Sports & Recreation >>

• Best Guess for When the Colorado Rockies Will Return to the World Series
  2009
  In spite of the cohesion, the positive attitude and the talent, the Colorado Rockies will suffer from a 2007 playoff hangover in 2008. But in 2009, with several of the core pitchers and position players now signed to multi-year deals — and Matt Holliday playing for big bucks and a new... More >>
• Best Av
  Paul Stastny
  Colorado hockey lovers were in a state of bliss when the Avalanche brought back icons Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote earlier this year. But because of their age, not to mention Forsberg's physical condition, neither can be considered long-term solutions for what ails the team — a fact... More >>
• Best Mammoth
  Dan Carey
  The pride of Buffalo, New York's modest Canisius College, forward Dan Carey has played in the National Lacrosse League for three years, and he's made the all-star game three times — an indication of his offensive dominance. In 2006, the Mammoth won the NLL championship, but the team... More >>
• Best Rapid
  Christian Gomez
  For years, Argentina-born Christian Gomez anchored DC United, one of Major League Soccer's premier franchises; the crew earned the MLS Supporters' Shield for best regular-season record in both 2006 and 2007. Since the Rapids haven't performed at a comparable level this millennium, they clearly... More >>
• Best Crush
  John Elway
  The Crush boasts a seasoned quarterback, John Dutton, and a corps of effective receivers, including Brad Pyatt, a University of Northern Colorado product who's returned to the state where he got his start. Still, the reason for the organization's popularity remains a man who hasn't played a down... More >>
• Best Sports Team — Professional
  Colorado Rockies
  Could it be anything else? Early in the 2007 campaign, after the Rox lost a series to the woeful Kansas City Royals (at home, no less), at least one website demanded that owners Charlie and Dick Monfort sell the franchise to someone who might actually invest in making the team better. But then... More >>
• Best Sports Team — College
  Air Force Academy Falcons Football
  The Falcons seemed sure to take a dip in 2007 thanks to turmoil at the top: Fisher DeBerry, who made headlines two years earlier after suggesting that a bowl-game loss could be traced to AFA's dearth of "Afro-American players," stepped down before the season started, ending a 23-year run as head... More >>
• Best Coach — Professional (2 Comments)
  Clint Hurdle
  Colorado Rockies
  In April 2007, when Clint Hurdle received a two-year contract extension, a significant portion of the Rockies nation was agog. In most major-league cities, doubters argued, a skipper with a putrid .447 winning percentage would have been given the heave-ho, not guaranteed employment for two more... More >>
• Best Coach — College
  Kathy McConnell-Miller
  University of Colorado Women's Basketball
  Kathy McConnell-Miller faced a tough task when she took over as the Lady Buffs' coach in 2005. Not only did she have to replace legendary predecessor Ceal Barry, but from a talent standpoint, the cupboard was bare. During the three seasons since then, however, the team has improved from... More >>
• Best Sports Announcer (1 Comment)
  Drew Goodman
  FSN Rocky Mountain
  Drew Goodman has been a reliable play-by-play man for ages, but he really proved his value during the Colorado Rockies' 2007 season. When the team started off poorly, he kept things in perspective without ever turning into a paid apologist — a skill he honed as a witness to years of... More >>
• Best Moment in Denver Sports
  Rockies Win the Pennant
  Starting on September 15, 2007, the Colorado Rockies took 21 of 22 games, going on the greatest winning streak of any team to get into the World Series. Four games back in the Wild Card race, they steamrolled the Dodgers; humiliated the Padres in a game that included the second-best moment in... More >>
• Best College Basketball Celebrities
  Brittany Spears and Whitney Houston
  University of Colorado Women's Basketball
  The combination of singers Britney Spears and Whitney Houston sounds nightmarish, given that both performers have turned into walking/talking versions of E! True Hollywood Story. But the basketballing Spears and Houston make a much more effective pair, with Brittany, a freshman, ending the... More >>
• Best Mascot
  Ralphie
  She's outlasted two head coaches and hordes of players. She's seen bowl games and busted seasons. And now she's getting close to retirement. Ralphie IV, the University of Colorado's live buffalo mascot won't run with the football team this year (except for special appearances); she'll be... More >>
• Best Place to Spot a Starting Nugget
  Blue Ice
  On hip-hop nights, there's a line out the door at Blue Ice, and people pack the dance floor. But in the back, behind the cloth screens, you can usually find a Nugget or two chilling, sipping expensive champagne and macking on hotties. Big man Marcus Camby frequents the spot, and Kenyon Martin... More >>
• Best Place to Spot a Second-String Nugget
  Purple Martini-DTC
  There's a lot of electricity at Purple Martini's south location, and we're not just talking about the night a Greenwood Village police officer tasered former Nuggets bench-warmer DerMarr Johnson. "Purple," as the cool kids call it (also known as "Second Stringers"), is a top spot to watch backup... More >>
• Best Place to Score an Elway Bobblehead
  Elway's Downtown
  The new Elway's at the Ritz-Carlton is such a great people-watching spot that your neck will hurt after a few drinks at the bar, but that's far from the only head-bobbling going on. The steakhouse also has "a roomful" of real bobbleheads featuring its namesake, retired Bronco legend John Elway,... More >>
• Best Place to Score in Glendale
  Infinity Park
  It seems like every other whistle-stop on the map needs some claim to fame these days, but we're glad that the hamlet of Glendale chose rugby for its raison d'être when it could just as easily have hyped its strip clubs and sex-toy stores. SuperTarget, move over: State-of-the-art Infinity... More >>
• Best Pilates (1 Comment)
  Pilates of Cherry Creek
  Pilates of Cherry Creek wins big by keeping it small. Mother and daughter Hope and Jolie Petrine — both of whom came to the world of Pilates through dance — opened their small studio in 2001, offering one-on-one training sessions. As their popularity grew, so did their studio, but... More >>
• Best New Sport
  Recreational Tree Climbing
  After "Ponderosa" Harv Teitelbaum saw an arborist on television talking about a new sport he'd just invented — recreational tree climbing — his life was never the same. Recreational tree climbing uses a harness, arborist rope and special techniques to safely climb into trees.... More >>
• Best New Ski Lift (2 Comments)
  Panoramic Express
  Winter Park Resort
  When Winter Park opened its Parsenn Bowl, it introduced skiers to miles of great new runs and untracked tree skiing — but also the sort of lines it hadn’t seen in decades, since there was only one very slow, two-person chair taking you to the top. But all that ended this year when the resort... More >>
• Best New Ski Lift
  Panoramic Express
  When Winter Park opened its Parsenn Bowl, it introduced skiers to miles of great new runs and untracked tree skiing — but also the sort of lines it hadn't seen in decades, since there was only one very slow, two-person chair taking you to the top. But all that ended this year when the... More >>
• Best Old Ski Lift
  The Ski Train
  Between increasingly heavy traffic and Texans who'll never learn how to maneuver in snow, the drive up I-70 has become a double diamond, the toughest run you might make all day. All aboard the Ski Train! This Denver tradition got its start generations ago, when kids in the Eskimo Ski Club met up... More >>
• Best Sports Statistic
  .98925
  In baseball, they call it "strength up the middle." The term refers to a team whose second baseman/shortstop combo gains a reputation for vacuuming up everything that comes its way. And last season, the Colorado Rockies were strong up the middle and everywhere else, making .98925 percent of... More >>
• Best New Ski Terrain
  Montezuma Bowl
  Granted, Arapahoe Basin is still teeny tiny compared to its sisters in the Vail Resorts umbrella. But this season marked the largest expansion of its sixty-year existence. With 400 acres and 36 blue, black and double-black runs, the opening of Montezuma Bowl made the ski area 80 percent bigger.... More >>
• Best Ski Deal
  Monarch Season Pass
  Season ski passes are only as good as you make them. You have to use them to get your money's worth, and the newest mountain pass is no exception. At first it might seem silly for someone in Denver to consider buying a season pass to Monarch Mountain — nearly 140 miles away — but... More >>
• Best Escape From I-70
  Colorado 9 to U.S. 285
  Not that there's ever a good year for driving I-70 to and from the mountains, but this seems to be an exceptionally bad one. Either the traffic is stop-and-go, cars are sliding backward on the ice coating the uphill stretch from Silverthorne to the Eisenhower Tunnel, or the road is shut down... More >>
• Best Locals' Mountain
  Loveland Ski Area
  There are no hotels here. No jewelry stores, no $10 hamburgers. You don't have to pay to park, and you don't see many Texans on the hill. Most of the people who ski and ride "Lovie" do it with pride, a great deal of them professing their affection with bumperstickers. Sure, it's windy and the... More >>
• Best Mountaineering Without the Bottled Oxygen
  The Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum
  It might have taken a while to get it, but the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum, which opened in Golden in February, was worth the wait. This is no mere exhibition hall; the cutting-edge, 3,000-square-foot facility, a joint venture of the Colorado Mountain Club, the American... More >>
• Best Early-Riser Resort Special
  Beeline Advantage at Copper Mountain
  If you're already the kind of skier who wakes up before sunrise to beat traffic and be the first in line for the yet-unopened lifts, this deal might be worth a shot. For an extra $20 a day above your lift-ticket price, or in addition to your season pass, you can load the American Eagle lift... More >>
• Best Beach
  Arapahoe Basin
  Who needs sand and water when you've got snow and sunshine? The Beach at A-Basin is simply the place where snow meets parking lot, but it's become a legend in its own right. In years gone by, it was a venue for wild parties as people camped and tailgated overnight to get first tracks in the... More >>
• Best Cure for Cabin Fever
  The Island
  There comes a time every winter when you reach the brink of madness. You've had enough of snow sports and snow in general, and you just want to put on shorts and play in the sand. A trip to The Island is what you need. With year-round indoor sand volleyball, it's as close to summer as anything... More >>
• Best Skatepark (1 Comment)
  Pioneer Park
  Skateboarders weren't expecting much from Commerce City when it announced plans to build a new concrete skatepark. After all, bigger metro-area cities have consistently blown good intentions (and public funds) by relying on non-skateboarding landscape architects who produced designs that... More >>
• Best Place to Play Pool
  Pair-o-Dice Poolroom
  When the Skylark Lounge relocated three years ago from much smaller digs nearby, it had a lot of space to fill. So in August 2006, the club cued up its super-deluxe Pair-o-Dice Poolroom with four pool tables and pinball machines. The upstairs hall, which is open Thursdays through Saturdays from... More >>
• Best Nostalgic Sports Signing
  Peter Forsberg
  In the course of one week, the Rockies re-signed former fan favorite Neifi Perez, the team's shortstop from 1996 to 2001, and the Avalanche brought back Adam Foote and Peter Forsberg. All inspire good memories for sports fans, but the Forsberg deal was clearly the best. Not only is Foppa, who... More >>
• Best Place to Flip Out
  The Front Porch
  The Front Porch has totally flipped! For starters, the bar hosts Flip Cup tournaments on the first Tuesday of each month. For those who've never played — or for those who've played but were too drunk to remember the specifics — Flip Cup involves two teams of up to five players; the... More >>
• Best New Bowling Alley
  The Falcon
  Bowling is the rock and roll of sports. It's loud, unabashedly rough around the edges and involves embarrassing fashion choices. It seemed like the perfect match, then, when the fading Sport Bowl Lanes & Billiards on South Broadway was snatched up last August by Steve Schalk, owner of the... More >>
• Best Old Bowling Alley
  Wheat Ridge Lanes
  Wheat Ridge Lanes caters almost exclusively to league players during the week, but on Friday and Saturday nights, anyone can enjoy open bowling and $6 pitchers of Bud poured from the bar. And not just any bar: This one is called Ye Olde Country Club, and while it is indeed olde, it doesn't look... More >>
• Best Resource for Foosball Players
  www.coloradofoosball.com
  There's a foosball tournament somewhere in the Denver metro area almost every night. For example, on Mondays you can get your foos on at the Colorado Cue Club in Northglenn; on Tuesdays, it's the Attic in Boulder. The list goes on, and the tournaments are easy to find thanks to... More >>
• Best Roshambo Tournament
  Wahoo's Uptown
  Rock-paper-scissors is the ultimate way to end any dispute. If the formula were applied to our issues in Iraq, world peace could be achieved by 2009. Or maybe not. Still, it's fun to play, and this year's Roshambo competition at Wahoo's Uptown had the additional benefit of raising money for the... More >>
• Best Party Bus
  Rocky Mountain Rollergirls
  The Rocky Mountain Rollergirls have come a long way since their 2004 debut. The league is now nationally ranked and has a substantial fan base. Of course, they're awesome on skates, but let's give credit where it's due: These girls have a totally killer party bus. The Roller Derby Party Bus... More >>
• Best Roller Derby Book
  Roller Derby: The History and All-Girl Revival of the Greatest Sport on Wheels
  Rocky Mountain Rollergirls co-founder Catherine Mabe, aka Jayne Manslaughter, loves roller derby so much that she had to write a book about it. And you can sense her enthusiasm throughout Roller Derby as she traces the sport from its earliest days to its modern revival. Although Mabe has moved... More >>
• Best Worldwide Resource for Video Games (1 Comment)
  www.kotaku.com
  Video games are quickly ascending to a place of cultural dominance, joining movies and music in terms of earning power and cultural cachet. One of the biggest and best websites covering this transformation is Denver-based www.kotaku.com, which includes live coverage of key events, such as the... More >>
• Best Place to Get in Touch With Your Inner Dork
  Black and Read, Inc.
  Alongside the incredible selection of books and records at Black and Read, nestled next to the science-fiction paperbacks like some fantastic dragon hoard spilling over with powerful artifacts and fabulous jewels, is the most impressive collection of role-playing games and accessories most... More >>
• Best Temporary Legalized Gambling
  Feast of St. Rocco
  The story goes like this: Rocco was a French pilgrim who traveled around northern Italy during the Middle Ages, risking plague-ridden towns to care for the ill. He eventually became the patron saint of pestilence, and the Potenza Lodge has honored him annually for more than sixty years at the... More >>
• Best Example of the Rockies' Off-the-Field Chutzpah
  "Rocktober"
  A lot of us got carried away when the Rockies temporarily entered the can't-lose zone last fall, including the folks in the team's marketing office, who announced their intention to trademark the term "Rocktober" to commemorate the playoff run. Apparently, they forgot that both Denver dailies... More >>
• Best Place to Feel Like a Pro
  Center Court at Gates Tennis Center
  Like a lot of sports, tennis is played better with an audience: You don't let your feet get lazy or stick to safe shots when people are watching. You want them to see you ace your serves and charge the net on returns. But unless you're Roger Federer, your matches aren't likely to draw a crowd.... More >>
• Best Rockies Song
  Kaz Matsui
  "It's Tricky"
  Like many other teams, the Colorado Rockies pump a song over the loudspeakers every time a player comes to bat. The tunes are chosen by the ballers themselves, and second baseman Kaz Matsui clearly took home the Most Valuable Song trophy in 2007 for his selection of Run-D.M.C.'s "It's Tricky."... More >>
• Best Pro Shop
  Positive Strokes for Women
  Ann Slocomb sees tennis not merely as recreation, but rather as a healthy form of mind-body gestalt, something like life itself. So she opened Positive Strokes for Women, a tennis shop and wellness center that caters to the fairer sex. Here you can not only work on your serve, visit an in-house... More >>
• Best Zoo Baby
  Golden Lion Tamarins
  Keyo the baby zebra was special and the snow leopard was certainly cute, but the two sets of golden lion tamarins were clearly the best Denver Zoo babies, for a couple of reasons. First, they are soooo cute, and the parents, Rosy and Simao, look like fuzzy three-headed monkeys as they move... More >>
• Best Place to Play With the Big Boys
  Dig This Heavy Equipment Play Arena
  Take a good look around you, gals: Little boys never truly grow up. Sure, they morph and mutate, but in the end, they all still want to play with big trucks. New Zealander Ed Mumm of Steamboat Springs wasn't any different, but he turned his stunted childhood fantasy into a big idea, opening what... More >>
• Best Sunday Afternoon Bike Ride Destination
  Heron Pond
  Tucked behind an old water-treatment plant (now Northside Park) and a recycling plant, quiet Heron Pond is the perfect place for solitude and stellar bird watching. Located on the South Platte River Greenway going north from downtown, the park is home to a huge variety of birds, including... More >>
• Best After-Work Hike
  Alderfer/Three Sisters Park
  Hikes need not be relegated to weekends and vacations. What better way to de-stress after a long workday than by taking in a sunset on a brisk scenic walk? Alderfer/Three Sisters Park is close enough to get to in forty minutes and far enough to feel like an escape from the city. Part of the... More >>
• Best Trick-or-Treating
  Seventh Avenue Parkway between University and Colorado
  A good night of trick or treating requires several things: closely-spaced homes that cut down on walking and result in more candy gained; good lighting, but not too good; some large, well-decorated spooky houses; a safe neighborhood; and, most important, wealthy homeowners who give out the good... More >>
• Best Mile-High Hunt
  Mile High Amazing Race
  The second annual Mile High Amazing Race is scheduled for Saturday, May 17, in downtown Denver, which should give you enough time to gather your team of four and prepare for the adventure. For $55 a person (which, incidentally, counts as a tax-deductible contribution to the Leukemia &... More >>
• Best Easter Egg Hunt
  Colorado's Largest Easter Egg Hunt
  Because Copper Mountain hides more than 50,000 Easter eggs throughout the Village and the mountain, other hunts don't stand a chance when it comes to sheer scale. But since there are 50,000 eggs, the kids can't possibly gather all of them...right? That's why Copper holds specialized hunts for... More >>
• Best Special-Needs Ballpark
  Jason Jennings Sports Made Possible Field
  Pitcher Jason Jennings is no longer a member of the Colorado Rockies — he's currently hurling for the Texas Rangers — but he left behind a tremendous gift for baseball fans facing physical challenges. The Jason Jennings Sports Made Possible Field features rubberized surfaces that... More >>
• Best Rockies Souvenir
  Rockies Muerto
  The Rockies' startling, exhilarating run to the World Series may have caught the baseball world by surprise, but souvenir-makers took it in stride, cranking out merchandise and memorabilia by the truckload. T-shirts, hoodies, baseballs, flags, pennants, mugs, pins and programs were just the... More >>
• Best Rooftop Garden
  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  No raggedy pots of geraniums here. The showcase "green roof" on the EPA's new regional headquarters is a tri-level, 20,000-square-foot spread of grasses, perennials and groundcover designed to absorb carbon dioxide, reduce stormwater runoff and battle the heat-island effect of asphalt-encased... More >>
• Best Mini-Vacation
  Colorado Chautauqua Cottages
  Mostly built in the 1920s and '30s, the cottages that dot Boulder's Colorado Chautauqua grounds are a reminder of why Chautauqua was built in the first place. Designed in 1898 as an educational and communal summer respite, it was originally a place where folks could participate in the national... More >>
• Best Name Change (1 Comment)
  Elitch Gardens
  Old-time Denverites never quite sidled up to the idea of "Six Flags" Elitch Gardens. While it might not have made a difference to the typical thrill-seeking park-goer, anyone who remembers the real Elitch Gardens that once thrived near the now-redeveloped intersection of 38th Avenue and Tennyson... More >>
• Best American Graffiti Remake (1 Comment)
  Super Cruise Nights
  South Golden Road
  Hot rod culture lives in Golden! From May until October, every first Saturday of the month, classic-car enthusiasts and John Milner wannabes roll up their sleeves and rev up their old cherry wheels to cruise up and down Golden Road. The action begins at 6 p.m. near an overcrowded Sonic Drive-In... More >>
• Best Rockie
  Troy Tulowitzki
  Matt Holliday had better numbers, but there is no denying the hold that shortstop Troy Tulowitzki had on the city last season. From his early, I-don't-play-on-losing-teams clubhouse speech to the chants of Tu-lo! that shook Coors Field long into October, the rookie Rockie left an indelible... More >>
• Best Nugget
  Eduardo Najera
  Yeah, we know: The Nuggets would be nowhere without Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson and so on. But we also realize that the team would be in a much better playoff position if everyone on the squad exhibited the passion and heart of Eduardo Najera. Although he's not as naturally gifted as many, if... More >>
• Best Bronco
  Champ Bailey
  During their glory days, the Broncos had plenty of players who were arguably the finest at their position in the NFL. Now they've got just one: Champ Bailey. Because of the Broncs' erratic, all-too-often anemic pass rush last season, the appropriately named Champ didn't rack up the interceptions... More >>