“A Loser F—ing Organization”: the Colorado Rockies, a Major League Embarrassment.
Part One: ‘I Didn’t Decide This’.
On a cool Colorado day in mid-May 2023, Rockies reliever gestured towards the Philadelphia Phillies dugout during a hitless 7th inning. Benches would clear, and Phillies superstar Bryce Harper would seemingly yell to Bird the words “a loser f—ing organization”. The Rockies would actually win that night 4-0, but the sentiment resonated.
Even in a vacuum, the Phils would end that year 90-72 and in the National League Championship. The Rockies? 59-103, missing the playoffs for the 5th straight year.
Success isn’t easy to come by in Major League Baseball. It’s a 162+ game grind that challenges players and teams both physically and mentally, and allows the creme to rise from the crop.
Even against those odds, baseball is a game of parity. The best don’t always win, and it shows in the results. There hasn’t been a back-to-back World Series champion in 25 years. In that time, there have been 16 different teams to win a ring. Contrast that with 13 NFL teams and 11 NBA teams to win it all in that period, plus only 1 year and 7 years respectively since the last back-to-back winner.
But what if there was a team that defied all rules of parity? A team that was always the crop, and never the creme. And who is to blame?
That is the Colorado Rockies. The most embarrassing team in MLB history, despite only being around for a small portion of the game’s history. The blame starts at the top, so that’s where we’ll start down the rabbit hole. Dick and Charlie.
Brothers Dick and Charlie Monfort were raised in Greely, Colorado; a town that sits on the map nestled by two rivers as almost a gateway to the Rocky Mountains, north of Denver. The brothers were raised by their mother, Patricia A. Miller, and father Kenneth Monfort, a meatpacking tycoon who started Monfort of Colorado, later bought out by ConAgra Foods. Both brothers would take on prominent roles in ConAgra, with Dick becoming president of ConAgra Red Meats, and Charlie the president of ConAgra Foods International.
Why does this matter? Well, in 1991, the MLB was looking to expand by two teams, and the finalists were Florida (which became the Florida Marlins, and ultimately the Miami Marlins). Businessmen John Antonucci and Phar-Mor’s Mickey Monus were granted the franchise. But in 1992, Monus would have his reputation ruined following his involvement in an accounting scandal at Phar-Mor that would become one of the biggest fraud cases in U.S. history, leading to Monus and Antonucci’s removal as well as Monus being indicted by a federal grand jury for embezzlement.
After all of that, the Rockies would be saved last minute by trucking tycoon Jerry McMorris. Still short $20 million on the $95 million fee to purchase the expansion team, McMorris would bring in our friend Charlie.
McMorris’ tenure wouldn’t last long, though, as just 6 years later his trucking company would fold and he would be forced to sell some of his parts of the team to the brothers, totaling a majority 40 percent, and resign to a CEO role. They would use that majority just 5 years later to remove him from his CEO spot and sell the rest of his shares. He would say in 2004: “I didn’t decide it. I’ve put 12 years in helping Colorado, building the franchise, and working with what was in the best interest of major-league baseball. I’ve given it my best effort. I don’t understand any of this.”
This is where the teeth really start to show. Charlie Monfort would respond to this by saying that McMorris would no longer be able to vote on the team’s board, draw a salary from the team, and that “there’s no animosity and no reason except for the fact that we need to proceed with one voice”. No animosity… huh…
While a history lesson might not have been expected, it was crucial to see a pattern of behavior from the Monfort brothers. From the very beginning, they have shown a pattern of, generously worded, weird behavior. Publicly, at least, Charlie Montfort left the situation viewed as cutthroat and Dick was a near-silent bystander letting it happen. That trend would continue for Dick.
At the core of this that is Issue #1. Through all missteps, malfunctions, and malpractice, Dick Monfort is rarely ever there to apologize, take blame, or shoulder responsibility.
Except one time.
In 2014, Monfort misstepped so badly that he was forced to apologize.
On July 5th, 2014 a 57-year-old man, who asked reporters to keep him anonymous, emailed Dick Monfort about his frustrations. Up to this point, Colorado had a record of 28-33; they’d lost 8 straight, and to the man’s credit, they went on to finish 66-96 for their 4th straight losing season. The frustrated message sent was: “The Monforts have no business owning a baseball team, and their missteps in hiring 'the good old boys' for front office and management positions is solid evidence of their ineptitude. They have ruined pro baseball in this region while generating millions of dollars in profit”.
His email wasn’t especially rude. It wasn’t even especially wrong. Fans get frustrated with what they perceive as a complete lack of care for success. A normal professional doesn’t reply, or replies apologizing for the on-field results. What Monfort did next was baffling.
Dick would reply to this email with his own passive-angry message and ended it “By the way you talk maybe Denver doesn't deserve a franchise, maybe time for it to find a new home. Thanks.”
Obviously, this wasn’t received well. Monfort was understandably lambasted by fans, local media, and national pundits for what was clearly a tone deaf joke-threat. He backtracked and said somehow he was meaning the ownership group didn’t deserve a franchise, even when he clearly named Denver as the undeserving party. The backtrack failed and he apologized saying he was rapid firing responses to fans and would never leave Denver, but the damage was done.
Monfort did not learn his lesson. Issue #2 with Dick, ‘Insanity’. He repeatedly does the same thing over and over and over again, without learning, expecting things to change. Monfort has become infamous over the years for continuing his poor responses to fan emails, most recently to fans asking him to sign Shohei Ohtani.
So that is the story of Dick and Charlie Monfort. This won’t be the last time they’re mentioned, far from it, but their rise to power in the Rockies organization and handling of criticism is pivotal to understanding the roles they play in the rest of the story.
In Part 2, we take a journey through the “Golden Age” of Rockies baseball. If you can call it that.