Ross’ tosses just potent enough to fool Phillies

A day after they were no-hit for the first time in 50 years, by Cole Hamels and the last-place Phillies, the Chicago Cubs managed to get back on "SportsCenter" despite playing another dreadful game on Sunday.

The Cubs, who until the past weekend had shown vast improvement, were swept by the Phillies at home. The highlight of Sunday’s 11-5 defeat was when David Ross, the former Las Vegas 51s catcher, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning -- and then hit his first home run of the season in the bottom of the ninth.

There’s no crying in baseball, but every so often it’s OK to smile.

It was the second time this season the 38-year-old Ross, who with the Cubs serves mostly as Jon Lester’s personal catcher and a steadying influence for young Chicago prospects in the clubhouse, had come on to toss cantaloupes up to home plate with tongue in cheek.

On May 9, Ross also pitched a 1-2-3 ninth against Milwaukee.

If you were scoring at home, or even just watching the game, you may recall that was the same day Las Vegan Kris Bryant hit his first major league home run after 22 games. When Bryant returned to the dugout after jogging around the bases, he found it empty.

It was a great prank — after a minute, the Cubs came out of the clubhouse en masse to congratulate their rookie third baseman. It would come as no surprise if Ross were named among the instigators.

Most of the broadcasters on Sunday mentioned the game against the Brewers. Few pointed out that Ross, who also has caught for the Dodgers, Padres, Pirates, Reds, Red Sox and Braves, hit his first big league home run against an emergency pitcher. On Sept. 2, 2012, the Dodgers were beating up on Arizona 18-0 when first baseman Mark Grace offered to mop up and spare the Diamondbacks’ bullpen further embarrassment.

Gracie served up a cantaloupe, and Ross parked it.

None of the broadcasters mentioned a nice story about David Ross that happened in 2002 before he got called up to Los Angeles.

He was catching for the 51s then, tearing up Pacific Coast League pitching. Las Vegas was playing the Portland Beavers at old Civic Stadium, which had been remodeled and renamed PGE Park — this would have been when Portland still had pro baseball, instead of pro soccer.

A couple of young toughs sitting in the stands near home plate were giving Ross a ration of expletive-laden grief.

For the sake of context, this was two years before Frank Francisco of the Texas Rangers threw a folding chair into the crowd in the vicinity of hecklers, injuring a female spectator.

I would receive a letter from a Portland baseball fan who was sitting close to where these young hecklers — she referred to them as “punks” — were all over Ross’ case. They were unmerciful, she said.

This fan feared something like the Francisco incident easily could have developed when Ross, who apparently had heard enough, stared down the young hecklers.

“I witnessed something completely unexpected,” Vicki Ballou wrote in her email. “Ross stood there until he caught the boys’ attention. He then tossed a ball to them, smiled, and returned to his warm-up routine.

“After a moment of stunned silence, the boys began yelling, this time even louder. But this time, the chants were ‘Ross, you’re the man!’ and ‘Ross, we love you.’ ”

She closed by writing this: “At a time when people are becoming increasingly disillusioned with professional athletes, a 25-year-old catcher named Dave Ross demonstrated what true character and sportsmanship really mean.”

When I asked Ross about it after the Frank Francisco chair-throwing incident, I recall him shrugging it off. No big deal, he said.

This is one of the reasons I predict he will become a fine big league manager when he’s through catching Jon Lester. Another is that he is a catcher. Former catchers always seem to make the best managers.

It also will help if Ross takes over a team that has a good farm system and/or very few head cases such as Yasiel Puig.

“I’m not saying that I have always handled those (situations) the right way,” David Ross said when he still was on his way up. “But I learned something that night. That showed me what can happen when you turn things around.”

Maybe it wasn’t as noteworthy as tossing cantaloupes up to home plate and having the last-place Phillies whack them directly at his teammates, 1-2-3, and then hitting one into the bleachers right afterward and getting a big mention on "SportsCenter."

It’s still a nice story, though.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.