Former Colorado Rockies’ General Manager Dan O’Dowd

Jun 9, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; A general view as fas wait in the stands during a rain delay prior to the game between the Colorado Rockies and the St. Louis Cardinals at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

‘Where Are They Now?’ focuses on former Colorado Rockies’ general manager Dan O’Dowd’s post-front office career in television.

More from Colorado Rockies History

If you can’t do, teach, right? And if you can’t helm a ball club in the front office — after being given fifteen years of opportunities — then go on television and talk about what it takes to helm a ball club in the front office… right?

That’s what former Colorado Rockies’ general manager Dan O’Dowd is doing now, of course, as a studio analyst for MLB Network. You can watch one of his most recent segments about the trade deadline and moving players (including a shout out to the Angels perhaps wanting Carlos Gonzalez) right here, if you are brave.

Look, there’s no point in bashing O’Dowd; lord knows he’s been bashed enough, and he absolutely deserves it for failing so spectacularly in so many ways for a long time. Granted, things have gone on with the Colorado Rockies that weren’t his fault (you should read this about altitude and other things unique to players and teams at Coors Field), but the man still had a lot of chances and really only made the most of two or three of them (2007, 2009, 2010 had it not derailed late).

Truth be told, I thought up this post to blast O’Dowd, but all the blasting that could be done has already been done. What does calling out a club’s former GM do for the current regime, anyways? The Rockies don’t get any better by me calling out O’Dowd in a column; hell, I don’t even actually feel any better.

It’s like eating gummy bears — you buy the bag and you feel pretty good about yourself when you start eating them, but after about 16 lil’ bears, you’re ready to crawl into a hole and die of regret. (But you keep eating because you secretly hate yourself and everything holy.)

Truth be told, O’Dowd is not awful at the TV thing. I do a fair amount of sports talk (and entertainment talk, and movie talk, and all kinds of on-air talk) myself, so I know the drill about being on-air — the whole thing really isn’t that difficult if you have a personality and prepare well for your segments. But some people make it look really hard (remember Fernando Vina on TV?!), so I guess kudos to O’Dowd for doing it pretty well.

I know, it’ll always be ridiculous a decent channel like MLB Network hired Dan O’Dowd to be a front office/big league “expert,” but there’s no point in crying about it now — it’s not like making the 1999-2014 O’Dowd out to be the boogeyman is going to make the Colorado Rockies any better in 2015 or 2016.

So Dan, keep chuggin’ in that TV studio… and you (and Bill Geivett) stay the hell away from any front office, mmmkay?

Former Colorado Rockies’ General Manager Dan O’Dowd

More from Rox Pile

Schedule