This one was a shocker.
While most of us had our football/basketball/hockey hats on, the Cubs did the nasty Monday and fired manager David Ross.
A day after three of their players — Nico Hoerner, Dansby Swanson and Ian Happ — were declared Gold Glove winners and the Cubs picked up veteran pitcher Kyle Hendricks’ option for next season, they announced Ross was done after four seasons at the helm.
Even though he had a year left on his contract and a bunch of statements of support and confidence from the front office, Ross got the dagger in a business where knives are never far out of reach.
‘‘I don’t have fear of losing my job,’’ he said at the end of August, when the Cubs were just a week away from reaching their zenith of 12 games above .500. ‘‘That’s for other people to judge. I have confidence that I am a good manager and I will continue to get better.’’
But the Cubs plummeted from that zenith, finished 83-79, missed the playoffs and the rest — well, this is the rest. Another manager fired. Happens all the time. But we got blindsided by this one.
Naturally, management had another fellow in mind for the job — probably for some time — on the down low: the Brewers’ Craig Counsell, whose contract with the team expired Oct. 31. The Brewers have been a Cubs nemesis for a spell now, and Counsell just seems more like a real manager than Ross ever did.
Maybe it was that stretch from Sept. 7 to the final game, when the Cubs went 7-14 and fizzled away, that sealed Grandpa Rossy’s fate. Maybe it was his odd foray on ‘‘Dancing With the Stars’’ in 2017, a goofy escapade in which he wore his Cubs uniform and bopped around the floor with partner Lindsay Arnold to the strains of ‘‘Go, Cubs, Go.’’
And that was just the first episode. There were dances to rap, jazz, rock, tangos, waltzes and so on. And the outfits? The red racer’s jumpsuit, the blue sequined jacket, the tails and top hat, the shirtless Chippendales thing? Interesting.
‘‘I’m having the time of my life,’’ Ross told ESPN host Scott Van Pelt just before the finale in May 2017. ‘‘I don’t know how this is possible.’’
Nor did most people. Indeed, the memory of Ross becoming famous for being on a hit dancing show might have worked against him from the start. He didn’t begin by managing at Single-A ball or by sitting at a veteran manager’s side for years. He started with soft shoes, swingin’ hips and a reputation as the oldest player to hit a home run in Game 7 of the World Series.
Yes, he sometimes acted like a quasi-bench coach in his two seasons as a Cubs player, sometimes getting in a teammate’s face for not hustling. But he later seemed like a placeholder until a real manager came along to guide the Cubs.
Ross is a friendly, open guy, but he can be tough in the clubhouse. Maybe winning games at the end of 2023 could have saved him. Maybe not.
Cubs president Jed Hoyer was his friend and supporter, but he ended the affair like an assassin. There’s always that knife hidden in the boot. And there’s always a reason to make a change.
In this case, once Counsell started getting romanced by the Mets, his likely landing spot (or so we thought), Hoyer smelled an opportunity. Baseball fans will remember Counsell as that unlikely, skinny infielder from Notre Dame who won World Series rings with the Marlins and Diamondbacks. Hoyer and chairman Tom Ricketts surely knew him as that skipper in Milwaukee who bedeviled them too much.
Not only was Counsell named a finalist for National League Manager of the Year on Monday, but he also agreed to a reported five-year, $40 million contract with the Cubs. It’s the biggest contract in history for a manager.
Think the Cubs wanted this guy?
Ross guided the Cubs to an NL Central title in 2020, the miserable COVID season, and he was a pretty good manager overall. He made mistakes, but so does every manager.
Back in that glory year of 2016, Ross hit a solo homer in the sixth inning against Cleveland in Game 7 of the World Series, a run that helped change Cubs history. In their statement about firing Ross, the Cubs said his ‘‘impact to our organization will stack up with the legends that came before him.’’
So Ross is a Cubs legend.
A fired one.
