It’s finally come. We’ve started a new season of pain, otherwise known as Colorado Rockies baseball. And so, my fellow acolytes of the Purple (are there any left?), I have a question for you.
Will the Rockies be bad this year? Or will they be really, really, really bad?
Believe it or not, the distinction matters.
Scott Rochat / Rochat, Can You See?
We know the extremely bad. After last season, we know it in a way that’s more intimate than ever before. In a long stretch of painful Rockies baseball, last season was the year that burned the scorecard and then danced on the ashes. Pretty much every commentator in the game predicted an awful year for the Rockies in 2025 … and in the end, that turned out to be optimistic.
But this offseason, the Rockies were going to Make Some Moves. They hired a new baseball mind who was going to Shake Things Up. They had a spring training run that was Not Too Bad … which would mean more if it weren’t for the fact that last year’s Cactus League run was also More or Less Decent.
And so, like the out of control bus on the ice with no brakes, we know it’s going to be bad. But we can’t say how bad until the collision comes.
And once again, it really does make a difference whether we’re looking at Awful or Apocalyptic.
If we’re still wandering in the wilderness, forget it. Sell the season tickets and stand outside Coors Field with a picket sign saying WHEN WILL BASEBALL COME TO DENVER? We know this song and it has gotten old.
But if we’re merely bad — that may be a sign for hope. That can be bad with a purpose.
Because as the saying goes, you have to be bad before you can be good.
Most of us know this in our own life, though it’s easy to forget. It takes thousands of hours to become a skilled musician or mechanic or medical brain specialist. But when we struggle in the early going, a lot of us throw up our hands and say “I can’t do this — I quit.” (Hopefully not in the middle of a brain surgery.)
That’s because most of us have bought into the myth of talent.
I don’t mean to say that talent doesn’t exist. Some people really do seem to have an instinct that lets them learn at Mozart-like speeds, while some are more or less tone-deaf. But there’s a long, long spectrum in between — one that’s defined by how much you’re willing to endure and learn from along the way.
Muscles ache before they become strong.
Move that to the sports world and … well, as Denver fans, we’ve had a master class in the distinction. We know the difference between the years when the Broncos just seemed to be playing How Fast Can We Fire Our Coach or Quarterback THIS Time? and when they actually seemed to have a direction. The latter eventually built to something … almost to a Super Bowl, in fact.
As one sports outlet pointed out, the Rockies can improve and still lose 100 games this year. Will the effort be there? On the field, in the front office, in the places where it counts?
We can’t answer that yet for our ball club. But we can try to answer it for ourselves. Forget Hollywood. Let yourself be bad at something. Take the time it needs to become passable, OK and honestly good. Build the momentum it takes, whether you’re learning a skill, improving a situation or changing the nation.
And if you watch some baseball while you do it, try to hold out at least a little hope for the future of the Men in Purple.
Even when it’s more like The Black and Blue.