June 8, 2022: Ross For Now

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OK, so I just said I’d still rather have Joe Girardi and Joe Maddon more than our current manager David Ross. Nothing personal against Rossy… although when somebody says that “nothing personal”… it usually is some disparaging remark about that person, so… maybe it really is personal…

Loved what Ross brought to the Cubs during the World Series run. It wasn’t just Grandpa Rossy type stuff either; he did contribute on the field as well. His home run in Game 7, in his last career AB… storybook stuff. Yet, when the Cubs let Maddon walk, which I wasn’t necessarily a huge fan of, I did not like bringing in Ross. Fine, so you want to go another direction than Maddon; OK, great. Then why would you bring in somebody else from that team? Why bring “one of the guys” in to manage them if we were trying to get them out of the Maddon frame of mind? If you wanted different results, from a different “voice”, then how did Ross fit that bill? He didn’t. It was more of the same, just a cheaper, inexperienced version.

Yes, Ross is not Maddon; I’m not saying that. I’m just saying we were riding the 2016 thing; we’ll be riding it for the rest of our lives by the way. And no, we were not “just riding it”… the Cubs did return to the playoffs a few more times, so it wasn’t like it was a complete disaster. But if we couldn’t get over the hump, and you needed to tweak something, and you felt like that was the manager, then there’s no possible way you could have thought bringing in Ross was the best way to go; no way. Unless… you thought the team as it was constructed was done; that the writing was on the wall. You weren’t going to pay anybody… literally, nobody. The clock was about to strike 12 on this thing, and you needed a guy to help through the re-build, re-tool, transition, whatever it is that you don’t want to refer to it as… You knew then, did you? I’m starting to think that…

Ross’ managerial record with the Cubs thus far is 128-150. Surprising that he’s been around that many games already. They did make the playoffs in his first year, the weird shortened COVID season, which ended getting our asses handed to us by the Marlins out of all teams. Last year was a train wreck, with the destruction of the team core smack dab in the middle of it. This year… we’re tracking worse than last year. I did say it would get worse before it gets better. But hey, Rossy is here for us. He’s here to guide us through the BS… to put on a face… to remind us of 2016… Grandpa is here, everything will be OK. No. Grandpa is here to manage this sinking ship until we get pointed back towards sea level, at which point, we’ll bring in a real manager… unless of course, through these down years, Ross turns into one. Too harsh? I don’t know…

But hey, look at Wrigley and the ivy… how beautiful. Don’t look at the standings. Don’t look at our payroll and all the money we’re NOT spending. Don’t look at our manager, whose record was 0-0 before this job. Don’t stress when we trade the next big part of our World Series core… initials W.C… first name rhymes with Nilson… It’s smoke and mirrors time with Rossy right in the middle of it all. But hey, let’s enjoy the rest of the season… Go Cubs…

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