Accountability?

Ok enough is enough. I don't like to rant, but as a consumer of baseball in the Rockies this is getting to be an embarrassment. Where is the freakin accountability? Why aren't the sportswriters calling for heads on a plate? Why are fans allowing this to happen? I mean the Roxs catch lightning in a bottle for a brief 21 days and suddenly they are given a free pass? We were fed the BS about growing a team and dealing with the growth process and what not. Suddenly the team matures and gets to the World Series, where it was very evident we were an outclassed organization. Frankly we didn't even deserve to be on the same stage as the Red Sox last year (can you say ticket debacle...heck you can't even sell tickets right). They dressed us down in every conceivable way. After that October, management while resting on its laurels, should have taken a page from the Sox's and said how can we do better? What happened? We suddenly signed our undeserving players to long term deals increasing payroll to $69 million, we gave the GM and manager long term deals, we coasted through the off season without signing one significant free agent. Why was that? The Roxs simply became a bargaining chip for players and frankly none of them wanted to come to Denver.

You would think a team ripe with young upstart players in a great sports town would be an inviting place for free agents but then again here is an organization that has stuck with a manager who has gone 474-560 in 7 years (.458 winning percentage). Of course "great sports town" is a misnomer anymore as complacency has set in for the Broncos (sign any murder's lately Shanahan), Avs (win with retreads!), and Nuggets (drinking and driving is a great warm up activity). Again I ask...where is the accountability? Outrage? Why can't we expect our teams to be great? Why have Denver coaches become so chummy? Managers are paid to win and frankly winning isn't happening around here! So why all this ranting ? Because last night's debacle in LoDo was too much for any baseball fan to cope with. Our Roxs come home from an 0-6 roadtrip, playing the cellar dwellers from the litter box in San Diego, up by 5 runs in the Fifth. Things are cruising and boom tie game and then a bigger boom as the Padres score 7 in the top of the 9th....excuse me? A 12 run swing in 4 innings...a team that is 32 - 52, a team that spends $69 million to reward 21 days of excellence? A team that at the start of the season awarded its manager and GM with extensions even though the manager has never shown any instances of brilliance? A GM who can't even land a decent second baseball. Frankly if I owned a business with a manager who couldn't even make half of the decisions right I wouldn't be keeping him a year let alone 7. The Rockies don't want to win, they just want to get by. They will shroud themselves in the mid market mantra claiming they can't compete and continue to lead us fans along. Complacency and losing is okay. Heck anymore in America as long as the owners eke out a profit what does it really matter with the little guy or the baseball fan?

Demand accountability and demand excellence. Owning a baseball team ain't cheap so why do it if you aren't in it to win. Establish a desire to be the best, expect it from the groundskeeper to the manager. Expect that winning is the expected outcome. There is no reason why the Rox's manager should still have a job. Owner's can't fire a team but they can put the team on notice that losing is not okay. By keeping the manager around the Monforts are saying to Denver and everyone else in baseball that losing is acceptable in Denver. We pay players to lose. Come to Denver and don't expect any expectations or accountability...I find it unbelievable that supposedly successful businessmen who get into the world of baseball can't step up to the plate and make decisions like firing the manager. It takes a little more to be a champion, make the hard decisions and make the team accountable. Every city deserves a champion.