Editor’s note: In the Colorado Classics series, The Denver Post takes a weekly look at individuals who made their mark on the Colorado sports landscape and what they are doing now.
Jerry McMorris remembers the Saturday in late July in 1992 because he was making a non-office-hours visit to his trucking company in Commerce City.
It surprised him when his telephone rang, but that wasn’t anywhere near as shocking as what he heard when he answered.
“It was attorney Paul Jacobs calling to tell me that things were unraveling with Mickey Monus,” McMorris said.
Monus, an executive with the Phar-Mor drug company and the principal member of the general partner of the Rockies ownership, was pulling out of his financial commitment to secure Denver’s expansion franchise in the National League.
Jacobs had been the major force in putting together an ownership group for Denver’s franchise. McMorris had answered the call of then-governor Roy Romer to join the ownership that eventually would pay a $95 million fee to join Major League Baseball.
McMorris had agreed to join the ownership group as a limited partner. The ownership setup left the day-to-day management of the organization to Monus and John Antonucci, a business associate of Monus’ in Youngstown, Ohio, and Steve Ehrhart, who, along with Jacobs, had been appointed by Romer to lead the ownership effort.
Monus had informed Jacobs that he had to sever his ties to the Rockies. He was facing accusations of embezzling millions of dollars from Phar-Mor. He eventually was convicted.
The fallout could have been devastating to the Rockies. Not only was there the loss of Monus, but Antonucci also had to decline a financial commitment that left a $20 million hole in funds to pay the expansion fee. There was some urgency involved because the ownership’s note of credit to the National League was due to be converted to cash within a few weeks.
“Pressure was bearing down on us in terms of major-league baseball’s schedule and, quite frankly, there was going to be a large amount of money due within a short time,” McMorris said. “I thought maybe the Colorado partners in the ownership could fix it. I think baseball would say that it was important that somebody stepped up, and preferably people from Colorado.”
McMorris had not wanted to be part of the day-to-day operation of the Rockies. But he contacted some of the other partners to see if any were willing to increase their stake in the franchise. He found Charlie Monfort and the late Oren Benton willing to join him in making up the $20 million shortfall left by Monus and Antonucci.
“It seemed like the right thing to do at the time and I still do,” McMorris said. “Peter Coors said Coors would help in any way it could, but they didn’t want to be involved in the daily operation.”
Antonucci remained for a time as the chief executive officer of the franchise, but McMorris represented the Rockies at baseball’s owners’ meetings.
“We had a lot of decisions to make,” McMorris said. “We were in the middle of putting details together for Coors Field. The previous owners had made a commitment to Bob Gebhard to be our general manager and I didn’t have any second thoughts. I felt he was the right man for the job. We also were finalizing our plans to have our spring training site in Tucson.”
Fourteen years after that phone call, McMorris no longer is involved with the Rockies. He sold his ownership shares to Charlie and Dick Monfort.
“I originally thought I’d be involved for about 10 years,” McMorris said. “I was involved for 12 years. I’ll never forget the experience of going to spring training for the first time. Then, there was our first opening day against the Mets in New York. We came back to Denver for our first home game and Eric Young hit the home run leading off the bottom of the first inning. The home run and the great crowd were huge. Then fast forward to the opening game in Coors Field, making the playoffs in 1995 and our All-Star Game in 1998. All of those things were great for Denver.”
McMorris, 65, has moved on to other things and rarely attends Rockies games. He tends to the family framing and ranching activities near Fort Collins. He’s committee chairman of the horse show at the National Western Stock Show. He’s vice chairman of the Denver Police Foundation and on the board of directors of the Poudre Valley Fire Authority.
“The Rockies are a great franchise, with a great ballpark,” McMorris said. “There’s a great sense of accomplishment. Don Baylor was a great choice for our first manager. Personally, I think we would have been better off slowing down our making the postseason. We thought we were close, but we just never have been able to get our pitching situation totally settled,” McMorris said.
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
