Hurdle to Disgruntled Fans: Stop coming.
On the last night of June, the Rockies were playing debased ball in debasement of the National League.
On the first day of July, the Rockies produced a striking magnum opus.
Aaron Cook is the oasis in the Rockies’ desert. The Rockies beat the Padres, 4-0, in the shortest (1:58) nine-inning game of all time at Coors Field — and maybe the sharpest of all time for the Rockies.
July Forth.
Disgruntled Fans to Hurdle: Start Playing Like That.
Clint Hurdle spoke softly Tuesday afternoon, but his words echoed loudly. During his routine pregame Q&A with the media, the Rox manager was asked how he would respond to increased criticism of the team, as expressed by e-mailers to newspapers.
“Stop coming, then. That’s the best statement you can make,” Hurdle said. “We are a no-excuse ballclub, and we are not making excuses. We are trying to get it right. . . . If you don’t believe in the club, you don’t believe in the club. Did you believe in it last year and now you don’t? That’s your issue, and I understand that, and I appreciate it. But e-mails are just that.”
The purpose here is not to condemn Hurdle for his straightforward “Stop coming, then” proclamation. It’s certainly not as inflammatory as the Carmelo “We quit” declaration.
And, of course, Rockies’ attendance at Coors Field did plummet from 3.9 million (1996) to 1.9 million (2005) as purple people did show their dissatisfaction by not showing.
But, despite Hurdle’s recommendation, it’s not so simple to “Just Say No to Rox Tix.”
Approximately 19,000 season tickets were bought (at higher prices) by Rockies fans who did “believe in the club” this season. And they did come Monday night after the Rockies’ seven-game total waste of a road trip. The crowd of 43,000 — bolstered by significant walk-up sales and the (publicly unannounced) purchase of about 12,000 tickets by a real estate company — booed in the ninth when the Rockies looked like a softball beer-league team. The audience put up, so they didn’t have to shut up.
What are the choices for advance ticket (full season, partial packages or single game) holders?
Marie Antoinette might say: “Let them eat tickets.”
In this economy, and at these prices, typical folk can’t afford to choke at the dinner table on tickets. They might try to sell the tickets online or in the streets of LoDo, if they want to accept a substantial loss.
Even though they don’t care for the Rockies, people in these parts may love the Mets, the Cardinals and the Braves. So, is Hurdle telling them to not come, then, if they want to see other teams and stars, first-place teams and fireworks? And are they supposed to tell sons and daughters, mothers and uncles who want to spend a day in the sunshine or a night in the coolness of the ballpark that they’ve decided not to come — now or then — because they must protest. Unfair.
Maybe the only way for people to express the season of their discontent is to jeer the players (and the manager) and send e-mails to columnists and call radio talk shows and write Internet blogs and complain to their neighbors over the fence.
They have discovered that staying away doesn’t mean the ownership is listening.
Maybe, just maybe, they don’t stop coming (26,221 on Tuesday night) because they keep hoping that the Rockies will return to last year’s Camelot. (At a time when many local people were forced to stop coming — then — because the Rockies fouled up the ticket distribution.)
For one bright and shining moment on Tuesday, the Rockies were the knights of Camelot again. ROCJULY!
Aaron Cook pitched the most masterful game of his career and a brilliant season — a five-hit, complete game shutout over the San Diego Padres (33-52), who have proven to be as inept as the Rockies (33-51) this season.
Cook, who pitched as if he were parked at a meter in LoDo, made sure the bullpen didn’t mess up his gemstone. He never departed and threw only 79 — seventy-sizzling- nine — pitches.
The Rockies had timely hits, stolen bases, flawless defense and a sense of purpose rarely observed in 2008. They were a ballclub.
Monday night’s seven-run meltdown in the ninth and 15-8 defeat was the worst of the season, and Tuesday night’s 4-0 victory was the best.
If the Rockies don’t want their fans to stop coming, then, they’ve got to stop playing the fools and continue performing as they did on Tuesday evening, then.
That’s a statement.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
