As I scrolled through X, formerly known as Twitter, trying to spark an idea for this article I came across this post from Altitude’s Vic Lombardi.

Topic on @AltitudeSR 92.5 this morning is baseball.
Never in my life have I been more disconnected with the sport of baseball than I am right now. Not proud about it. Sad. Almost ashamed. I love the game. I grew up romanticizing the game. I barely care anymore. What happened?

— Vic Lombardi (@VicLombardi) March 19, 2024

I’ll admit, I don’t listen to Altitude Sports Radio because it’s only available via their app on my phone and I really only listen to the radio if I’m traveling, which I don’t do much at all, so I can’t speak to the exact conversation that was held on Altitude. While Lombardi is talking about baseball as a whole, the hint of Rockies in the sentiment, however, is something that I have noticed continually growing in the Rockies community.

I sympathize with those who have lost their passion for the game, especially when it comes to the Rockies. For over 30 years, it’s mostly been a disappointment if the goal is to win. The Rockies have never won a World Series, won more than 92 games in a season, and have yet to win their division. There have been a slew of infuriating decisions from the team, particularly from the ownership and everything just feels abysmal and hopeless.

It’s easy to feel this way especially when you look at the competition around the league. The National League West has left the Rockies in the dust. Los Angeles dumped over $1 billion on free agents and extensions this past offseason as they have seemingly endless resources to build their team. San Francisco has shown they have deep pockets but also a keen ability to develop pitching. San Diego has tried its best to spend and trade for top talent, even if it hasn’t panned out the way they hoped. Then you have Arizona, which is coming off a World Series berth and has a swath of incredible young talent paired with some quality veteran acquisitions. There is little doubt the Rockies are destined for a last-place finish once again.

When compared to the other major sports teams in Colorado, the Rockies are no doubt the odd man out. They remain the only team without a championship title in their history and it has become more glaring as the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets dominate their respective leagues with two of the best players in their respective sports. Yes, the Denver Broncos have been a dumpster fire since 2016, but they still get credit due to a longer history of winning. It’s easy for Lombardi and others to stop caring about baseball when you have more exciting things happening in Denver away from 20th and Blake.

This onslaught of disappointment from the Rockies has taken a toll. Since the high of a playoff berth in 2018, the Rockies are coming off a season where they reached the lowest point of their history. If the trade of Nolan Arenado wasn’t enough to break the camel’s back for a lot of fans, a 103-loss season was probably enough to finish the job. I understand the frustration, the anger, and the general lack of interest in the team, and a lot of those feelings are justified.

So, why do I still care about the Rockies?

Well, it helps when you have a slight financial incentive to cover the team via articles and podcasts, even if it isn’t much, but my reasons are deeper than that.

I love baseball. From the time I was a little kid, I idolized my oldest brother and the sport he would play. Everything I initially learned about baseball came from what he taught me in the backyard. The love of the Rockies was passed down to me from him and my father who have been fans since day one. You’ll even recognize my brother Dustin from the Every Rockie Ever podcast. So, for me and many others, we associate the Rockies with the family, friends, and loved ones that we share the game with. Conversations on the phone often devolve into talking about the Rockies and venting our frustrations.

The Rockies are enough to make you pull your hair out and give up caring about the game. They truly test you as a fan and make you ponder the question of whether you just care about certain players, the team, or baseball in general.

In 2021 I faced this question.

About two months before the Arenado trade went down, I was sitting in a little pizza shop in San Diego where I had attended the MLB Winter Meetings job fair. I saw the news of rumors on my phone and stated to a college friend on the trip, “If the Rockies trade Arenado then I’m done.” This friend quickly scolded me and even said I wasn’t a “real fan then” because of this sentiment. This isn’t to say that if you stopped caring that you aren’t a real fan, it was just something that stuck with me personally.

Two months later, the unthinkable happened and Arenado was in Cardinal red and the universe had called my bluff. I stuck with the team but since then, it has been hard to be a fan of the Rockies. As I’ve followed the team closer than ever the past three seasons, I ultimately discovered the reasons why I still care about the Rockies and came to the conclusion that it was because I care about certain players, I care about the team as a whole, and I just love baseball.

I’ve stated before in articles that I refuse to base my love of baseball on what Dick Monfort chooses to do with the Rockies. I care about the team and the sport because they are interconnected with things and memories that I hold dear. I have also worked to find the silver linings and positives while following the team recontextualizing my expectations. Yes, I would love for the team to pursue big free agents and spend money wisely to improve the team. I would love to win World Series titles. Most of all, however, I want a competitive product on the field that persists from year to year, or at the very least isn’t abysmal to watch every time.

I’ve learned to take more joy in watching the farm system and the future of the team. I’m chomping at the bit to see Jordan Beck, Chase Dollander, Zac Veen, and Drew Romo take the field for the Rockies. I’m learning to love the new generation of Rockies that are younger than me and are tasked with trying to pave the way forward. I’m looking deeper for reasons to love the game, rather than reasons to give up on them. Even unrefined comments from Kris Bryant can’t shake that determination.

I love the Rockies and probably foolishly have some degree of optimism for the coming season. I would encourage those like Lombardi and fans that have strayed away or given up, to come back and try to give the current team of players a chance. There are players with potential and more on the way that can make Rockies games fun again. They are going to lose and may even have one of the worst records in the league, but the rebuild has begun and now is a great time to jump back on the bandwagon and see where this journey takes us.

Where we are going is more important than where we’ve been and with an eye towards the future, I want to see where that promised land may reside. That’s why I still care about the Rockies.