
David Ross participated in seven postseasons as a player with four teams and one season on “Dancing With the Stars.”
But the pressure Ross faced before is nothing like what he’s going through now managing the Chicago Cubs in this crazy National League wild-card chase.
The challenge of getting this Cubs team into the postseason has been one of the biggest of his life and is why Ross sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night.
“Way different as a manager than as a player,” Ross said Tuesday before the Cubs’ 7-6 loss to Atlanta Braves at Truist Park. “I don’t know how to describe it. It’s fun, and you try and prepare and keep it all the same, but inside you’re riding it.
“But within that it’s fun. (Julian) Merryweather the other day walks the first two guys (in the ninth inning) and gets out of that. You’re carrying it. I don’t get that (feeling) golfing on the weekend. That’s what you sign up for — the nerves, the adrenaline, a little bit of anxiety. Shoot, that’s what fuels you in the morning and wakes you up in the middle of the night when things aren’t going well.”
Tuesday’s shocking loss was one of those nights. The Cubs blew a 6-0 sixth-inning lead and watched the Braves score the tying and go-ahead runs with two outs in the eighth on Sean Murphy’s fly ball that Seiya Suzuki misplayed.
It was shades of the 1998 wild-card race, when Cubs outfielder Brant Brown dropped a fly ball in the ninth to lose a game to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sept. 23 at County Stadium. That play led to the infamous “Oh, no” call by Cubs broadcaster Ron Santo.
Pat Hughes, who called both games, said the play …read more
Source:: The Denver Post