It has been a tough summer for the Monfort brothers.
Not only is their Rockies baseball team in the National League dumps, their most versatile player doesn’t eat beef.
Desi Relaford used to eat his share of cheeseburgers, but during the holidays last winter, he decided to trim red meat from his diet. For the past seven months, he has digested all types of seafood and has discovered a couple of Denver-area specialty stores that sell range-free chicken.
But if the Monforts and the late Clara Peller are wondering, “Where’s the beef?” – the answer is, not on Desi’s plate.
“It’s nothing religious or spiritual or anything like that,” said Relaford, who had been filling the Rockies’ super-sub role until he replaced the injured Clint Barmes at shortstop. “It’s just a little research I did, read some stuff about how meats are processed nowadays. It’s really not healthy.”
Whoa, there. The Monfort family once was as synonymous with meat as the Coors family is with beer. It was Rockies vice chairman Dick Monfort, older brother of Rockies chairman Charlie Monfort, who once led the family’s cattle-feeding operation from near bankruptcy to prosperity before selling out, at a sizable stock profit, to ConAgra.
“Did they?” Relaford said. “Well, you do what you’ve got to do.”
He stopped to laugh at his politically correct comeback. Relaford still likes his Cheetos and soft-serve ice cream, so it’s not like he’s a health fanatic. But he has always been intrigued by natural remedies and holistic medicine. And to compensate for his beef void, he makes sure he drinks his protein shakes.
“I wouldn’t preach to anybody to not eat meat,” Relaford said. “It’s just personal preference. Since I’ve gone this way, I feel better. Not that I was a sickly person, but I haven’t had a sniffle or cough since I started this.”
Prior’s return lift for Hawpe
Even if he couldn’t be blamed, the Rockies’ Brad Hawpe felt badly about the line drive he hit May 27 that fractured the right elbow of Chicago Cubs ace Mark Prior. At the time, there was fear Prior’s season was finished, so Hawpe was relieved Sunday upon learning the right-hander returned from the injury 30 days later and pitched six shutout innings in a 2-0 win.
“I definitely had guilt because I saw the pain he was in,” Hawpe said. “You never want to cause pain to anybody in baseball. You can’t aim where you hit the ball. I’m just trying to hit the ball hard. But I know we both wish that ball had just gone right past him into center field. I was happy to see him back out there.”
Footnotes
Second baseman Aaron Miles will return from the disabled list today, and the Rockies will send pinch-hitter Ryan Shealy back to Triple-A Colorado Springs. … Although the plan remains for pitcher Aaron Cook to return to the Rockies by Aug. 1, manager Clint Hurdle said: “It’s possible after the all-star break. Maybe the third week of July it’s possible, with no setbacks.” … Reliever Juan Acevedo is healthy enough to go out on a minor-league rehab assignment.
