The Colorado Rockies have announced Walt Weiss as their new manager today, someone I like immensely and wish all the success to. Here is a post about the Rockies’ 2012 season I wrote shortly after the season ended.
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I think the only Colorado Rockies season I enjoyed less than this one was 2005.
That was the Todd and the Toddlers year, a nickname which still makes my skin crawl. They went 67-95, and once they turfed holdovers from previous not-quite-as-shitty years like Charles Johnson, Preston Wilson, Dustan Mohr and Aaron Miles, they let the kids take over and started a real rebuilding program. They were tough to watch except for Fuentes who killed it, and Aaron Cook, who managed to be better than every other starting pitcher despite overcoming a pulmonary embolism that nearly fucking murdered him a year earlier. By the end of the year, there was hope, but I had stopped watching way before then and thus, didn’t give a shit. I was back on board the following Spring though.
This year I should feel even worse because there is no hope. This team is godawful, and without major shakeups (firing O’Dowd and/or a ton of other people in leadership roles) and a shitload of luck, it’s going to continue to suck for the foreseeable future. But I don’t dismiss this season entirely, if only because I understand why gambling should always be “for entertainment purposes only.”
Kristin and I went to Las Vegas earlier this year and decided in a bit of whimsy to put a futures bet on the Colorado Rockies to win both the National League Pennant, and the World Series. We spent $30 total on these two bets, the next hour or so talking about the Rockies’ chances to win and daydreaming about how it would feel for our team to win the World Series and get $1,100 in the process, and then the next two months following the team optimistically before being forced to give up because it turns out this team was puke.
I don’t regret our $30 donation to Caesar’s Palace, nor do I regret perhaps being a bit too moony over a team with a ton of glaring weaknesses before the season started. I’m happy I made that bet because putting down good money for all the fun thoughts and optimistic daydreaming it inspired was well worth the investment. I think chasing this feeling is what the Total Recall movies are about.
Would I do it again? Probably not, only because at this point I’d be chasing the dragon. I’m not making another misguided futures bet basically because you can’t experience losing your virginity again. After getting burned by this wet fart of a season, I’ll be way too wary to ever make another one rendering the innocence and optimism impossible.
But I’ll always think of our post-bet lunch at Serendipity III outside Caesar’s fondly and convincing myself it was a good idea to sign Jeremy Guthrie. And that makes this season not a total loss. Which is more than I can probably say for the majority of Rockies fans.
I fully understand the day-dreaming aspect you described here, and let me tell you it doesn’t go away. In 2011 I placed a bet for the Oakland A’s to win it all and often imagined how it would feel when they did. They didn’t even come close (but dammit if that ticket didn’t hang on my fridge until the last out of the World Series). But jump ahead to the end of this season when the A’s went on one of the most incredible runs and I found myself thinking about what if I had made the wager this year and they won? But it became better this time around, since it was all theoretical I was able to put more money in and win more and spend it more ridiculously. Every off-season move creates a whole new season of day-dreaming the what ifs.