GLENDALE, Ariz. — It took one day — one exhibition game into his managing career — for the Cubs’ David Ross to succumb to the flu and miss a game, eliciting the kind of concern and compassion you might expect from the boss.
“You’re no Lou Gehrig,” Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer texted Ross on Saturday.
Determined to push through on Sunday, Ross instead wound up in a nearby hospital for four to five hours getting fluids through an IV — with players texting him GIFs of fictional manager Lou Brown bouncing off a hospital bed in Major League 2.
And by Monday, Anthony Rizzo trolled the manager by walking through the clubhouse wearing a surgical mask on the way batting practice.
“He’s definitely been leading the charge giving me a lot of heck,” Ross said of Rizzo as he returned for his first full day back to work Tuesday. (He spent some time during early BP at the home complex before the team bused to Peoria for a game against Seattle.)
“And what goes around comes around,” Ross said with smile. “Just so you know, Jed’s a little under the weather today. So that’s karma.”
Tuesday marked a long anticipated – then longer than that – managing debut as Ross returned to the Cubs’ spring, even if the spring did not seem to have fully returned to Ross.
“It stinks because you give all these talks to the guys, and I’m saying I want everybody in the dugout in the first game,” said Ross through a hint of lingering rasp in his voice. “And I’m sitting at home watching like 62 dudes in the dugout. …I’m holding everybody accountable here and I’m the only one not there.
“That was tough man, I’ll be honest with you. Of all the times to miss, it felt terrible.”
Not that he could do anything about it. Ross said he even got a flu shot just before the flu season — which probably is why it wasn’t worse.
“It’s nice to be back. I’m excited,” he said before the Cubs faced the Rockies in their fourth game of the spring Tuesday. “I feel a lot better today.
“The main thing was to not get any of these guys sick.”
Not so fast.
Starting pitcher Jose Quintana only returned to light throwing Tuesday after missing a few days with a similar bug. “We’ll adjust his scheduled according to how he’s feeling,” Ross said.
The flu circulating through the clubhouse probably will be long gone before Ross lives this one down.
“I had a buddy of mine text me: ‘You quit already?’ “ he said.
In at least one way, though, Ross’ first-week schedule had a familiar feel to it.
“As a player, I only had to show up for Jon Lester’s starts,” said Lester’s former personal catcher. “So I figured today was a good day to get back.”
Lester makes his first start of the spring Tuesday against Colorado.
