There aren’t a lot of things that the Colorado Rockies do better than the other 29 teams in Major League baseball and almost none of them have anything to do with what happens on the field.
Another highly questionable offseason will lead right into another year of frustration, disappointment, and apathy for a lot of fans and media when it comes to the wins and losses and it will all be par for the course.
This is, of course, how professional sports teams are analyzed and evaluated, as it should be.
But while we’ve got some time before the pitchers and catchers report, and while the Rockies world at large is in yet another tizzy over more inarticulate comments from owner Dick Monfort, we should point out an important truth that is too often lost.
The Rockies actually provide for normal baseball fans.
Amidst the annual hand-wringing over the owner being asked to predict the season and giving an answer nobody was going to be happy with regardless of what it was, Montfort was also asked about division opponents, the San Diego Padres.
In his answer, he intimated that the intense spending of late by that organization is bad for baseball, not just because it makes harder for the smaller market teams to keep up but, more importantly, because it caused ticket prices to rise making baseball in southern California more and more a luxury item for the well off.
Now, we should point out that every single owner in baseball, in fact every owner in pro sports, could be spending more money. These guys are billionaires who often cry poor and all of them can afford to charge less for the products they sell.
But it isn’t realistic to think that they are all about to awaken from the ingrained traditions of capitalist profit. They are going to make their margins. Some will do it by charging a fair price to normal people, some will do it by catering solely to the rich.
So, short of Monfort leading a revolution to completely change the way we think about sports, it is fair to recognize the reality that when payroll goes up, so do the prices at the park.
There is absolutely a segment of the fanbase that would happily double or triple the cost of their tickets and beer if it just meant getting a competitive team. But those fans tend to forget about, or not care about, the ones who simply cannot afford that.
Ticket prices around the country, in all sports, are outrageous. But you can get into a Rockies game for $4, even cheaper for seniors and kids. And that’s not nothing.
In order to win, should your team be only for the financially elite? It’s a fair debate but one that the Padres seem to have joined with the Yankees, Dodgers, and Mets in believing that as long as you make your money, it doesn’t matter who the clientele is. In fact, why not drain more cash from the people who have more?
During the lockout of a year ago, the number one complaint listed by fans was that they had to give up so much of their paycheck just to attend these games. Why couldn’t the owners and players just get together and compromise?
Eventually they did but where did the talking point go? What about its opposite? In other words, if we are going to heavily critique the prices during those times (which we should) why aren’t we giving credit to those who do offer options for the fan who can maybe only save up enough for one game a year.
Sometimes sports are about angry adults who spend all day on Twitter screaming at professional athletes for being imperfect at their incredibly difficult jobs. And sometimes sports are about falling in love with the sights and sounds and feel of the game.
For the cold, hard, data-based 24-hour news cycle that demands constant drama, if you aren’t doing absolutely everything in your power to win (sometimes even cheating) then you simply don’t care enough.
For those who subscribe to the old adage that there is more than winning and losing, that it’s about “how you play the game,” we see that baseball should be for everyone, not just those who can afford it.
No, the Colorado Rockies don’t do anything on the field better than the rest of their competition. And that has been brutal on the fanbase. So, the question could be asked, “does Dick Monfort care more about fan experience than winning?” And the answer is almost assuredly, “yes.”
Some days, that is infuriating beyond belief. And other days, it’s just nice to be able to take the whole family or little league team out to a ballgame without having to secure a small personal loan first.
