Former Chicago Cubs supervisor Dale Sveum was fired by Theo Epstein in 2013 over beers within the Newport Bar, a mix tavern/laundromat at which the bartender watched it play out like a actuality present.
Sveum confronted reporters outdoors Wrigley Field when the information was introduced the following day, saying: “Two weeks ago, I never would have imagined this was going to happen.”
Joe Maddon and Epstein introduced their amicable divorce at Busch Stadium on the ultimate day of the 2019 season, holding a information convention to feed a no-hard-feelings narrative nobody was shopping for.
Jim Riggleman stood in a nook of the house clubhouse at Wrigley Field after being fired on the ultimate day of the 1999 season and answered wave after wave of questions for 45 minutes. He admitted he let the “little things” fester, resembling permitting Sammy Sosa’s entourage free entry to the clubhouse.
Don Zimmer invited beat writers into his Manhattan lodge room when the Cubs fired him in 1991 and informed them to wash out the minibar. Sticking the Tribune Co. with the tab was his ultimate hurrah.
Dusty Baker shared his ideas on his final day as Cubs supervisor in 2006 within the cramped room he nicknamed “the dungeon” after spending all the season listening to hypothesis he was on the best way out. “All things must come to an end,” he stated. “I wish we could’ve got it done, but we didn’t.”
In the lengthy and storied historical past of fired Cubs managers, David Ross had it a lot simpler than a lot of his predecessors.
With the season having ended over a month earlier, Ross was again dwelling in Florida final week when he bought the information from President Jed Hoyer that his providers had been now not wanted, that former Milwaukee Brewers supervisor Craig Counsell would change him within the Cubs dugout.
As painful because it should have been to study the vocal assist of Chairman Tom Ricketts and Hoyer — to not point out team-owned Marquee Sports Network — meant nothing in the long term, not less than Ross was spared the agony of getting to reply questions on the way it felt and what he deliberate to do subsequent.
Rick Renteria didn’t say a phrase to the media within the months after he was shockingly fired for Maddon in 2014, and after a couple of days with out remark, it appeared as if Ross may do likewise.
But Ross answered a couple of questions from a Tallahassee Democrat reporter Thursday with out providing any specifics. He stated all the precise issues about being grateful to the Cubs for giving him the job regardless of having no managerial expertise. But he didn’t point out Hoyer’s identify when addressing his firing.
“If my boss doesn’t think I am a good manager, then he should move on,” Ross stated. “I don’t fault him for that. If he doesn’t think I am the right guy, that’s his job. That’s his choice. I have my own thoughts and opinions that I will keep to myself.”
Ross admitted he “gets mad from time to time” over the dismissal however insisted he was not bitter.
“Anger and all that stuff is poison for me,” he stated.
That’s definitely good to listen to if true. Anyone in Ross’s place in all probability could be indignant on the means it got here down, particularly after Hoyer had indicated to the media he could be again.
Ross simply might have requested the reporter how any supervisor might have received with the bench he was saddled with in September or why Hoyer didn’t give him extra bullpen assist on the commerce deadline or why the Cubs introduced rehabbing Marcus Stroman again to pitch down the stretch.
Hoyer’s fingerprints had been additionally on the Cubs collapse, as had been the gamers’.
But Ross stored mum, and that was in all probability a sensible choice. There isn’t any want for Ross to drag a Herman Franks, the previous Cubs supervisor who trashed his gamers, together with Bill Buckner and Mike Vail, after resigning in 1979. “There isn’t enough money in the world to pay me to manage if I have to look at that face every day,” Franks stated of Vail.
Venting is a misplaced artwork, and conserving his “thoughts and opinions” to himself is smart.
Though Ross had a penchant for sounding autocratic, reminding followers criticizing him on social media that he was the supervisor they usually weren’t, he nonetheless acted extra like a participant than a supervisor. He didn’t actually have a look at himself as their boss.
In the tip, firing Ross appeared extra like a roster transaction — nearly like designating Eric Hosmer for task — than a patented Cubs managerial dismissal. Counsell was only a high-priced free-agent who would change him.
Before the second-to-last recreation of the season, Ross shared the blame for the blown wild-card spot.
“We’re in this together,” Ross stated in Milwaukee after the Cubs had been eradicated. “I wouldn’t separate myself from any player, front office, coach. If we don’t get to where we want to get to, I’m the manager of this team. The blame should come on me first.”
It did, because it turned out, a lot to Ross’s dismay.
Ross ought to be again within the recreation in some capability, although whether or not he’ll get one other likelihood to handle quickly is anybody’s guess. Sveum was employed as a Kansas City Royals coach three days after his firing, understanding he wouldn’t get an opportunity.
“I didn’t want to wait around,” Sveum stated that day. “I want to be on the field. People said ‘Try this or try that.’ I’m a guy who puts a uniform on and likes to go to work.”
Ross additionally likes placing on a uniform. Would his ego permit him to take a job as a base coach?
He all the time can return to being a TV analyst, the place he started with ESPN after his enjoying profession. Or he might simply spend time along with his household doing no matter he desires. As Ross’s good friend and former Cub Ryan Dempster stated on “Intentional Talk,” “the world is his oyster.”
Cubs managers all the time have been within the highlight due to the group’s historical past and the fervour of its fan base.
“If you win it all with the Cubs, they’ll rename the lake for you,” former announcer Bob Brenly stated in 2006.
Maddon later found that wasn’t true.
Lake Michigan wasn’t renamed Lake Maddon, and that 2016 championship looks as if historical historical past after Ross’ firing. Counsell shall be launched Monday at Wrigley, and a brand new period begins.
Life goes on.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com