Rozner: No longer folk hero, Cubs' Ross manages expectations

The sexy story revolves around David Ross and Jon Lester.

Makes sense. Close friends, batterymates and champs together.

Lester, like any competitor, never wants to leave a game, so how is Ross going to handle it as the manager wanting the baseball?

This is overblown, of course. Lester's going to be mad no matter who the manager is and Ross was never shy about arguing with him on the mound as a catcher.

He'll demand the ball and Lester will hand it over.

Interesting the first time? Sure, but not all that scintillating.

Of much more importance is how Ross will handle being accountable for wins and losses, and how fans will handle that in the wake of Joe Maddon's departure.

To be around this team in 2015-16 was to see Wrigley Field embrace Ross as a heroic figure for reasons that no one could explain.

With standing ovation after standing ovation, sometimes after strikeouts, the fans offered Ross the kind of love usually reserved for aging Hall of Famers about to call it a day.

"I have absolutely no idea," Ross told me with a laugh in October 2016. "I don't know where it comes from. I think people respect hard work and good guys. I try to treat people the way I want to be treated. I hope people see that.

"It's really shocking sometimes, but I'm so appreciative. I almost cried in the box a few times late in the year. I couldn't focus.

"It's been overwhelming. I'll remember this stuff forever. For a guy like me in my last year, it's just the best. I'm just so grateful to them."

And then there was the storybook finish, the home run in Game 7 of the World Series, crying in the clubhouse, on the field and in the dugout with his family.

"For me to go out this way, oh my gosh. You can't write it any better. I don't even have the words," Ross said while sitting with his wife and kids in the dugout after the Cubs celebrated in the rain. "It's amazing. My family is here and I'm a part of this special group of guys.

"What else can you ask for? You can't make this stuff up. I can't find the words. Maybe you can find the words for me."

It was all so very cute. And now that is all so very over.

Ross is following a very popular and successful manager. The expectations will be high. And immediate.

He will get a standing ovation when introduced at the home opener, as fans remember Ross the player, and that will be the last reception he receives like that until he jogs to home plate and shakes the hand of the opposing manager in a playoff game.

If the Cubs get off to a bad start, if he waits too long to take out a pitcher - or removes one too quickly - and if he messes up a decision - as has happened with some pretty smart rookie managers the last few years - the love for Ross will disappear fast.

"Cubs fans, the way you've treated me over the years, I want to say publicly, thank you so much," Ross said Monday morning at his introductory news conference. "A lot of love has come from them. I know it may not always be that way moving forward."

When asked how he would handle fan and media scrutiny, Ross said, "With my background, especially in places like Boston where the fans hold you accountable, I don't care if you're a starter or a backup, every day you set foot on the field you're accountable to perform and the expectations don't go away."

As an afterthought, he added, "As well as here in Chicago."

No, he's right. This ain't Boston, Philadelphia or New York.

But Cub fans have reached a relatively high level of expectation after the last five years, and far beyond how he interacts with Lester on the mound, Ross will be under a microscope given his lack of experience coaching and managing.

Even this fan base, which can be so forgiving, is going to want more in 2020.

"They expect greatness when you step on the field," Ross said. "They expect you to be prepared and give it all you've got. That's the kind of manager I hope to be.

"I understand the criticism that comes with it. That's not something I can control."

Like perhaps no other journeyman in Cubs history, David Ross owns the most special of places in the hearts of the fans.

He will always be linked to the greatest moment in the history of the franchise.

As he should.

But as Theo Epstein pointed out Monday, what occurred in Cleveland is now a long time ago in baseball years because of the way the game evolves and the roster changes.

Ross isn't a folk hero anymore. He's now the manager of a team expected to win. And the honeymoon just ended.