We're killin' it, Dick!
Although I’m inclined to agree with our honorable skipper here at BSB, sometimes it’s just too darned difficult to accept the Rockies’ front-office shenanigans without wondering how things might’ve turned out if other, more competent people had been running things. Like the fans, for instance. Rockies fans, like my Grammy, with the team’s best interests at heart (she never would’ve traded “Ubie,” for starters). Particularly now after the handshake agreement — even if that was purely ostentatious.
Without going into it any further, suffice it to say we have reason to doubt the sincerity with which Rockies ownership and management speak of building a “culture of value.” Even for a guy like me — sitting at home in sweatpants, cursing at my broken record player, in need of a beer — the way D’Dowd uses the word “value” is too vague to signify anything meaningful; especially in the context of a baseball clubhouse. For if this is the same culture of value we read about in 2006, then I won’t be the only one grumbling at home all summer in my sweatpants.
But if maintaining the status quo continues to reap financial rewards for those in power, there’s little reason to believe profit-minded owners would be willing to strive for anything more than cost-efficient mediocrity. Owners get greedier, players get richer, and fans get shafted. Yet, this form of structural exploitation in baseball, like segregation and the reserve clause before it, is untenable and will someday be changed. But for now, we still show up to cheer on our home team. What can we say? Rockies fans love going to that beautiful ballpark in LoDo, which our tax dollars built. And against all odds, we continue to show up in massive numbers.
It’s well known that fan attendance figures at Coors Field broke all kinds of records in the early years of the organization, gradually falling off in 2003 (the team went 74-88) and then dramatically by 2005 (finishing in last place at 67-95), before settling in the top-half again last year (still only 73-89). Nonetheless, a steady flow of revenue. But what can Rockies fans, management, and owners expect for this year? Will fans continue to come through the turnstiles by the millions to see a Rockies team that ends up fifteen games below .500?
With the recent off-season acquisitions, who knows? We might, if the new team somehow proves itself to be full of extraordinary ballplayers who play all-out, even in defeat. Or if the franchise can somehow endear itself to the fans in more intimate ways than we’ve seen until now. Or if the Rockies are still relevant in August.
Or perhaps we Coloradans are just too complacent; we don’t really care if the Rockies win or lose, so long as ticket prices stay cheap and we can soak up some sun and sport for a few hours.
But I don’t think that’s how most of us feel. I’d like to believe most fans who follow the Rockies these days are very interested in seeing the home team win the division, and agonize when they don’t. Most fans make an emotional commitment that stretches far beyond all the time spent or the price of a ticket. And when this kind of investment isn’t reciprocated by the managers, the GM, or the owners, then fans feels slighted. Indeed, the lofty playoff proclamations made each year from the Rockies brass are starting to sound more and more hollow ever since the miracle run of ’07 and late season surge of ’09. Hey, maybe this year…?
Unfortunately for us fans, the primary concern of the front-office is to turn a profit, which does not necessarily preclude the allocation of resources for putting a winning team on the field. Not when ticket sales, national television money, dividends, merchandising, revenue-sharing, and other sources of income are steadily flowing into the franchise (even in spite of that shady deal Rockies majority owner Charlie Monfort made with media overlord Rupert Murdock in 2004). At the end of the day, owning and running a major league baseball franchise probably gets pretty stressful for those select few who are solely concerned with increasing their personal wealth.
Which is why they need to turn the ball clubs over to the fans.
Last April, sportswriter Dave Zirin proposed a solution to the L.A. Dodgers financial crisis (although in contravention of MLB bylaws): to become fan-owned and operated. Even at ESPN, similar suggestions have been made in regards to restructuring ownership models in all professional sports, by using the Packers model.
That’s what I’m talkin’ about.
We’d have strength in numbers, lots of new and different ideas, and most importantly a genuine desire to see our team play hard, have fun, and win. Make no mistake, fan culture (in spite of any perceived weakness for sweatpants and beer) is more nuanced and sophisticated in the contemporary country of baseball than it’s typically given credit for. We coach and play and watch the game with a well-spring of experience and knowledge ready at hand. We engage in intricate methods of scorekeeping, we reflect instantaneously on the movements and the action and the flow, we debate strategy, research the history, create new statistics, investigate uncharted areas of the diamond, and speak the language of baseball — all from uniquely different perspectives. Baseball fan culture nowadays is a reservoir of potential power, held back by barriers seen and unseen.
Perhaps some day very soon we’ll organize a Fan’s Union in Colorado, and, as baseball consumers, demand a higher quality product on the field, and accountability at the levels of management and ownership. And if ownership isn’t prepared to meet our demands, then we’ll just have to overturn those antiquated bylaws and restructure the organization from the ground up. I’m sure my Grammy and her fellow citizens of Denver will gladly take the team off their hands for ‘em. We’ve got your culture of value right here: a culture of VORP!
Of course these may seem like delusions of grandeur, typical of a frustrated baseball fan in late hibernation. And although there will always be some residual bitterness, I’m still inclined to see the bright side: after another long winter, I’ll once again be thrilled that baseball, no matter how it arrives, will soon be here with the spring.
Loading ...
Loading tweets...
16 comments
1 ping
jacob owen heller
February 23, 2012 at 10:42 PM (UTC -6)
swing by my place and I’ll get you a beer Dude! I can’t fix your record player, nor pry the franchise from the owners, but I can ease your mind for a while and share your enthusiasm and anticipation for this great time of year!
Feebles
Anonymous
February 23, 2012 at 11:22 PM (UTC -6)
Collective anarchism, dude! but you were not actually truthful about being “in need of a beer”
PintDiaries
February 23, 2012 at 11:25 PM (UTC -6)
This guy is right. I wish the rest of your staff could (a) write so well; (b) cogently analyze the precise problem plaguing the Rockies in particular, and baseball in general; and (c) were willing to engage in actual sports journalism and analysis, instead of jingoism and cheerleading. Fans like us would be grateful, in these times and this environment, if you would hire sincere, trained journalists like this writer.
Logan Burdine
February 24, 2012 at 6:24 AM (UTC -6)
Thanks, Darren Rovell.
Travis Lay
February 24, 2012 at 7:39 AM (UTC -6)
Are you saying we have a new faithful reader? Good news!
Logan Burdine
February 24, 2012 at 9:57 AM (UTC -6)
Some examples of our “jingoism”:
What’s really wrong with the Rockies?
http://www.blakestreetbulletin.com/2011/12/19/wrong-rockies/
The Rockies master plan is almost complete and the rest of baseball won’t know what hit ‘em
http://www.blakestreetbulletin.com/2012/01/16/rockies-master-plan-complete-baseball-wont-hitem/
Are the Rockies a poorly run organization?
http://www.blakestreetbulletin.com/2011/07/21/rockies-poorly-run-organization/
O’Dowd comes off like a politician after Ubaldo trade
http://www.blakestreetbulletin.com/2011/08/01/odowd-politician-ubaldo-trade/
The Rockies deal Chris Iannetta and get worse in the process
http://www.blakestreetbulletin.com/2011/11/30/rockies-deal-chris-iannetta-worse-process/
This is the Rockies starting lineup on 9/11
http://www.blakestreetbulletin.com/2011/09/11/rockies-starting-lineup-911-%E2%80%93-making-lunatic-connection-9-11/
Next time you make a comment like that, you should probably make sure you are informed. I would think someone with such a high appreciation for proper journalism would take the time to do some reading. Also, other than Rich and Zach, I don’t believe anyone on this site has any desire to be a journalist.
Thanks for reading.
PintDiaries
February 24, 2012 at 3:38 PM (UTC -6)
Some days you eat the bar. Some days, well, the bar…he eats you. With the new sh*t that has come to light from your comment above, I think I’m going to have to admit that, much like Theodore Donald Kerabatsos, I am out of my element here. I was wrong, and I am sorry for the unjustified and non-evidence-based criticism above.
Logan Burdine
February 24, 2012 at 3:54 PM (UTC -6)
Well, now I feel bad for being an ass. So, I apologize for being an ass. Also, I thank you for teaching me a new word.
Your input is much appreciated, especially when it is critical. Sorry for being so defensive.
By the way, quoting the Lebowski is the quickest way to my heart.
PintDiaries
February 24, 2012 at 11:11 PM (UTC -6)
No problemo, man!
Kevin Kroh
February 24, 2012 at 8:49 AM (UTC -6)
Ever heard of The Denver Seven?
Yeah, well, that was me…
…and six other guys.
Logan Burdine
February 24, 2012 at 9:59 AM (UTC -6)
Yeah, roadie for Metallica. Speed of Sound Tour. Bunch of assholes.
Riles
February 24, 2012 at 11:19 AM (UTC -6)
Sounds good, the notion of the fans taking ownership and management of the Rockies (or anyone doing so, really, instead of the Monforts and O’Dowd). However:
1. I’m not too sure about the Rockies’ fanbase. The team attracts large numbers of fans when it’s playing well, and even sometimes when it’s not, but that’s kind of the problem. I’ve always had the feeling that the fans regard the Rockies as another summer activity — just another entry on the list of things to do, right below rafting and mountain biking. Their interest and education in the game of baseball, in other words, is lacking, even while they have the appetite to attend games.
The Monforts recognize this. There is none of the competitive intensity in them that you see in other ownership groups in comparable markets, primarily because the fans don’t demand it of them. At a time when the team has (or had, from 2007 until the trade of Ubaldo Jimenez) a “young nucleus” of players unlike any other time in it’s history, ownership won’t authorize the bold and expensive moves in the offseason that are necessary to compete for a World Series. Instead, they try to improve the on-field product just enough to keep it marketable, and oftentimes they don’t even accomplish that.
I guess what I’m saying is — and this is kind of a truism, I guess — is that the Monforts behavior as owners is based on what the fans are willing to pay for. And the fans, who are mostly out for a beautiful summer evening at the ballpark, are a pretty forgiving and easygoing bunch. And only about four of them have any idea what VORP is.
2. Personally, I’m still in shock over Rocktober 2007. You can argue convincingly that that was an outlier, as pure a fluke as we’ve seen in sports over the past twenty years or so. But one of the lasting memories from that was the cognitive dissonance I experienced watching Charlie Monfort hold up the NLCS trophy — this gutless, profit-motivated guy and his gutless brother had given us such a profound gift. I thought that I had misjudged them; I’m still not sure (though I am committed to what I wrote about them above).
Logan Burdine
February 24, 2012 at 11:24 AM (UTC -6)
The fact that they almost drew $3 million last year despite finishing 16 games under backs up your point. I’ve long thought that the fanbase isn’t hard enough on ownership. The team is lucky to have such a fantastic stadium in a wonderful setting. It’s been saving them for years.
Kevin Kroh
February 24, 2012 at 11:50 AM (UTC -6)
Your first point is definitely valid, and although I only hinted at this in the above post by rhetorically asking if Colorado fans were too complacent, you flush that out nicely; and you might be on to something by suggesting we’re a forgiving and easy-going bunch. Winning isn’t everything if you live in beautiful Colorado.
But, and this is more to your second point, can we really credit the Monforts for anything that happened in the fall of 2007? Especially the gift of an NLCS trophy? As far as I remember off the top of my head, we’d gotten swept by the Marlins and were looking as dismal as ever until Helton hit that walk-off against the unhittable Saito and those Dodger bullies. He threw his helmet while sprinting down the third base line (in a rare display of human emotion from Todd “der mensch-machine” Helton) and it seemed to shock the rest of the team into thinking they could achieve the impossible.
Anyway, lots of variables at play. Lots of strands in the duder’s head.
Riles
February 24, 2012 at 2:24 PM (UTC -6)
The Monforts arguably deserve credit for deciding to build from within, the whole Generation R thing. Arguably, the esprit de corps that eventually developed within “Generation R” was a big part of why Rocktober happened. You know, Matt Holliday and Tulo and Smith and Hawpe and all those guys growing up together down in Tulsa.
But esprit de corps can only take you so far, till a lack of real talent begins to show. And the Rockies, despite predictions of NL West glory last year, lack talent, and always have. Arguably. So maybe the Monforts deserve credit for Rocktober, but Rocktober was what it was: a flash in the pan.
Great point about Helton against Saito, though. One of the most pivotal moments I’ve ever witnessed in any sport, and one of my favorites because of that rare show of emotion at home plate. If you guys have some kind of special access to the ESPN archives or something, I’d love to see that posted on here somewhere. Can’t find it anymore on mlb.com.
Logan Burdine
February 24, 2012 at 2:47 PM (UTC -6)
That’s because MLB won’t allow that kind of stuff into the mainstream, which is just silly. If I could get access to that video, I’d probably post it on here once or twice a day. That and Holliday’s slide home in Game 163.
Rethinking Baseball Television Broadcasts - Blake Street Bulletin » Blake Street Bulletin
February 29, 2012 at 1:26 PM (UTC -6)
[...] the slight hope that last week’s rebel yell for a Fan’s Union is still echoing in some remote regions of cyberspace (where the [...]