Coors Field once had a reputation as a home run-friendly park that at one point, arguably, equaled Chicago's venerable Wrigley Field, and earned it the nickname "Coors Canaveral" among critics (a reference to Cape Canaveral, from where NASA launches spacecraft). Before the introduction in 2002 of a large humidor used for baseball storage, Denver's dry air tended to dry out baseballs, which made the balls harder and caused them to travel farther. In addition, the curveball tends to curve less with the thin air than at sea level leading to fewer strikeouts and fewer effective pitches for pitchers to work with.