in low-quality JPEG, so don't base quality of the big ones off of those. The big ones take a looong time to download, so please be patient. Also, if you have a wonky resolution that's not represented below, let me know and I'll bake up a special one just for you.

Have a great April, and Go Rockies!

STANDARD

1600 x 1200
1400 x 1050
1280 x 960
1024 x 768
800 x 600

WIDESCREEN

1920 x 1200
1680 x 1050
1440 x 900