| Travis Heath. 22nd July, 2005 - 7:42 pm
 The Colorado Rockies were once the toast of the Rocky Mountain region. Box office records were shattered with nearly 4.5 million fans strolling through the gates of Mile High Stadium during the franchise’s inaugural season of 1993. Premiere free agents such as Walt Weiss and 1997 NL MVP Larry Walker were signed to join an already potent lineup of Andres Galarraga and Dante Bichette en route to leading the Rockies to the playoffs faster then any expansion team in MLB history. The Blake Street Bombers bashed balls out of Coors Field at a record pace. Those were the days, and those days are long gone.
The Rockies now find themselves in quite a conundrum. The team, including last night’s 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals, are 97 games under 500 during the nearly six year tenure of General Manager Dan O’Dowd. How could something that started off so well go so completely wrong? Fear not though Rockies fans, the organization has plenty of excuses . . . or answers to the above question.
Excuse #1 The Hampton and Neagle Factor
The Rockies brass headed by O’Dowd are quick to tell fans that the reason they have not been able to compete on a level they would like are in large part due to the ridiculous big money contracts handed out to pitchers Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle. The Rockies are still paying Mike Hampton to pitch for the Atlanta Braves and would still be paying Denny Neagle as well had Neagle been able to stay out of legal trouble. Okay, that makes sense right, some irresponsible general manager signed these guys to big money contracts leaving O’Dowd hamstrung by their contracts. This line of reasoning seems to make sense until you realize that O’Dowd himself signed these players. O’Dowd speaks as though he inherited these problems hoping that fans will forget that he was the mastermind behind these fiscally irresponsible signings.
Excuse #2 Small Market Impossibility
It’s the easiest excuse in Major League Baseball today. With no semblance of a salary cap, Major League GM’s are constantly whining about being in a small market with the underlying inference being that they can’t possibly compete with the financial powerhouse markets such as New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. O’Dowd is no different. Again, on the surface this appears to be a sound argument. The Rockies do not have as much money to spend as some of the teams located in the so-called larger markets. However, no one in any of the major sports has been able to draw a consistent positive correlation between money spent and number of wins. In many cases the two have been negatively correlated. Perhaps the most striking example of this is the Rockies 1993 expansion counterpart Florida Marlins. The Marlins are not exactly running a money mill down in South Florida, and they have already won the World Series twice. Furthermore, one may make the argument that the Rockies had, and may even still have, more financial prowess than the Marlins. Don’t forget that the Marlins still play in a converted football stadium and rarely draw large crowds even by current Colorado standards. If the Marlins had only won the Series once the Rockies organization could characterize the victory as an aberration, but the fact they rebuilt the team and won again six years later lends absolutely no credence to the Rockies small markets can’t win big mentality.
Excuse #3 Rocky Mountain High
The land of altitude where breaking balls don’t break, home run balls fly, and pitchers come to die. I guess we should have never petitioned for a Major League team here in Denver, because it’s simply impossible to play baseball at 5,280 feet above sea level. Wow, if you’re not careful O’Dowd and the Rockies might actually convince you that this is true just by the sheer number of times that they cite this as an excuse. The simple fact is that baseball can be played at altitude. The Denver Zephyrs competed at the Triple A level for many years successfully in the Eighties, and I believe Denver was still a mile above sea level at the time. Irv Brown, co-host of the Denver based Irv and Joe show and respected former collegiate baseball coach at The University of Colorado, cites almost daily on his radio show the numerous ways in which winning baseball has been, and can be played at altitude. There is a precedent for good baseball in Colorado (including the Rockies 1995 playoff run), but this is simply something that the current Rockies regime would prefer that you never know.
For six years all we have gotten from O’Dowd and company are excuses and very few answers and possible solutions. Patchwork plans are thrown together each winter with a new mantra emerging for the team often at odds with the mantra preached during the previous campaign. How can an organization possibly justify maintaining the status quo for a team that has compiled a 403-500 over the past six seasons?
Says here that the solution to the Rockies problems lies very close to home. In fact, the blueprints already exist. The Rockies need to look no further than a few blocks down the street at Pepsi Center once home to the poster child for NBA futility. The Denver Nuggets became fed up a four years ago, and as a result they cleaned house and brought in an innovative and risk taking GM by the name of Kiki Vandeweghe. The entire culture of the franchise was altered and losing was no longer deemed acceptable.
Here’s for hoping that the Colorado Rockies are fed up, and hey if they’re not I hear Kiki’s contract is up at the end of the year. Wonder if he knows anything about baseball? |
