FANS UPSET? SHOW ROX WITH YOUR WALLET

Divorce? Nah. Divorce is an ugly word. Too final. No, Renee Dechert says, her split from the Rockies is more of a separation.

“I think a group of fans have said, ‘We’ve had enough,’” Dechert, a longtime Rockies fan and now a former Rox ticketholder, said by phone Monday from her Wyoming home. “‘We love this team, we’re not abandoning this team, but we are not paying (Dick) Monfort this year.’”

At this point, she’d like to see other people run the team. People with, say, more of a commitment to winning a division. People with a grip on reality. People who see a baseball team as a community heirloom instead of some Monopoly property with a party deck.

“I’ve sort of got two teams this year,” Dechert said. “I’ve got the Rockies and I’ve got the Cardinals. I’m going to see if they’ll be real contenders.”

Dechert had been a Rockies ticket passport holder the past three years. A week ago, once The Great Nolan Arenado Heist became official, with the Rockies paying St. Louis to take Arenando, she went online and asked that the Rockies refund her 2021 investment — a fairly significant chunk of change — in full.

She posted her decision on Twitter, including a screen cap of the “Are you sure?” automated message that popped up before she hit the “Submit” button.

With one click, Renee was a baseball bachelorette again. Sort of.

“It was a really hard decision for me to make,” Dechert stressed. “I really care about this team. I want them to do well.

You just can’t reward bad management. And they don’t seem to hear anything else.”

You can shout it from the rooftops across the street. You can blog ’til your fingers bleed.

The only way to reach people who think with their wallets is to hit them square in the pocketbook. You have to make them feel it, the way the pandemic apparently made them feel it.

Don’t just ask for refunds. Demand them. When the restaurants open up at full capacity around LoDo again, give them your love and your business. Especially the latter. Watch the Rockies on hi-def TV from inside your watering hole of choice. Cheer them to your heart’s content.

But don’t give Monfort, the Rockies’ owner/chairman and chief executive officer, a dime. Not if you can help it. Not if you really, truly care about the product on the field.

“(The anger) is unrelenting,” Dechert said. “(Twitter), it’s only a fraction of the entire fandom. But the anger is not going away.

“I think what Dick Monfort is counting on is people getting over it. And I don’t get that sense.”

Don’t forget. Not this summer. Not ever. When the Coors Field gates open again — and they will — no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much you miss the green of the grass, the smell of the onions on the grill, stay the heck away.

Make them win you back.

Make them prove it.

“It’s really hard,” Dechert said. “There are really interesting (internal) gymnastics that are going on, because fans are so complicated and because baseball for so many people is such an emotional experience. So you’re trying to cut all of that (emotion) out.

“Now you’ve reached a point where, at least for me, I had to make a consumer decision. This is all I’ve got. The poor person who answers the phone is just the nice person who answers the phone. So you go with your wallet.”

Dechert’s wallet got a little fatter this past Friday, when her passport refund came back sooner than expected. When asked what she might do with her Rockies ticket money, she let out a wicked laugh.

“I could take my friends to go on vacation and we could go to St. Louis to watch the Rockies play the Cardinals,” Dechert replied. “That has crossed my mind. (The series) is in early May. So maybe that’s what I’ll do with that money: Go to St. Louis and watch the Rockies and Cards.”

Investing in a winner. What a concept.