![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/davidrossrules.jpg\")
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It\u2019s funny how my sports allegiances change throughout the years.\u00a0 There was a time when I was all aboard the Red Sox bandwagon, and was clinging on every at-bat and pitch in the 2004 playoffs.\u00a0 I used to detest the Houston Astros because they kept knocking the Braves out of the playoffs, and Roger Clemens pitched for them, but now I don\u2019t have any gripe with them at all.\u00a0 There was once a time where I loathed the Chicago Cubs, and rooted vehemently for the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series.\u00a0 One thing, however I don\u2019t think stands much chance at changing, and that\u2019s that I still detest the San Francisco Giants.<\/span><\/p>\n However, I\u2019m warming up to the Cubs lately.\u00a0 Now, I\u2019ll still be pulling for the Braves, ironically, since this is the last year at Turner Field, but the reality is that they\u2019re just as likely to lose 90, and hopefully 100+ this season, no matter how much I may or may not want them to do well when I go to see them.\u00a0 And so since it\u2019s actually nice to have a team to pull for that actually has a chance at doing well, I think if there\u2019s any team out there that I might root for on the side, it might just be the Cubs.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If for any reason(s) at all, it\u2019s because they\u2019ve got a team that I kind of respect for how they came to where they are now, through savvy drafting and player development, they have a manager that I respect as a near-legendary manager of human beings in Joe Maddon, and they made one of the biggest splashes of free agency by signing former Brave, Jason Heyward, whom I still can say, am a fan of.<\/span><\/p>\n But there\u2019s one guy on the Cubs that I\u2019m a bigger fan of, and that\u2019s\u00a0David Ross<\/strong>, who had recently\u00a0announced that 2016 will (probably) be his last year<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Most people haven\u2019t heard of David Ross, especially outside of places like LA, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Boston or Chicago, all places where David Ross had played for.\u00a0 But just about anyone who knows of David Ross, pretty much likes David Ross.<\/span><\/p>\n He\u2019s never been a guy that\u2019s been as good as a Hall of Famer, he\u2019s never hit .300 in a season, and only once has he ever hit more than 20 home runs in a season.\u00a0 Most of his career, he\u2019s been pegged as a backup catcher, and has been employed as such, but there\u2019s very much a reason why a guy with a lifetime .228 batting average has been able to stay employed for over 14 seasons.<\/span><\/p>\n Simply put, David Ross is a\u00a0glue guy<\/strong>, a term used to describe a guy that, regardless of his actual sporting talent, is an individual who has the innate ability to bring his team together, become more cohesive and productive, and basically make those around him better.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s through being the guy that organizes extracurricular activities amongst teammates, to the guy that acts as an auxiliary coach or mentor to those younger than him, David Ross has been a guy that\u2019s been very well known to be the guy that simply makes everyone around him better.<\/span><\/p>\n I was introduced to David Ross when he signed with the Braves in 2009, to be the backup catcher to then All-Star, Brian McCann.\u00a0 Prior to this, the Braves had endured nearly five years of a black hole at the backup catcher position, with guys like Corky Miller, Todd Pratt and Brayan Pe\u00f1a contributed basically nothing every fifth day or whenever McCann was on the disabled list.\u00a0 David Ross immediately absolved all mediocrity prior to him with reliable production , and most notably this warm and outgoing personality that made everyone from his teammates to casual and diehard Braves fans like him.\u00a0 In 2010, when I was still writing for Talking Chop, I appropriately described him as basically, the\u00a0best backup catcher in all of the Major Leagues<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The Braves got extremely lucky in 2011, when Ross decided that he liked Atlanta, and re-signed with the team for two more years, despite the fact that he basically could have gotten a job anywhere else he might have wanted, because not lost to the rest of the baseball world was this tremendous glue guy that was actually not a half-bad backup catcher.\u00a0 But the Braves were the lucky recipients of David Ross\u2019s services, and he gave the Braves\u00a0one fantastic moment<\/a>\u00a0in his final game with the team, being the home run in the otherwise abysmal atrocity known to Braves fans as the 2012 National League Wild Card game.<\/span><\/p>\n I was happy for David Ross, when he won a World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2013, and I know Jonny Gomes, also a reputable glue guy, gets a tremendous amount of credit for the beard revolution that the whole team embarked on en route to a championship, but I would wager a good bit of money that behind the scenes, David Ross probably had a tremendously equal if not larger part in bringing that magical Red Sox team together as well.<\/span><\/p>\n In spite of my waning interest in baseball in more recent years, it was not lost on me when news of David Ross going to the Cubs broke in 2015.\u00a0 With the Cubs organization coming to shape, helmed by\u00a0Theo Epstein, the Zack Morris-lookalike<\/a>\u00a0that basically resurrected the Red Sox organization, and the acquisition of Zen-master Joe Maddon, the addition of the alpha glue guy in David Ross all but assured that the Cubs would be a team on the rise.<\/span><\/p>\n While the Braves were losing 90+ games, the Cubs went on to win 90+ games and have a fantastic season where they vanquished their arch-rival St. Louis Cardinals, before ultimately and unfortunately getting swept by the Mets in the NLCS.\u00a0 And to no surprise, David Ross spent the 2015 campaign basically being David Ross, which is to say that he did absolutely all of the little things, from raising team morale by\u00a0emergency pitching in a blowout loss<\/a>*, to being the auxiliary coach that was a big brother and mentor to the army of young super talents on the Cubs.<\/span><\/p>\n *it should be worth mentioning that despite being a career .228 hitter, David Ross\u2019s ERA is a sparkling 0.00 (two perfect innings pitched over two appearances)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n When ESPN managed to actually get their noses out of the NFL\u2019s rectum and actually write something about baseball, they put together\u00a0this particularly fantastic article<\/a>\u00a0that encapsulated everything that\u2019s right about David Ross, and precisely why the Cubs held such high regard for a backup catcher that was hitting below the Mendoza Line throughout the year.\u00a0 I loved this article so much, I actually bookmarked it on my\u00a0work computer<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Which brings us back to the present, where David Ross has announced that 2016 will (probably) be his last, and the Cubs are a legitimate favorite to potentially win the World Series.\u00a0 Now a guy like David Ross probably isn\u2019t going to get standing ovations and gifts from every single team, like guys like Chipper Jones, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera did in their final seasons, but I\u00a0actually do<\/em>\u00a0expect the Braves to give a little bit of love towards Ross when the Cubs make their trip to Atlanta at some point this year.<\/span><\/p>\n But it\u2019s okay, because his teammates have already begun showing David Ross the love and respect he deserves, like getting him an automated caddy to carry his gear bags,\u00a0and a Rascal because he is old and walking so much is difficult<\/a>.\u00a0 But more seriously, it goes to show how much guys like David Ross means to other players, like when Jason Heyward, who debuted with the Braves while Ross was already there, and now reunited with Ross on the Cubs,\u00a0decided that he was going to personally upgrade every single hotel room<\/a>\u00a0to a suite for Ross in 2016, as a sign of gratitude and respect.<\/span><\/p>\n Now I can\u2019t promise that I\u2019m going to go all gung-ho about watching baseball again this season, but I do plan on actually going to a few more baseball games this season, since this is Turner Field\u2019s last season.\u00a0 Perhaps I should go when the Cubs are in town as well, so I can possibly see an awesome guy like David Ross again, but aside from the Braves, I think it\u2019s a safe bet that I\u2019d be rooting for David Ross, and the Cubs by proxy.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s funny how my sports allegiances change throughout the years.\u00a0 There was a time when I was all aboard the Red Sox bandwagon, and was clinging on every at-bat and pitch in the 2004 playoffs.\u00a0 I used to detest the Houston Astros because they kept knocking the Braves out of the playoffs, and Roger Clemens … Continue reading I\u2019m rooting for David Ross this year<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62,15,91],"class_list":["post-42233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-baseball","tag-og","tag-pf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42235,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42233\/revisions\/42235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![Theo Epstein, the Zack Morris-lookalike<\/a>\u00a0that basically resurrected the Red Sox organization, and the acquisition of Zen-master Joe Maddon, the addition of the alpha glue guy in David Ross all but assured that the Cubs would be a team on the rise.<\/span><\/p>\nWhile the Braves were losing 90+ games, the Cubs went on to win 90+ games and have a fantastic season where they vanquished their arch-rival St. Louis Cardinals, before ultimately and unfortunately getting swept by the Mets in the NLCS.\u00a0 And to no surprise, David Ross spent the 2015 campaign basically being David Ross, which is to say that he did absolutely all of the little things, from raising team morale by\u00a0emergency pitching in a blowout loss<\/a>*, to being the auxiliary coach that was a big brother and mentor to the army of young super talents on the Cubs.<\/span><\/p>\n*it should be worth mentioning that despite being a career .228 hitter, David Ross\u2019s ERA is a sparkling 0.00 (two perfect innings pitched over two appearances)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nWhen ESPN managed to actually get their noses out of the NFL\u2019s rectum and actually write something about baseball, they put together\u00a0this particularly fantastic article<\/a>\u00a0that encapsulated everything that\u2019s right about David Ross, and precisely why the Cubs held such high regard for a backup catcher that was hitting below the Mendoza Line throughout the year.\u00a0 I loved this article so much, I actually bookmarked it on my\u00a0work computer<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\nWhich brings us back to the present, where David Ross has announced that 2016 will (probably) be his last, and the Cubs are a legitimate favorite to potentially win the World Series.\u00a0 Now a guy like David Ross probably isn\u2019t going to get standing ovations and gifts from every single team, like guys like Chipper Jones, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera did in their final seasons, but I\u00a0actually do<\/em>\u00a0expect the Braves to give a little bit of love towards Ross when the Cubs make their trip to Atlanta at some point this year.<\/span><\/p>\nBut it\u2019s okay, because his teammates have already begun showing David Ross the love and respect he deserves, like getting him an automated caddy to carry his gear bags,\u00a0and a Rascal because he is old and walking so much is difficult<\/a>.\u00a0 But more seriously, it goes to show how much guys like David Ross means to other players, like when Jason Heyward, who debuted with the Braves while Ross was already there, and now reunited with Ross on the Cubs,\u00a0decided that he was going to personally upgrade every single hotel room<\/a>\u00a0to a suite for Ross in 2016, as a sign of gratitude and respect.<\/span><\/p>\nNow I can\u2019t promise that I\u2019m going to go all gung-ho about watching baseball again this season, but I do plan on actually going to a few more baseball games this season, since this is Turner Field\u2019s last season.\u00a0 Perhaps I should go when the Cubs are in town as well, so I can possibly see an awesome guy like David Ross again, but aside from the Braves, I think it\u2019s a safe bet that I\u2019d be rooting for David Ross, and the Cubs by proxy.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s funny how my sports allegiances change throughout the years.\u00a0 There was a time when I was all aboard the Red Sox bandwagon, and was clinging on every at-bat and pitch in the 2004 playoffs.\u00a0 I used to detest the Houston Astros because they kept knocking the Braves out of the playoffs, and Roger Clemens … Continue reading I\u2019m rooting for David Ross this year<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62,15,91],"class_list":["post-42233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-baseball","tag-og","tag-pf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42235,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42233\/revisions\/42235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/cghm.org\/wow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/theo__mark.jpg\"){kind=link}