Doug Moe was great. If I tuned in late to a Nuggets game back in the 1980s, I could always tell immediately how it was going for Denver by the amount of disarray to Moe’s jacket, tie and collar. He was a great coach and an even greater personality.

– Michael, a real no-hoper

Kiz: An hour after Moe died last week while holding the hand of his beloved wife Big Jane, my phone dinged in Italy. Before finishing the text that relayed the news Moe was gone at age 87, I began to cry. Way back in 1984, as a cub reporter way over my head covering the NBA, Moe took me under his wing and proceeded to give me grief 24/7. He loved stirring the pot, at dawn in the coffee shop at the team hotel. He chatted with strangers on airplanes whose aisles he relentlessly paced as a nervous flier. And talked hoops until almost midnight, when he cracked wise as beers were cracked in his McNichols Arena office. If Moe liked you (and he found something to like in almost everybody), his way of saying hello was: “Hey, dip(bleep)!” I owe so much to Dougie, who taught me that the most valuable thing any coach can do is show how much he genuinely cares about his players. RIP to the King of the Dips.

Kiz, I feel like major league baseball has become a “regional,” sport based on which ownership groups have the money to spend on players. In order for MLB to again become a “national” sport, I firmly believe a salary cap is necessary.

– Kevin, Denver

Kiz: Are you sitting down? I’m about to say something nice about Rockies owner Dick Monfort. Monfort was 110 percent correct when he told me last spring that there are six or eight teams in MLB that have any real shot of winning the World Series. The other ballclubs, including his Rockies, basically open the stadium gates to sell hot dogs and beer. I believe it’s no surprise Monfort turned over much of the Rockies’ day-to-day operation to his son, Walker. Pops has got better things to do. My strong hunch is the elder Monfort wants his legacy to be as the man who restored a semblance of fiscal sanity and competitive balance to baseball, even if it means shutting down the 2027 season. Got get ’em, Dick.

So, Kiz, you are asking me if the Rockies owner who paid for Nolan Arenado to go away, then signed Kris Bryant to an absurd contract, should have a major say in the future of MLB? Can’t say I am on board.

– Shannon, Dodgers fan in Colorado

Kiz: Some see the four-year, $240 million contract that Kyle Tucker signed with the Dodgers as Exhibit A for why a labor war will shut down MLB within the next year. Well, I saw Tucker play baseball when he was 11 years old and was a star for the Little League team managed by my brother. Even a knucklehead like me could see that kid was special. But $240 million special? No freakin’ way.

And today’s parting shot is a gracious tip of the cap to The Denver Gazette for sending me to the Olympics, as well as a shoutout to my favorite new gold medalist from Colorado: Hotdog Hans (aka Alex Ferreira of Aspen).

So grateful you got to cover these Winter Games, Kiz. You provided the best writing on what it all means. Long live Hotdog Hans!

– Michael, on to L.A. in ’28