The simple genius of William P. Geivett
(Photo, Denver Post)
“By reaching down to the high school ranks to pluck Walt Weiss as manager and by bringing back Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla and Trenidad Hubbard, Geivett insured that the Colorado Rockies coaching staff actually cares about the Colorado Rockies. Let’s face it, not many people do.”
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I keep reminding myself not to get too excited. The Rockies have only won one series. It happened to be their opening series and it happened to be on the road and it happened to feature solid pitching and hitting that was just plain lights-out, but it wasn’t enough that it should breed optimism … was it?
The Rockies are coming odd the worst season in franchise history, and despite their lovely showing in Milwaukee, they are guilty until proven innocent where being bottom feeders is concerned. Today they sit atop the NL West, but it’s unlikely to remain that way. Soon their golden carriage will inevitably turn back into a pumpkin and we will all make a sport of criticizing them – just like last year.
Even when they do return to their losing ways, though, the Rockies will have accomplished something pretty neat – and it’s something for which they can thank the simple genius of William P Geivett.
By reaching down to the high school ranks to pluck Walt Weiss as manager and by bringing back Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla and Trenidad Hubbard, Geivett insured that the Colorado Rockies coaching staff actually cares about the Colorado Rockies. Let’s face it, not many people do. Across the MLB stratosphere, the Rockies are an afterthought – but not to these guys.
We all poked fun at the team in the off-season for bringing back so many familiar faces. It was assumed that Geivett and Dan O’Dowd, his less-visible partner in crime, were doing it in order to attract fans to Coors Field so that the Monforts could enjoy their dollars while doing as little as possible to improve the team. In that sense, we might have gotten ahead of ourselves. The fact that Weiss and Company truly care about the ball club might pay dividends.
A wayward manager would have seen the Colorado gig as just a job. For Weiss it’s the only job. As Mark Kiszla pointed out in this morning’s Denver Post, the new skipper will soon find out that managing at Coors Field is no picnic, but where else could he have gone. If Geivett hadn’t called he would still be at Regis Jesuit High School.
Righting the Rockies’ ship is a monumental challenge. To borrow a phrase, if you can make it here you can make it anywhere. If Weiss and hit collection of recycled Rockies can make a dent this season it will look pretty nifty on their resumes. It will also make Bill Geivett look a whole lot smarter than we thought he was. And wouldn’t that be nice?
