SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Bud Black knows all about the demoralizing impact of hostile atmospheric conditions on baseball players. When he arrived in San Diego to manage the Padres in 2007, the outfield fences were deeper, and hitters from Adrian Gonzalez to Brian Giles had to live with the reality that some well-struck fly balls were going to die at the warning track amid the damp and heavy coastal air.
A decade later, Black isn't about to be cowed by the pitcher-related fatalism that's come to define Coors Field. He has 5,280 reasons to expect glitches in his first year as the Colorado Rockies' manager, but the team motto might as well be, "Altitude, schmaltitude.