Strike 3: Dear Walker Monfort (continued),
Now, looking ahead: After your first full season as the new executive vice president next year, there’s going to be some continuous owners vs. players union labor negotiations on deck. Neither side is happy with the way things are. And neither side is going to want to give an inch while they try to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement.
Your dad will be heavily involved in the negotiations of course. He’ll probably be the lead guy for the owners once again. Speaking as someone who was in a few of those meetings as a player rep, trust me when I tell you it’s a waste of his time, effort and resources for he and some (definitely not all) of the other owners to try to force in a salary cap for MLB. It’s never ever going to happen. You might want to mention that to him.
And you know what? There doesn’t need to be a salary cap for the Colorado Rockies to become a lot more competitive.
In the future, Commissioner Rob Manfred is on record as saying he wants to centralize local media broadcasts and revenues. He’s working towards that, and when the day finally comes that the Dodgers and Yankees massive local broadcasting rights dollars start to get spread out somewhat evenly with the teams they’re playing against, the Rockies and the other mid and small market teams will be in a much better place financially.
But that’s a long way off, and you can’t control any of that. You have to play the hand that’s dealt you right now.
As you get comfortable in your new office, you’ll have time to examine why teams like Tampa and Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas can still remain competitive even while they lag so far behind in revenue. Heck, Tampa’s back in the thick of the American League East race at the moment, while they play their home games in a spring training stadium! They have a significantly smaller payroll than you do. The Rays are actually third from the bottom and the A’s are second lowest. Every team with a payroll lower than yours has a better record than the Rockies.
So it’s not about the payroll.
But you already know that. You and your team can do better with what you have to work with right here and now.
Keli once told me that he spent time every single day seeking out the advice of baseball people from outside the organization, asking them how they thought the infant Rockies organization was doing. He got a mixed bag of stuff in return. In the early days, most of the feedback was positive – since the new kids on the block were such a smash hit early on. Later on, when things got tough in the early 2000’s, not as much was positive. But he never stopped trying to learn more about the inner workings of the game. It made him a much better executive.
Let’s be honest. The Rockies organization hasn’t been the same since Keli passed and that kind of outside perspective was lost.
But you can change all that. You can turn things around. You are the only one who can convince your father that “a fresh set of eyeballs” as your uncle Charlie put it, are so desperately needed. The Rockies Way doesn’t have to be an exact replica of the Monfort Meat Packing way. In truth, it needs to be more like the Milwaukee Brewers Way.
Success is going to be all about solid decision making, both on the business side and the baseball side. And it’s about them working together to make sure one is not heavily outweighing the other. Your family has done a lot of wonderful things for baseball in Colorado. The fans are grateful for not only keeping the expansion franchise afloat, but for Coors Field and its continuous upgrades, like the RoofTop and McGregor’s Square. There’s still not a better place to watch a big league game.
But the time for significant change has arrived. Massive improvements to the baseball operations are needed. You need to be the agent of change.
We’re all in your corner on this. Please make it happen.
You owe us.
Sincerely,
Mark
