As Rockies baseball creeps closer, it’s hard to muster much energy about it

The Colorado Rockies play a baseball game that matters on Friday in Tampa Bay.

It’s safe to wonder if the casual Denver sports fan actually knew that fact.

Yes, March 28 between the Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays is Opening Day 2025. They’ll either be 1-0 or 0-1 as we all go to bed that night. Yawn.

As another season is here, it’s hard to imagine a time where there’s been less buzz about the guys from 20th and Blake. Coming off 103 losses in 2023 and 101 in 2024, about the only question entering this year is if the Rockies will three-peat with 100 defeats.

Sure, there was a “big” trade over the weekend as Nolan Jones was shipped back to Cleveland. One of the lone bright spots two seasons ago is already gone.

Colorado GM Bill Schmidt also made the decisions to have Zac Veen and Chase Dollander start the year in the minors. Oh, and the Rockies No. 3 overall pick last summer broke his wrist. Charlie Condon will be out at least six weeks, but other than that everything is great.

Look, if we were going to get to see Veen, Dollander and Condon play alongside the likes of Ezequiel Tovar and Brenton Doyle, there might actually be some legitimate reasons for excitement. But rather than accelerate the youth movement, the Rockies are doing what they do. Making head-scratching decisions like putting 34-year-old Nick Martini on the initial roster. 

Of course, all this boils down to much of the same. Dick Monfort still owns the team. Schmidt is yet another in-house GM who’s had no success, and Bud Black is here to manager yet another year.

That doesn’t mean the drinks won’t be flowing at Coors Field this summer, the fun eats flying off the counter and some gorgeous sunsets that not even Monfort can make you buy. And they’ll probably stink, again, and then in 2026 we’ll run it back.

It’s baffling in a town that has championship expectations for the Broncos, Avalanche and Nuggets that the Rockies consistently get let off the hook. It seems more people care about having a good time in the stands than the product on the field.

That’s never the attitude or expectation at Empower Field at Mile High or Ball Arena. Fans show up wanting their team to win, gutted if they don’t. Boos will pour down if the effort isn’t good enough. Those three teams have standards, the Rockies have a Party Deck.

Look, I’m not blaming the fans. It’s hard to care when the owner has made mostly awful decisions over the last 30 years. But we’ve reached the apathy phase, and unless Monfort shockingly sells the team, we might never get out of it.

That’s depressing because Denver is a good baseball town. Rocktober 2007 was electric. Nolan Arenado, Charlie Blackmon, DJ LeMahieu and Trevor Story making the playoffs in 2017 and 2018 was thrilling. But ever since, it’s been miserable, and there doesn’t seem to be proper outrage.

The Broncos were awful after winning the Super Bowl in 2015, and it was all anyone wanted to talk about. Before Nathan MacKinnon and Nikola Jokic rolled into town, the Avs and Nuggets were both down. People didn’t go to the building formerly known as Pepsi Center to have a good time… they just didn’t go.

Maybe if fans stopped showing up to Coors Field, Monfort would finally pay attention. Maybe he’d sell the team, cashing in on his billions while not worrying about the headache of meeting payroll every year.

But that’s probably never going to happen. We could scream it on the radio and write it all day, and people will still show up. And that’s why it’s hard to muster much energy about another Rockies season starting this week.

Because they’re going to be bad and nothing is going to change.

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