The Colorado Rockies may have snuck out their ninth win of the season Friday night against the Yankees, but make no mistake, they’re historically bad. They already set the record for the worst 50-game stretch in the modern era and dumped their longtime manager along the way.
They’re unwatchable. So unwatchable, in fact, that one fan is now suing.
According to a lawsuit filed Monday in Denver District Court, Timothy Roeckel suffered “catastrophic and permanent injuries” after getting hit in the face and right eye by a foul ball during a Rockies game, which coincidentally happened the last time the Yankees were in Denver.
Roeckel says he was sitting in a luxury suite at the time.
The story has since picked up national attention, including a segment on CBS Mornings.
“In the lawsuit, his lawyers argue that the stadium has some ‘architectural elements, including an overhang that limits the ability of people to see objects coming from the field,'” said CBS anchor Tony Dokoupil. But the suit also claims — this is what’s getting a lot of attention — ‘poor performance on the field means many spectators are not paying attention to the game in play.'”
To be fair, the Colorado Rockies went 59-103 in 2023. On that fateful July day, they won 8-7 in 11 innings, so that might hurt Roeckel’s argument. The lawsuit doesn’t state when during the game the incident occurred, but Colorado rallied back to win the game with two 11th-inning home runs, including an Alan Trejo walk-off shot.
The Rockies also entered that game with a 35-58 record, already out of playoff contention just five days after the 2023 MLB All-Star Game. So, maybe, he has a little bit of leeway.
Nevertheless, his legal team is arguing that Colorado’s performance on the field has created a disengaged, distracted fan experience, particularly in luxury suites.
“Defendant’s longstanding poor performance on the field (has) contributed to a game-day environment in which spectators, particularly those in luxury suites, are less engaged with the action on the field,” Roeckel’s attorneys argued via The Denver Post.
It’s rare that a franchise’s lack of competitiveness becomes part of a legal defense, but that’s the state of Colorado Rockies baseball. The product is so dull, so detached from anything resembling winning, that lawyers are now arguing fans are zoning out because the games aren’t worth watching.
This feels like the cousin of the fan who sued U.S. Soccer for defrauding the federal government by not trying to win. And, for good measure, tried to get them banned from TV. If the Rockies keep losing and keep making losing look this lifeless, they might stumble into that same level of courtroom absurdity.
Or maybe they already have.