DENVER (AP) — Josh Byrnes has taken notice of all the winning going on in the Mile High City. The Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets aren't too far removed from titles and the Denver Broncos have one of the best records in football.
He wants the Colorado Rockies to join in on that prosperity and fun.
The new general manager believes the Rockies can be a success story, too. It's why Byrnes took the risk of leaving the front office of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that just won a second straight World Series crown, for a franchise that lost 119 games last season. The Rockies haven't been to the postseason since 2018.
“Obviously, 119 losses, there’s no sugarcoating it. There’s a lot of work to do,” Byrnes said Friday in an introductory video call. “If you really talk to people around the game, there’s quite a bit of intrigue in trying to solve it here.”
Because Colorado's long been a puzzle: How to consistently win at elevation and in a park as expansive as Coors Field? But Byrnes has been here before — he was an assistant GM in Colorado from 1999-2002 — and knows the challenges. He's also tight with Paul DePodesta, who was hired Nov. 7 as the Rockies’ president of baseball operations. The two worked together in Cleveland in the 1990s.
DePodesta always wanted to work with Byrnes again. So he got him to leave the safety of the Dodgers, where he'd spent more than a decade as the senior vice president of baseball operations and won three World Series rings.
“I loved every day with the Dodgers and have a tremendous amount of respect for the people,” said Byrnes, who's also worked in the front offices of the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres and Boston Red Sox. “But I’ve known Paul for 30 years, and he and I have always embraced challenges. I think he’s brilliant. I think there’s a lot we can both bring to this, and also not just tell stories about what we’ve done, but create a new future for this franchise.”
DePodesta said they've been given assurances they can make changes happen. The Rockies won't shy away from the trade front, either, in reshaping the roster. In years past, there's been some reluctance to deal players.
“Josh and I have both been in situations with immense resources, and we’ve also been in situations that have have had lesser resources, also by a significant amount," explained DePodesta, who said the team is close to rounding out the coaching staff for manager Warren Schaeffer. “We feel very comfortable with what’s available here. The mindset is that there’s a desire to invest pretty heavily on the baseball side.”
First, though, the front office must find an identity — the Rockies' way of doing things. Byrnes pointed out that what made the Dodgers elite was their mindset of constantly pushing to be better. He mentioned Shohei Ohtani stealing 50 bases, Mookie Betts sliding over to shortstop and Clayton Kershaw finding ways to win without his 95 mph fastball.
“It was a nonstop quest for improvement, and in their cases, greatness,” Byrnes said. “It has to come from the player, but we also have to support it and and and be right there with them.”
The Rockies have a solid nucleus that includes All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman and shortstop Ezequiel Tovar. The team also drafted an exciting player in Ethan Holliday with the No. 4 pick last summer.
“Paul and I have talked about it, just conceptually, raising the floor,” Byrnes said. “Having a deeper team with fewer sort of gaps — innings, plate appearances — that are that are going to players that aren’t quite what we need. So there’s a lot of ways to start attacking it, but there’s definitely some talent in place.”
He wants to get this team back to winning — like the other teams around town.
“Wouldn’t come in here without some optimism and confidence that we can get there,” Byrnes said. “The excitement around those teams in Denver for winning is something you can feel, I’m sure. We want to be part of that, without a doubt.”
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FILE - San Diego Padres executive vice president and general manager Josh Byrnes, left, and field coordinator Randy Johnson, center, watch as pitcher Joe Ross, right, throws in the bullpen during spring training baseball practice, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2014, in Peoria, Ariz. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
FILE - San Diego Padres general manager Josh Byrnes smiles during a baseball news conference Monday, Oct. 31, 2011 in San Diego. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)
A man clinging to a tree on the Guadalupe River and screaming for a helicopter rescue. A father hustling his family into the attic to escape the rising waters. A Camp Mystic staffer pleading with a 911 operator to send help immediately.
Five months after catastrophic flooding killed more than 100 people in a single hard-hit county in the Texas Hill Country, hundreds of 911 audio files released Friday give a new glimpse into the terror and panic that surrounded the July 4 floods.
Here are the stories of desperate victims of the catastrophic deluge in Kerr County:
Water was rising in a home near the river on Highway 39 when a dispatcher asked a terrified caller if he needed police, fire or emergency medical services to help him.
“I need everything sir," the man said. "My house is so flooded. The water is 3 feet (1 meter) up. I’ve got children here. I just need somebody to be aware. I am afraid this is all going to go.”
The dispatcher urged the caller to get as high above the ground level as he can.
“Let’s go," the man tells his family. "Get in there. Get up there.”
—-
“We don't know what to do,” a woman calling from Camp Mystic told a dispatcher as she begged them to send help soon.
The frantic-sounding dispatcher cut her off and said they were fielding “tons of calls about the flooding” and advised the woman to go to the highest point that she could. “We’re working on it as fast as we can,” she said.
The woman calling for help appeared confused.
“There is water everywhere, we cannot move. We are upstairs in a room and the water level is rising,” the woman responded. “If the water will be in our room, what should we do?"
After getting disconnected, the woman called back to repeat her increasingly frantic questions.
“How do we get to the roof if the water is so high?“ she asked.
Asked when help would arrive, the dispatcher responded, “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
Minutes later, sounds of screaming can be heard in the background as an employee at the camp called, telling a dispatcher that a wall had been destroyed. “We need help,” the woman says frantically.
The flood killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors at Camp Mystic, and the owner of the all-girls camp also died.
——
A woman who lives about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Camp Mystic tells a dispatcher that they found campers.
“We've already got two little girls who have come down the river," the woman says. "And we’ve gotten to them but I’m not sure how many others are out there,” she says in a shaky voice.
She says the girls are at her house, and they’re the only ones she’s seen at this point.
A man tells a dispatcher he’s in a building stuck in a room, with the water almost up to his head.
The dispatcher asks if he can get on top of the building.
“No, I can’t!” the man says frantically. He tells the dispatcher a window is broken and there’s water rushing in. “I’m inside the building. I’m stuck in this room. I can’t get out,” the man yells.
The dispatcher tells him they’re sending people, trying to get them there soon. He leaves the call saying, “The best I can say is to try to keep your head above the water.”
——
A woman says she’s trapped in a building at Camp La Junta.
“Help, the building is falling apart. The water is so high. Oh, no. Oh, no,” she says, as she tells the dispatcher her name over and over again.
The dispatcher tells her that help is coming, but they’re having trouble getting to a lot of places because of the water. But they are trying, he says.
—-
A man calls 911 to report that he and his family are in the attic of a home on Highway 39 but the water is about to overtake the windows.
The dispatcher says there’s not much more she can tell them to do.
A woman interrupts the call: “We’re going to die,” she says through sobs. “I have an infant. She can’t hold her breath. If you come and the water is too high and you say hold your breath, she can’t hold her breath.”
The dispatcher responds: “I understand that but our rescue units are gonna do everything they can."
Bradley Perry, a firefighter, calmy tells a dispatcher that he is stranded in a tree that has started to lean.
“I’m going to die if I don’t get a helicopter. Is it possible?” he asked, explaining: “I’ve probably got maybe five minutes left and I’m dead."
Perry described seeing his wife, Tina Perry, and their RV washed away. He feared his wife was already dead.
“We’re trying to get people out as soon as we can,” the dispatcher told Perry.
“OK, thank you,” he replied.
Bradley Perry did not survive. His wife was later found clinging to a tree, still alive.
A woman calls to report that her children are trapped inside an RV trailer. The flooding is so forceful that it had started to carry the trailer away.
“It is moving,” the woman said. “A car that was there is gone."
The dispatcher assures the woman that she would send help as quickly as possible.
“I need someone here immediately,” the caller said.
Two minutes later, the woman calls back, becoming irate when the dispatcher says that she is sending help “as soon as possible.”
“No. Not as soon as possible. Now!” she says forcefully. She repeats “now” over and over until the call is disconnected.
——
Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, Jamie Stengle in Dallas and Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.
FILE - Damage is seen on July 8, 2025, near Hunt, Texas, after a flash flood swept through the area. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, file)
FILE - Camper's belongings sit outside one of Camp Mystic's cabins near the Guadalupe River after a flash flood swept through the area, July 7, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. (AP Photo/Eli Hartman, file)
FILE - Rain falls as Irene Valdez visits a make-shift memorial for flood victims along the Guadalupe River, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
