The Rockies have never felt more hopeless than they do at this moment

I didn’t think it was possible for the Rockies to get a rise out of me. Apathetic would best describe my feelings towards the Rox.

But, somehow the unimaginable happened this week. The Rockies and their cheerleading, state-sponsored media ticked me off.

It started last Sunday in the Denver Post when Patrick Saunders wrote a column about his perceived negativity when it comes to covering the Rockies. I respect the heck out of Patrick. He’s a good baseball writer who is beyond fair when it comes to commenting on the Rockies. So when he shared stories of fans getting on him for “ripping” the Rockies and bringing up Kris Bryant’s massive contract when talking about his injuries as being unfair, I started to boil.

Then, the powder keg exploded when Jo Ann Allen wrote an opinion piece in the same Denver Post. She wrote “so what if the baseball gods haven’t smiled down and granted Colorado a winning season lately? The faithful know it’s not always about that.”

This was followed by “it’s about coming together to enjoy a sport that’s a lot less raucous than testosterone-driven football, basketball and hockey. No shade… just the truth.”

By this point, I’m thinking this is a satire piece by Allen and I quickly scanned to the bottom of the article to find the punch line. There wasn’t one.

I literally smacked my palm to my forehead emoji-style.

It would be one thing if this was just isolated ridiculousness. But it’s not.

The fans continue to come out to Coors Field in droves. The Rockies will once again be in the top 10 in Major League Baseball home attendance. They are drawing more fans per game than a Boston Red Sox franchise that has won four World Series titles this century.

In Boston, fans get upset and stay away from the park when the team is playing poorly. Here, there are no consequences for being in last place.

It is bizarre considering that if the Avs, Nuggets or Broncos put out a lousy product, the fans let them know about it. But not the Rox. That mystifies me. The same people who are fans of those other teams are also Rockies fans but the free passes keep getting handed out.

I don’t get it!

Sure, going to a Rockies game is fun. My son wanted to go to an afternoon game against the White Sox a couple of weeks ago. There’s no way I’m saying no to my 15-year old son who wants to hang out with his dad at a ballgame. Talk about counting my blessings! But that was one game. That is the only game I’ve been to this year.

If the Rox were in playoff contention, I’d have been to 10 games already. Aren’t there more of you out there like me? Aren’t you waging some sort of protest? Why isn’t it making more of an impact?

I know the answers to my own questions. All it takes is people to decide to go to a couple of games just for the fun of it and already the Rockies are well ahead of other teams’ efforts to draw fans to the ballpark. Add in all the transplants who live here and come out to watch the visiting teams and voila!; you have a thriving business.

And that’s what frustrates me. There is absolutely no incentive for owner Dick Montfort to change anything. He has the golden egg.

The business of the Rockies couldn’t be better. The ballpark is the star and the ballpark experience matched with catering embarrassingly to opposing fans is bulletproof. There’s no incentive to demand winning. That’s why the Rockies play at Stand Pat and Blake.

There’s no need to shake up the front office. No need to fire the manager. No need to demand accountability. No need to make trades. Just surround yourself with loyal “yes men” and “yes women” and count your millions.

Call me old school, but this is professional sports. These guys are paid to go out and perform and win. The team doesn’t hesitate to charge big money for tickets, parking, overpriced beer and overpriced food. It should be part of the arrangement that in exchange for charging these prices the least the consumer can expect is a winning team – or, at the minimum, a legitimate effort to be a winning team.

As that relentlessly negative Saunders points out, the Rockies have never won the division in their 30 years of existence. Since 2019, they have a record of 222-279 and they have won one measly playoff game in the last 13 years.

That ticks me off. The idea that too many fans don’t seem to care and I know Dick Montfort doesn’t care ticks me off. I know what I need to do.

I need to crawl back into my apathetic safe space. Just remind myself that when it comes to the Rockies it’s just about “soaking up as many tranquil and fun filled moments as possible.”

Excuse me as I go and vomit.

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