Blind Arrogance, Blind Stupidity, Blind Trust
By: Connor Farrell
Tags: Colorado Rockies, Baseball, MLB

Image: Denver Post

Last week, in a weird move that the team never really fully explained, the Rockies concluded they wouldn’t be holding press conferences this winter. Nick Groke put it so bluntly as to call the decision a “middle finger” to the fans. This past weekend, in a series of email replies that Dick Monfort can’t stop himself from sending, the owner confirmed Groke’s analysis.

Dick Monfort thinks you’re too stupid to understand how this all works.

Over the past decade and a half, technology has connected fans to sports in ways that were previously unheard of. From the ability to track and watch minor league prospects nearly as easily as the team’s employed scouts to the ability to connect with team leadership on multiple fronts, tech has allowed fans to almost be part of the process. They can not only provide their opinion on just about anyone in the organization, they can provide it to the people that make decisions. This is obviously terrible if you’re a decision maker but it’s a rapidly evolving part of sports fandom that is engaging and keeping fans involved even when the team on the field is bad, so it certainly isn’t the worst thing to happen to them. But still, for Dick Monfort and Jeff Bridich, the fans are increasingly the most annoying part of the job.

There are a select few jobs where the peanut gallery is a fairly constant presence. Journalism, art, athletics in any variety, politician. To work in one of these jobs and live under the false pretense that you shouldn’t have to deal with whiny onlookers is an arrogance that I have yet to come to terms with. Journalists whining that their tweets have gotten a bad reception is one example, Rand Paul posting that people shouldn’t yell at him in the streets is another. Sorry, you took a job where people know your name and your decisions impact people, you have to get yelled at from time to time.

The “Trust the Process” era of sports has kept this peanut gallery at bay. Or, at least caused division within its ranks. The idea being that the organizations failure on the field and in the standings is all part of a plan to welcome in a new era of success. This era has seen it’s successes (Cubs, Astros) and it’s failures (Sixers). I’ll admit that I was once a buyer of this belief. I believed that organizations often have a guiding principle behind their reluctance to have constant success. I defended the Rockies plan as early as 2015! I saw a youth movement that promised success. But, The Process in Denver skipped it’s step two. It built a core of youth that grew up together and started to succeed, then, though, you’re supposed to make savvy and smart acquisitions to fill the spots that you couldn’t develop. The Rockies decided that step was for the birds. They decided that step should be just as cost effective as the others, they decided they had to look cute doing that so that people would praise them for their out of the box genius. Now that’s failed, now that Process isn’t working. Now is when a smart leader would adjust and reflect. Now is when a smart leader would listen to critical analysis of the work. See, you’re given leeway with The Process at first. You’re given a few years of Trust. But, when The Process shows cracks, people like me feel pretty dumb for defending you. People like me start to ask questions.

Bridich has long had an issue with fans asking those questions. In 2019, Jeff asked if people complain to brain surgeons in the same way that they complain about his free agency decisions. He wasn’t exactly trying to compare baseball operations to brain surgery, but he was trying to tell you that you’re a huge dipshit that has no clue what you’re talking about. Now Jeff doesn’t even want to deal with your bullshit. He’s decided what he does is too above your paygrade to explain. Even a brain surgeon will let you know why he has to take your insurance card and crack open your skull, Jeff just asks that you stop wondering if his ideas are good and simply purchase the product he’s providing.

Which brings us to this weekend. Dick Monfort, now having backed his Bridich horse for another year, received several emails from fans asking about Jeff’s relationship with Nolan, why they won’t be speaking to fans, and their plan for the coming season. Dick responded with that classic charm he is so well known for, telling fans they’re stupid and forget all the good things they’ve done recently. Including, claiming that fans had no idea who Trevor Story was before he got called up. Now, it’s not silly or surprising to see Dick defend his guy. He kept Jeff on for another year, at this point it is a reflection on his decision making ability. His defensiveness over Jeff is probably justified. But, in a continued trend of team-to-fan messaging, Dick brings up that they know more than you so just sit down and accept what they give you. It’s all part of a plan that you just don’t understand, dummy. You didn’t even know the team’s top prospect! But Jeff did, because he’s a genius.

For years, sports leadership has had a mystique of “the plan” behind it and it seems like the internet has democratized the information of “the plan” to an extent. Do we know everything the Rockies know? Obviously not. But more than any other era, we can have enough of the same information to make educated statements about “the plan”. The mystique is narrowing. The moves are analyzed in real time, if not guessed by fans beforehand. Technology and connected community have pulled the curtain down behind the Oz machine and for the Braintrust at Coors Field, that’s a problem. For Dick and Jeff, the idea that fans would be able to use that tech to come to educated stances is either foreign or disgusting. They either refuse to comprehend that fans would know who Trevor Story (a first round draft pick and top prospect in the Rockies system) would be or they’re disgusted that fans would know that information and would be able to formulate an educated critique of their work based on that.

Jeff and Dick are, at their core, arrogant. They are telling you they are smarter than you and that you don’t deserve to be looped in on their plan. It’s either that, or they’re mad that fans keep nailing their plan to the wall as it fails year after year. They are also stupid. Or at least, they haven’t proven that they aren’t. Most arrogant people end up stupid. There is wisdom in accepting failure, after all. It is stupid to keep trying the failing plan, it is stupid to think the plan just needs more time to work as it continues to fail.

They want you to trust them with no accountability. They would like your money without having to sell you the product. Dick Monfort would like his 300 some odd million dollars of revenue per year without having to explain to you why he should have it. If this were any other business, you wouldn’t stop hearing about the company’s decision to tell their customers to fuck off. If Coca-Cola was asked why their new product sucks and they responded by telling people to shut up because they aren’t in the room when these things were developed, Jim Cramer would have a melt down on his show. I would get fifty alerts from Robinhood about Coca-Cola stock dropping 9%. I’m not a believer in the free market or in the ethics of consumerism, but I know why PR departments exist.

Dick Monfort is telling you that you’re a big loser dipshit who didn’t even know who Trevor Story was and that’s why you should spend $150 on tickets, parking, and beer the next time you’re in town. He’s telling you that those things you read from journalists and bloggers (not sure what those are sorry) are just nonsense because they, like you, don’t understand the plan. Dick and Jeff aren’t brain surgeons or airline pilots, because those people respect you. They’re more like an annoyed father and they view you as a toddler asking why we can’t go to the zoo. They’re not asking for your trust, they’re demanding it. They know better and you should shut up.

If it were me, and I’m just spit balling here, but if it were me and I wanted to stop getting angry emails from fans demanding answers about the product I provide…I would simply improve the product.

Blind arrogance is keeping Dick and Jeff angry that fans want to know the plan. Blind stupidity is keeping this plan from being adjusted. Blind trust is what they’re demanding of fans. But don’t worry, arrogance and stupidity has never failed a leadership group before.