Colorado Rockies Affiliations
On September 2, 1992, Jerry McMorris welcomed Charlie Monfort and Oren Benton to join him in buying controlling interest in the Rockies. This came after founding owner Mickey Monus was ensnared in a massive accounting scandal surrounding his Phar-Mor discount drugstores. Dick Monfort later replace Benton in the ownership group, and became vice chairman of the Rockies on December 8, 1997. On March 31, 2003, Charlie was named CEO of the Colorado Rockies, succeeding president Keli McGregor who had taken the role from McMorris in 2001. In 2005, Dick and Charlie Monfort purchased Jerry McMorris’ financial interest in the team, becoming the primary owners. Charlie remained as chairman and CEO until 2011, when he handed both roles to Dick.
The Colorado Rockies led Major League Baseball the first seven seasons of the franchise in attendance under CEO Jerry McMorris. Since 1999 the attendance at Coors field dropped as low as 26th out of 30 teams to 21st in 2007. This has caused uproar from fans and media alike for change from the Monfort brothers with declining attendance and losing seasons. The Colorado Rockies also have a low payroll for its players, ranking 28th out of 30 teams in 2006 at $41,233,000. Many fans and media argue that the Monfort brothers were unwilling to put enough capital to recruit good players for a playoff season. The Monfort brothers are a great proponent of the farm system to develop and grow players in the minor and major leagues.
This argument continues today, even after the Colorado Rockies historic run in the 2007 season, winning 21 out of 22 games; getting the franchise's first berth in the World Series, where they were swept by the Boston Red Sox in four games. In 2009, the Rockies management started to change with the firing of Clint Hurdle after an 11–17 start to the season. Under new skipper Jim Tracy the Colorado Rockies returned to the playoffs for the third time in franchise history, where they would lose in 4 games to the eventual National League champion Philadelphia Phillies.
Read more about this topic: Monfort Brothers
Famous quotes containing the words colorado and/or affiliations:
“I am persuaded that the people of the world have no grievances, one against the other. The hopes and desires of a man who tills the soil are about the same whether he lives on the banks of the Colorado or on the banks of the Danube.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“All the critics who could not make their reputations by discovering you are hoping to make them by predicting hopefully your approaching impotence, failure and general drying up of natural juices. Not a one will wish you luck or hope that you will keep on writing unless you have political affiliations in which case these will rally around and speak of you and Homer, Balzac, Zola and Link Steffens.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)