Though he\u2019s not in a position to steer the franchise as he once did, he said significant changes are needed in the front office, and he\u2019s told Dick that in no uncertain terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rockies are still my baby,\u201d he told The Denver Post between sips of black coffee on Wednesday morning. \u201cI see what the fans see, and it crushes me. I\u2019m one of those people who compartmentalize, so I try not to think too much about it. But if you pry me open \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Monfort paused for a moment before continuing.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I see that team and how it\u2019s doing, it makes me want to cry,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause I have the memories of the past, just like the fans do.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is Charlie\u2019s solution?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need a new set of eyeballs,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to give someone the opportunity. Someone who knows baseball and has lived and breathed baseball, and sometimes, died with baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone who knows everything that all of the good teams we face do, from grassroots on up. Someone who is going to stand by their decisions because they are going to live with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Rockies](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/TDP-L-CharlieMonfort0625-01.jpg\")
Rockies co-owner Charlie Monfort enjoys a quiet moment after breakfast at Roasty’s Diner in Greeley (Photo by Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post)<\/p>\n
Dick, 71, the lightning rod for the fans\u2019 wrath in recent years, agrees \u2014 to a certain extent. At least, that\u2019s what he told The Post during a phone interview Friday morning, though he declined to delve into specifics about what personnel changes are being contemplated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not only Charlie\u2019s opinion, it\u2019s the public\u2019s in general, and I get it,\u201d Dick said. \u201cThere is a criticism, which is fair, that we are very loyal, insular, and we promote from within.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Dick also noted, as others have, that playing baseball at altitude in Denver is a different animal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have this dynamic of playing somewhere where nobody else plays,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s easier for an outsider to say, \u2018Well, I would do this, or I would have done that.\u2019 This is a tough place to play. It has its little intricacies that other places don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I agree that what has gone on over the last few years is not representative of what we want. I think there are a lot of reasons for that. But it probably is time to have somebody who has a fresh opinion, a fresh set of eyes. \u2026 I\u2019m not opposed to bringing people in from the outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I trust Charlie\u2019<\/p>\n
While Dick remains the boss of the Rockies and makes the final decisions about the club\u2019s personnel, Charlie has more of a voice in the team\u2019s direction than he has in years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trust Charlie, and more importantly, Charlie is a smart guy,\u201d Dick said. \u201cHe sometimes doesn\u2019t act like it, but he is absolutely a guy of substance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlie has a bachelor\u2019s degree in marketing and business management from Utah. Before he became one of the Rockies\u2019 owners, he served in leading roles in the Monfort family\u2019s cattle and meatpacking company.<\/p>\n
Over the last couple of years, the brothers have met regularly, and Charlie attends the partners\u2019 meetings. While he doesn\u2019t have a hand in the Rockies\u2019 day-to-day operations, Dick said that Charlie is involved in decisions that are \u201cnewsworthy.\u201d For example, when longtime manager Bud Black was fired<\/a> in May following the team\u2019s 7-33 start, Charlie weighed in.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have talked a lot, and I think Charlie is more engaged now than he was a few years ago,\u201d Dick said.<\/p>\n Charlie\u2019s Rockies roots run deep. A Colorado native, he and Dick are the sons of Kenneth Monfort, the millionaire beef baron<\/a> who died in 2001. \u201cKenny\u201d owned Monfort of Colorado Inc., a meatpacking and distributing company based in Greeley that was acquired by ConAgra Foods in 1987.<\/p>\n In 1992, while Dick continued to head operations for ConAgra, Charlie sunk $10 million of his ConAgra stock into Rockies\u2019 limited stock. When the original ownership group headed by Mickey Monus and John Antonucci crumbled, Charlie put up an additional $8.5 million to purchase the controlling general partnership stock.<\/p>\n While Monus served a 10-year sentence in prison after being convicted of 109 counts of fraud and embezzlement related to his Phar-Mor chain of drugstores, Charlie helped rescue the Rockies.<\/p>\n He was involved in the team\u2019s business operations and was Dick\u2019s boss until Charlie\u2019s battle with alcohol made that role untenable. He was twice arrested in Northern Colorado<\/a> for driving under the influence, first in 1999 and again in 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m extremely disappointed in myself for the decision I made to drink and drive and the potential risk I caused to other innocent people,\u201d Monfort said in a statement released by the Rockies after his second DUI.<\/p>\n Looking back on those days, Charlie says now, \u201cI see pictures of myself back then and I think, \u2018Oh my God.’\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I wasn\u2019t all there\u2019<\/p>\n According to Charlie, his role with the Rockies began to disintegrate in April 2010 when team president Keli McGregor died at age 47 of a rare virus that infected his heart muscle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt sounds like kind of a cop out, but Keli and I got along really well,\u201d Charlie said. \u201cBut when he passed away, and I was going through my divorce \u2026 I was in a bad place.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was the booze. In 2010, \u201911 and \u201912, Dick took control (as president) after Keli\u2019s passing, I gave all that up. Because with Keli not being there, it wasn\u2019t the same, and I got into a bad place with alcohol and stuff. I wasn\u2019t capable of making decisions. I squared myself away from time to time, but never enough to really add much. I lost trust with Dick, and, quite frankly, I don\u2019t blame him, because I wasn\u2019t all there.\u201d<\/p>\n Dick remembers that period a little differently.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we were ever in a bad place, but (the relationship) did become strained,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were some times, yes, when some things caused some problems, but I think that happens with any siblings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are different people. I\u2019m more conservative. He\u2019s very outgoing. People love Charlie and he\u2019s easygoing. I\u2019m a little more structured and a little more stern. But it was good for both of us, and we needed to play off each other. I was often jealous of the fact that he had an easiness to him that I never did. But we worked together a lot at the Rockies, and for a time, Charlie was actually the boss.\u201d<\/p>\n But, in Dick\u2019s opinion, Charlie grew tired of baseball\u2019s daily grind.<\/p>\n \u201cHe loves to travel and he loves to meet people and do things, and I\u2019m more of a sit and ground everything out kind of guy,\u201d Dick said.<\/p>\n Asked if he misses being more involved with the Rockies, Charlie reminisced about the \u201ccharacters in the game\u201d who used to make up MLB\u2019s franchise ownership class \u2014 people like George Steinbrenner, Jackie Autry and August Busch III.<\/p>\n The game has changed a lot since the Monforts first got into the business. Several teams have changed hands as franchise valuations have risen into the billions of dollars and payrolls have risen with them. Forbes estimates<\/a> the Rockies franchise to be worth $1.475 billion \u2014 a far cry from the $95 million expansion fee paid by the Rockies in 1993.<\/p>\n \u201cI say to Dick, \u2018Do you guys have any fun?\u2019 We used to smoke cigars and tell stories. He said, \u2018No, we don\u2019t do that. We just go to the meetings,\u201d Charlie said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a different day. I don\u2019t think I would like it as much, though I would probably handle it differently.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Rockies Balboa\u2019<\/p>\n Charlie declined to talk about the specifics of his drinking problem with The Post or how long he\u2019s been sober. But, he insisted he\u2019s been sober for \u201csome time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t even know my (sobriety) day,\u201d he said. \u201cI will tell you that I have had relapses off and on, but not for a long time. Once I said to myself, \u2018This is not good for me, this is not fun anymore,\u2019 I didn\u2019t want to drink anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Dick said his younger brother is \u201cabsolutely\u201d in a better place, and cited Charlie\u2019s willingness to talk publicly as a good sign.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think, in the past, he would never acknowledge to anybody what he told (The Post),\u201d Dick said. \u201cI think that is a big step. I was somewhat shocked to hear he did that. So, I think he\u2019s in a good place. I hope he is. I\u2019m happy for him. I love Charlie.\u201d<\/p>\n Charlie said he still finds plenty of ways to remain active. He serves on multiple boards, including one with the Global Down Syndrome Foundation, and has even taken up a new hobby as he approaches his late 60s: Horse racing.<\/p>\n While attending a fundraiser for the Utah Utes baseball program, Charlie bought a trip during the auction to tour the paddocks at Saratoga Springs in upstate New York. He quickly fell in love with horse racing. Months later, after the trip, he got talked into purchasing a 2-year-old thoroughbred race horse for $150,000. He named it \u201cRockies Balboa\u201d because Charlie loves Balboa Park in San Diego, loves the underdog stories of Rocky Balboa and Seabiscuit, and, of course, because of the baseball team.<\/p>\n \u201cRockies Balboa\u201d is currently being trained in Kentucky, and even though $150,000 is not a lot to pay for a thoroughbred, the horse has shown well, and Charlie hopes the horse might run in marquee races next year.<\/p>\n \u201cThey say he\u2019s got an opportunity to be a real horse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Charlie said he spends most of his time in Greeley these days. He adores the \u201cMidwest feel\u201d of the town and referred to it as \u201cGod\u2019s country\u201d in a message sent to The Post.\u00a0 As recently as 2019, he traveled to all seven continents in one year. But he said he doesn\u2019t travel quite as much now.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople ask me, \u2018What do you do all day?\u2019 And I say, \u201cI don\u2019t know, but I stay pretty busy.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Back in the game\u2019<\/p>\n Baseball and the Rockies remain near and dear to Charlie\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/TDP-L-CharlieDickMonfort-JAC-02.jpg\")
From left to right, Colorado Rockies head coach Jim Leyland talks with Rockies owners Charlie and Dick Monfort at spring training camp in Tucson, Arizona, Feb. 26, 1999. (Photo by Andy Cross\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n![\"Rockies](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/TDP-L-Monfort-McGregor-01.jpg\")
Rockies owner Charlie Monfort sobs as he hugs an unidentified man before the memorial service for Rockies President Keli McGregor at Coors Field in Denver, April 25, 2010. His wife, Vanessa Monfort, stands just behind him to the right. (Photo by Judy DeHaas\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n![\"Colorado](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/TDP-Z-CharlieDickMonfort-AP-01.jpg\")
Colorado Rockies co-owner Charlie Monfort, front, joins his brother and co-owner, Dick, in surveying the crowd during a ceremony to retire the number of retired first baseman’s Todd Helton before the Rockies host the Cincinnati Reds in a baseball game in Denver on Aug. 17, 2014. (AP Photo\/David Zalubowski)<\/p>\n