I can’t believe Dan O’Dowd outlasted me.
O’Dowd is the Rockies’ general manager who, despite his record, is about to complete his sixth season and has assurances for a seventh.
If he builds the Rockies into a playoff team by year seven, I won’t be there to chronicle it. After 17 1/2 seasons of covering professional baseball, first for the Triple-A Colorado Springs Sky Sox – whose 1988 roster was put together by a talented young farm director named O’Dowd – and then the Rockies, I’ve decided to pull a Drew Henson.
I’m crossing over. The next story I write will be about the Broncos.
There is a short history of sport multitasking in my family. My Uncle Joe soon will be inducted into the Northern Illinois University Hall of Fame. A recent dusting of the microfiche revealed Uncle Joe not only batted .456 as a sophomore and was an all-conference pitcher as a junior, he also graduated as NIU’s all-time leading rusher.
Some of Uncle Joe’s two-sport genes were passed on. The college buddies never will forget, not if I can help it, the home run I walloped for the Unknown Comics in my final intramural slow-pitch softball season. And as the starting junior quarterback in our high school homecoming game, I guided the team to a 20-0 final.
To this day, my biggest regret was not the two passes that were intercepted and returned for touchdowns, but showing up for the homecoming dance that night. Let that be a lesson to all you youngsters out there: Not even a leisure suit can hide humiliation.
Football or baseball. Baseball or football. In baseball, steroids have ruined the game. In football, steroids are an occupational hazard. Advantage, football.
In the end, the decision to jump was made because the boss asked and mom thought good things happen when you obey the boss, but also because of a life approach inherited from my father – either way, who cares?
I leave baseball not with heavy heart, but regrets? I’ve had a few, none greater than never having covered a World Series at Coors Field. As O’Dowd knows, I have held him most responsible for the team’s recent run of unfortunate records. I never much blamed the Monforts because of the Jeffrey Loria factor. Loria was widely chastised as baseball’s worst owner from 1999-2001. Then, his low-payroll Florida Marlins won the World Series in 2003 and Loria was lauded.
Nor did I fault manager Clint Hurdle because of the Joe Torre factor. Torre was fired three times before he became manager of the Yankees. Everybody so loves Torre now, not even George Steinbrenner will fire him.
To every team but the Yankees, the most important element to postseason success is acquiring the right players. Piece by piece, O’Dowd is the most creative man I’ve met in 17 1/2 seasons. The question is whether he can complete a championship puzzle.
There once was a time when I didn’t think anybody could, but I do now. The humidor is the single biggest reason there’s hope that one day Coors Field will host the Fall Classic. The humidor and the World Series have one thing in common – it’s all about pitching.
As for the Broncos, it’s true they’re graphing in steady mediocrity. At least that’s how I viewed, as a Sunday observer from the sofa, back-to-back Super Bowls in 1998-99 and zero playoff wins in the six seasons since. I might look into that.
Still, the bottom line to the Broncos’ management team of Pat Bowlen and Mike Shanahan is given the proper circumstances – a John Elway here, a Terrell Davis running over there and a little salary-cap fudge here and there – it can figure it out.
There is no such bottom-line proof at the corner of 20th and Blake.
So heads up, Coach Shanahan. And beware, Jake. If there’s one thing about football I’m qualified to judge, it’s a poor quarterback performance.
Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
