At this point, Rockies fans have no one to blame but themselves

There were plenty of reasons to go to a Rockies game this weekend. The home team just wasn’t one of them.

Colorado is the second-worst team in the National League, just percentage points ahead of the lowly Nationals. They’re dead last in their division, 16.5 games behind Arizona. And they’re 2-8 in their last 10 games, which includes somehow winning two out of three against the Angels despite getting outscored 32-12 in the weekend series.

Yet, more than 130,000 people poured through the turnstiles at Coors Field during a three-game set with the Angels. The weekend attendance was 132,572.

They came to see Shohei Ohtani, a generational player. They wanted to watch Mike Trout, arguably the best baseball player of the 2000s.

They came to enjoy a beautiful Colorado day, basking in the sunshine and warm weather. They showed up to eat a hot dog and drink a beer.

They came to create memories at the ballpark with their kids. They bought tickets to get creative on date night.

The reasons for going to the games are all valid. They’re understandable. They’re totally acceptable.

They’re also a part of the problem. Check that; they are the problem.

If people are coming to the games in droves, spending money on tickets and concessions, there’s no motivation for ownership to make any changes. As long as the customers are still buying the product, Dick Monfort doesn’t need to tweak the formula.

Baseball is like any other business. They only thing that spurs change is the bottom line.

If the Rockies are making money, they’ll keep trotting out the same tired product. If they aren’t, they be forced to change.

When that many people show up to watch a bad baseball team, it’s easy to predict what’s going to happen. Nothing.

Colorado hasn’t looked outside the organization for a general manager in this century. They hired Dan O’Dowd away from Cleveland in 1999. Since then, his replacement and his replacement’s replacement were promoted from within.

They didn’t even interview anyone else. The Rockies didn’t talk to other candidates and determine that Jeff Bridich and Bill Schmidt were the best options. They just moved them up the org chart.

That plan might make some sense if the team had enjoyed a lot of success. Continuity can be a wise move if winning was the norm.

But in the last 25 seasons, the Rockies have made the postseason just four times. That’s a .160 batting average, to put it in baseball terms. They’ve also never won their division, a truly remarkable feat given that they’ve been in existence for 31 years.

That lack of success would force almost any other franchise in any other sport to shake things up. It’s a nearly automatic call for change.

But not the Rockies. No, sir. They stand pat, remaining loyal to a front office that fails to build a winner or even express a coherent plan for trying to do so.

A wise organization would raid another team for a GM with vision. They’d look at a franchise like the Rays, one that certainly has to contend with more financial challenges than the Rockies, and poach a baseball mind from their front office. They’d tap into other outlets, mining for new ideas.

This isn’t a groundbreaking idea. Admittedly, it’s painfully obvious.

That’s the point. That’s what so frustrating about what the Rockies don’t do. They don’t even bother to try.

Why? Because business is still good.

On Saturday night, Colorado provided a microcosm of the issue. More than 45,000 people were in attendance to witness history. And not the good kind.

The Rockies lost 25-1 to the Angels. That’s not a typo. They gave up 21 combined runs in the third and fourth innings, the most in a two-inning span since the 1890s. That’s also not a typo.

That’s the kind of embarrassment that would cause change in almost any other market. Someone would have to pay for that sort of a debacle.

But not in Colorado. Not with the Rockies.

Schmidt is still the GM. Bud Black is still the manager. Everything just rolls along, as though everything is fine.

And to some extent, it is. More than 130,000 paying customers lined the Monforts pockets over the weekend. The series with the Angels was a banner success.

In politics, there’s a credo that people can’t complain about what’s happening if they don’t vote. Onlookers don’t get to whine when they aren’t willing to participate in the process.

The same is true in sports. Fans who support a bad product can’t bellyache about a losing team.

It’s time to send a message. It’s time to cast a vote. It’s time to stop going to Rockies games.

That’s not going to be easy. It’s going to take sacrifice.

It’s going to mean missing out on seeing Ohtani and Trout. It’s going to require not hanging out on a beautiful Colorado night with a beer and a hot dog. It’s going to cause new plans to be made between fathers and sons. But it’s needed.

Otherwise, nothing is going to change. And the people in the stands will be the ones to blame.

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