SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – With his 72nd birthday and 30th season of Rockies ownership rapidly approaching, will Dick Monfort live long enough to see Colorado win the World Series?

“Oh, god,” said Monfort, as his peaceful Friday morning was interrupted by a chance encounter with me on a sidewalk outside the Rockies’ spring training headquarters.

“Good to see you,” I told the chairman of a ballclub whose 2025 season will live in infamy as among the worst in major-league history. “I was just talking about you.”

Monfort rolled his eyes and shuddered to think what choice words I had about his stewardship of the Rockies.

“Oh, bleep,” Monfort said.

After pretending to be a major-league team for too long, is Colorado finally ready to get serious about winning a championship?

Back in November, after watching the Rockies endure 100-plus losses for a third consecutive year, Monfort made dramatic changes in the way his team conducted its baseball business, going outside the organization to hire a new front-office braintrust of Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes.

Only moments before crossing paths with Monfort, I had sat at a table with  DePodesta and Byrnes to ask the odds of long-suffering Rockies fans sharing the joy of a championship with Dick and his brother, Charlie, while we’re all still on this earth to enjoy it.

How can the Rockies realistically expect to compete with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who celebrated back-to-back World Series titles by signing free agent outfielder Kyle Tucker to a four-year, $240 million contract?

“It’s David and Goliath. The Dodgers are really good, obviously,” said Byrnes, who took over as Colorado’s general manager after a decade working for the evil blue Dodgers empire.

“Their World Series (championship) odds are 25%. Which is high. But that means 75% is available. Twelve teams get in the playoffs, and take your shot.”

Sports is the greatest reality show ever invented, and Byrnes asked: Who would’ve thought two years ago that woebegone Indiana football could win a national championship?

So what the Rockies are trying to do here is a remake of Hoosiers.

The belief that Colorado can win a World Series, however, seems like an impossible dream.

“I don’t think any of us would be here if we didn’t think it was possible,” said DePodesta, who left his role as chief strategy officer of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns to become Rockies president of baseball operations.

“This is a race we really want to run. And if you don’t believe you can win it, then you’re wasting your time.”

While Walker Monfort, who is Dick’s eldest son, has moved into a more prominent role in the day-to-day baseball operations of the Rockies, make no mistake.

For better or worse, his father remains the boss.

“My dad, Dick, is still the ultimate shot-caller here at the Rockies. There are things I have to run by him on a daily basis, because they need his approval,” Walker told me during a 30-minute conversation inside the team’s Arizona headquarters.

While I’ve expended a lot of energy in the past urging the brothers Monfort to sell the Rockies to ownership with more financial wherewithal to do battle with the Dodgers, Walker said all the current succession planning revolves around keeping the team a family business.

“My family and I, as long as I can remember, we’ve always been involved in the Colorado Rockies,” Walker said. “It’s something we’re very passionate about. We love the Rockies. I’m a fan, first and foremost. I think we want to be involved in this place forever.” 

Buckle up. Yes, the promise of third baseman Kyle Karros and the addition of veteran pitching arms might somehow allow Colorado to avoid 100 losses again this season.

But whatever little progress toward competency the Rockies make this year seems likely to be interrupted in 2027 by a work stoppage widely regarded as a necessary evil, if the sport wants to use labor negotiations as a method to restore a semblance of competitive balance to baseball.

“We’ve got to get back to getting to the playoffs … We don’t look at it as outlandish, by any means,” said Walker, who believes if Arizona, Cleveland and Milwaukee can be regular postseason participants, then the Rockies should aspire to be, as well.

“A great baseball team for a long time, that’s what our goal is. We don’t have our eye on just trying to get to the playoffs once. We’ve got to figure out how to create long-term, sustainable success.”

Warmed by the optimism of spring training under the Arizona sun, I felt compelled to ask Dick:

“What are the chances of you and me seeing a championship parade through Denver for the Rockies during what’s left of our lifetimes?” 

Without hesitating a beat, the elder Monfort replied: “Excellent!”

Here I was worried that neither he nor I would live to see the day when the Rockies triumphantly hoist the World Series trophy.

The feisty 71-year-old team owner, however, now believes there’s an excellent chance for championship rings in the Rockies’ future.

And has Dick Monfort ever let us down before?