This is the stuff you don’t see. I arrived at O.co Coliseum early yesterday to find Robbie Ross on the field completing a torturous series of drills with a medicine ball. It was only about 70 degrees in Oakland but Robbie and the other young players had worked up quite a sweat tossing that heavy ball around. Meantime in the managers office just a few hundred feet away, Robbie’s future was being decided. When he walked into the clubhouse he was summoned to the office and told he was going to spend some time in Round Rock.
Back in the clubhouse the World Cup was blaring and the players were eating and laughing and completing their pregame preparations. Until Robbie walked in. The things got quiet. This is a really good guy and a good teammate and everyone in that room felt bad for him. His teammates lined up to hug him and wish him well. After a brief session with the media he began literally throwing his belongings in a Rangers equipment bag.
He will take that bag and the right attitude with him to the minors. He said he’s “disappointed, but I’m going to have to keep battling.” The Rangers plan to use him as a starter at Round Rock, not because he will be a starter when he comes back, but because he needs to pitch as much as he can to find what he has lost on the mound. “It’s disappointing to have to go down there and get your crap together.” But he will. He will go down there and he will get it together.
Meantime he carries all of his crap out of the clubhouse. As soon as he left, an attendant changed the nameplate on his locker. Minutes later Robbie returned. He probably had forgotten something, but the locker he had just cleaned out had the name Poreda over it. I’m not sure if Robbie saw it, I hope he didn’t.
The day began with a good guy tossing a medicine ball and ended with a good guy taking his medicine.
