Baffoe: David Ross, A No-Hitter & Less vs. More
By Tim Baffoe--
(CBS) "Ross for less."
The department store chain's former slogan had conveniently offered sarcastic jerks (see: me) fodder last year for photoshops and barbs to mock one of the few dim spots on the Chicago Cubs.
"For less" worked homophonically as catcher David Ross's status as starting pitcher Jon Lester's personal caddy. It better defined, though, the hole in an otherwise solid batting order last season.
To put it politely, Ross was a liability in the lineup. He was barely a replacement-level player as a whole, but his glaringly bad offensive presence (.176 batting average, .518 OPS) combined with Lester's feeble bat would create black hole innings.
But he kept Lester on track on the mound, was the non-statistical good clubhouse guy and functioned as manager Joe Maddon's player-coach while often doubling as a Denver boot on the young hot rod Cubs team.
"Too many times you portray players as clubhouse leaders and that's done way too loosely for me," Maddon said in February. "With him, it's legitimate. He is a clubhouse leader. Despite not hitting .275 or better, he still maintains his stature in the clubhouse because of the respect people have for him for how he goes about his business. When he says something, it's pertinent and right on.
"I really don't care what he hits batting average-wise — it makes no difference to me. Whatever he hits is gravy for me, for us."
And entering 2016 -- Ross's final season before retiring -- it seemed again that Maddon's gravy guy would be someone the much anticipated Cubs would be winning in spite of. This was especially the case when Kyle Schwarber's season-ending knee injury meant more of Ross behind the dish.
Yet more Ross hasn't been less so far this season. Small sample size admitted, he has an OPS of .891 in six games. He's thrown out three would-be base stealers. He's running bases like a guy who doesn't look a day over 31.
He's 39.
And Ross caught ace Jake Arrieta's no-hitter Thursday night against the Cincinnati Reds, the first of his 15-year career. Ross was on with 670 The Score's Mully and Hanley last week and said that one of his bucket list items before this final year of his was over was to catch a no-hitter. On Friday, he was back on the morning show joking about doing it back-to-back when he catches Lester on Friday night in Cincinnati.
Fully understanding statistical value of players and how the Cubs organization has become a standard bearer of ditching old-timey cigar smoke scouting and eye tests, it's hard to deny there's value to Ross the old-timer catcher -- even if it doesn't translate to what's a logical bet to regress on his reference pages.
"For me, that's why this is so special," Arrieta told the Chicago Tribune on Thursday night. "In his last year, he's never caught one. I think he's been on a team that was no-hit but wasn't a part of the winning side, other than the one Miggy (Montero) caught last August.
"It's special for me. Not only for myself, but him in his last season and having him with that experience now is pretty awesome."
That's a dude on fire who just accomplished the rare feat of multiple no-hitters within 11 regular-season starts putting the focus on a guy in the winter of his career.
The feeling among the team wasn't so much that arguably baseball's best pitcher continued to validate that argument so much as "LOOK WHAT DAVID ROSS DID HOORAY."
In a season with the highest expectations any of us have ever had for a Cubs team, where everything is and will be hyper-analyzed until the last out of the Cubs' postseason, this is a refreshing nice little subplot.
"It feels amazing," Ross said Thursday night. "It's one of my dreams. That stud made it come through. I'm on cloud nine. I'm on the moon.
"As a catcher and guy who prides himself on calling a game, it's one of those things I really wanted to do or be a part of."
How can you not feel happy for the guy? How can you not start to think that a David Ross has a place in what's otherwise considered a rockstar supergroup? Even when Arrieta is melting faces like Prince laying waste to everyone on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stage, there's a guy playing percussion in the background who Prince would probably say is crucial to the entire operation.
(I had to shoehorn in a Prince reference and won't apologize for it, people.)
Ross is a good dude providing a small service that apparently has much greater ripple effects team-wide. He's that special baseball combination of trivia …
... and respected glue guy.
If first-year Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward is paying for Ross to have his own suite on every road trip, there's something of value in him that doesn't always translate on paper. Even if it's just material for bad jokes for jerks like me or Ross himself.
"My good offense gets overshadowed by the no-hitter," he lamented after the game. "What the heck?"
The guy could do less.
Tim Baffoe is a columnist for CBSChicago.com. Follow Tim on Twitter @TimBaffoe. The views expressed on this page are those of the author, not CBS Local Chicago or our affiliated television and radio stations.
