FALL: A Season, Or A Direction?

(I wrote this last year in October, and neglected to hit "post", so it remained in draft status, until now.  I am going to post it now, unedited.  Comments?)

The best time of the year.  I miss the days when you could go outside and smell leaves burning and the first hint of woodsmoke from neighborhood fireplaces.  This is the season where the leaves and vines that nurtured ripening pumpkins have been blackened and beaten down by the first hard frost of the season, leaving the bright orange gourds standing proud in the autumn sun.  A beautiful postcard of a scene looking back down the second fairway at Sunset Golf Course, toward Longs Peak, the trees lining the fairways turning orange and yellow and red, with a flawless carpet of carefully manicured green grass providing yet another snapshot of Heaven on Earth.  The baseball Postseason.  High School, College, NFL and Pee Wee football in full swing.  Basketball training camps and Hockey around the corner (maybe).

 

I know you know, that I am a baseball fan first, a Yankee fan primarily.  I grew up with baseball as my true love.  I learned to translate and break down boxscores in the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News sports sections before the third grade.  My first transistor radio was always tuned to KOA for the Denver Bears broadcast will Bill Reed calling the games from Bears Stadium, before it was Mile High, way before Invesco or the Broncos.  I even used to attempt, nightly, when the atmospheric conditions allowed, to tweak the tuning dial carefully to get KOMA out of Oklahoma for Cardinal games, or WGN out of Chicago for Cubs broadcasts.  I would eagerly await the televised Saturday CBS MLB Game of the Week with Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese. 

 

I remember Dizzy once saying to his partner Pee Wee, "There's a couple there in the right field bleachers that kiss each other after each and every pitch, Pee Wee.  He kisses her on the strikes, and she kisses him on the balls."  Or, signing off at the end of the broadcast, "Don't fail to miss tomorrow's game!"  Dizzy Dean was elected into the baseball Hall of Fame in 1953, and the broadcasting HOF in 1976.  His injury-shortened career included four consecutive All-Star selections, 1934-1937, a 1934 MVP (the Cy Young Award wasn't initiated until Young passed away in 1955) and a World Series ring in 1934 as the ace of famous "Gashouse Gang" St. Louis Cardinals.  Dizzy and his brother Paul (Daffy) Dean combined for 49 victories that year for the Cards, with Ol' Diz accounting for 30, along with two wins in the Series.  The Cardinals, not the Yankees, became the first designated "America's Team" by virtue of their location as the most southerly and westernmost team in the Major Leagues.  Dizzy's #17 was retired by the Cardinals in 1974, two months after he passed away of a sudden heart attack.  His #17 remains the only such digit retired in Major League Baseball, and will remain as such, until Todd Helton's number will be so honored by the Colorado Rockies in the near future. 

 

Dean's broadcast partner, Pee Wee Reese has also had his number (#1) retired by the Los Angeles Dodgers and he, too, is a Hall Of Fame member, inducted in 1984.  Reese was instrumental, as the Dodger captain in 1947, in helping Jackie Robinson assimilate into the Major Leagues in spite of the racial bias against Robinson as the first Black American to play in the Majors.  Reese fiercely defended and shielded Robinson daily as America and the Major Leagues grew accustomed to the integration of Baseball.

 

There has been a lot of angry and frustrated discussion recently in the wake of Rockies (former) manager Jim Tracy's "resignation".  There are those that innocently rejoice in the fact that Tracy is gone, blindly faithful to the opinion that the Rockies' worst season in franchise history, and their slide from playoff contention over the last three years can be laid at the feet of Jim Tracy.  Though I do not profess to postulate that Tracy is a first-class baseball tactician and dugout leader deserving of Hall-of-Fame recognition, he was not the problem with the Colorado Rockies' slide into less-than-mediocrity. 

 

The problem is with the decisions made by Dan O'Dowd and supported by the brothers Monfort.  You can also lay blame at the turnstiles.  As long as the Rockies continue to draw two to three-million fans into Coors Field each season, the franchise has little reason to field a competitive team.  I do not doubt that their efforts were genuinely geared toward success on the field, but there is no real accountabiltiy with this franchise.  There is not nearly enough BASEBALL INTELLIGENCE connected with the Rox organization.  Owners' primary job is to supply passion and resources.  Their duty is to surround themselves with smart baseball executives.  Dan O'Dowd is obviously one of the best salesmen in the world.  He has kept his position through a mostly terrible record in baseball since he was hired in September of 1999.  Since the 2000 season, the Rockies are 989-1118 (.469 winning percentage).  They have won ZERO NL Western Division titles, having finished second twice, third  3 times, 4th six times and last three times.  Thirteen seasons, twice a Wild Card, once an improbable Rocktober run to the World Series.  An average season to our loveable loser: ten games under .500, 4th in the West (just ahead of the Padres) and out of the playoff picture way before school starts.

 

The sad state now, is that this franchise will be very hard-pressed to find a candidate who will come to this city to manage this club.  Jim Tracy was given a choice by the Rockies' 'brain trust': follow our orders concerning personnel, coaches, and pitching philosophy, or quit, go ahead, walk away from $1.4 million.  Tracy, apparently, asked for the opportunity to try and manage a club without a fat, bean-counting, look-over-your-shoulder baseball moron (Bill Geivett), who answers to Dan O'Dowd, who sells the whole load of crap to the Monforts, and we are left to believe that this franchise has any chance at all to be relevant in this lifetime.  Good for you Mr. Tracy, integrity and baseball pride costs more than $1.4 mill.  Try to get any pitchers, even drafted ones to consider signing with the Rox-cubs.  Tulo and CarGo must be just itching to get the hell out of Dodge.  If the Rockies win more than 76 games next year, it'll be because the Monforts wake up, smell the popcorn, and gas O'Dowd, along with Bill "Kiss-Ass" Geivett.  Pay Tony LaRussa $5 million to be your General Manager, let him hire his own people, and get the fuck out of his way.

 

Go Rocktober, just a memory, like burning leaves and Dizzy Dean.


(I sit here now, after the hated Red Sox won the Series, and the post season MLB awards are being handed out.  The Rockies indeed finished last in the NL West.  Walt Weiss just signed a two year extension, but O'Dowd and Geivett remain, and Charlie Monfort is finally forced to face up to his alcohol problem.  Todd Helton is gone into the sunset.  I'm formulating new ideas for the Rockies and Avalanche and the Broncos.  I have no new thoughts on the Nuggets.)