Thursday, November 03, 2016

ROSSIE: LOVING THE ASPRATIONAL

Fans, opponents, umpires, media, teammates and everybody in general loves David Ross, assortedly known as Rossie or "Grandpa Rossie".

On a team with the freakish talent of Kris Bryant or the incredibly graceful power and fielding skills of the enormous Anthony Rizzo, the defensive wizardry of Addison Russell, the dogged professionalism of Ben Zobrist and the strange brew of skills that make up Javier Baez, we are amazed at those people. But we love Rossi.

Why is that?.

He doesn't say anything particularly profound.  Beyond being somewhat affable, there is nothing remarkable or compelling about him in the magnetic way of Ben Hogan or Tom Brady or Kobe Bryant. He doesn't do anything charitable off the field beyond what his positive and remarkable teammates do. All in all he hits under .240 and he plays a little under 25% of the available innings.  In most places they just call that "Third String Catcher."

But we love him.

I think we love him because he is an aspirational target. In whatever we do, we probably lack the inherent talent to be on the extre,e far side of the bell shaped curve as are Bryant, Rizzo, Russell, Chapman and maybe even Zobrist. Most of us don't even have the unknown and inestimable potential of Wilson Contreras or Javier Baez. And that, of course is before we even begin to discuss the freaky and mysterious hand-eye coordination of Kyle Schwarber. We can admire those people. Particularly in the case of Rizzo we can like their personalities. We can certainly pull for them and be happy when they are happy. But we cannot, in our lives as nurses, postmen, truck drivers or contractors, BE them.

This gets us back to Rossie. With the effort that he has demonstrated, we can BE Rossie. We can make ourselves a little better at something every day. We can help our teammates learn and get better every day. We can assist the people around us to appreciate the moments that are presented to us.  We can cheer for the achievements of those close to us and, if we have the courage, we can do what Rossie did Tuesday night. We can tell people that we love them.

So Rossie is more than an honorary captain and more than a proven winner.   Rossie is the best kind of role model. He is the person who has taken relatively ordinary skills and made the most of himself while, in the process, uplifting everyone around him. Some days we fail but we love Rossie because being Rossie is within our grasp

1 Comments:

At 11:40 AM, November 07, 2016, Anonymous Angie said...

Beautiful! This is such an inspirational piece.
This piece reminds me of the 5 characteristics of a good leader..
1) Love your Team
2) Give Praise
3) Seldom use your power
4) Surround yourself with rock stars
5) Cast your vision

David Ross: The team's resident Mentor- is a charismatic leader and has shown this by being himself, a true humble human being that the entire team could relate with and come to in their moments of anxiety, just as Rizzo did when he said" I can't control myself right now. I'm trying my best. I'm an emotional wreck." Grandpa Rossie offered up this advice... " It's only gonna get worse. Just continue to breathe. Anthony Rizzo responded to Grandpa Rossi by quoting the great Ron Burgundy- " I'm in a glass case of emotions right now!" After this exchange Rizzo went out and hit a two-out RBI single to make the cubs lead 5-1 in game 7 of the World Series. And if that wasn't enough ROSS went to bat in the top of the sixth inning and cracked one out of the park a 103.9 MPH HOME RUN. Ross and the cubs world series team of which were made up of true blue amazingly skilled and driven individuals, showed us what passionate team work and character is all about. This game and the effects that Rossie had with his team mates and crowd... absolutely Priceless! David Ross- a man that stands out in our history and conveyed so many true lessons in leadership and team work. He was surrounded by rockstars- The 2016 Cubs, an amazing man, part of an EPIC team. I will tell the Rossie story to my young children someday, so that they will better understand what Character really and truly means. Grandpa Rossi.. " here's to you" what a way to retire... I think EPIC career, pretty much sums it up.

Great Blog- Daddy! You taught me that Character is everything. I am proud of what I stand for, and what I am made of! I hope that everyone who reads this can be proud of what they are made of and what they stand for, just like David Ross and the 2016 World Champion Cubs Team.

 

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