Cody Ross
Appearances
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
Yeah, I wanted it. I wanted the smoke. I heard all these horror stories about people going into arbitration and creating bad tension and bad blood going into the season. You could have a bad taste in your mouth for the organization, but... I really didn't, even though they hammered me, which was amazing. At the same time, I'm like, wow, where do they get this? This is incredible.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
Like they pull stuff out of there, literally out of there. It was a tough process to go through, but at the end of it, it was, I would do it over a hundred times.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
I do not, actually. I mean, I couldn't pick them out of a group of two, any three of them. I have no idea.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
He just walked 15,000 square feet away. Into his basement. That basement's amazing. Y'all should go check it out sometime.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
I just remember like certain stats that they threw out and I was like, oh man, like that is below the belt. Like I think they were trying to pin me on me not being a starter because I wasn't a starter when I got to the Marlins. I worked my way into being a starter. I was a platoon player. Somebody would get hurt. I would play like, you know, a 30 games in a row.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
And then the guy would come back and I would kind of platoon. And so going into arbitration about three years in, I've only been a starter for a year and a half. So they were pounding the arbitration guys like this guy's not a starter. He doesn't, you know, you can't look at him as a starter, even though I came in on my platform year having a really good year.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
They were just pounding like, he's not a starter. He's not a starter. And I'm like, okay, I get it. I'm not, I am a starter, but you're telling me I'm not. Now they don't think I am a starter.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
I would say, like, when you asked me, like, why would, you know, would you want to throw a punch at David? I would say no, because a lot of what they said, like, you can't deny some of the stuff that they said. So I'm like, man, even though that hurt, there's a lot of truth in that. Like, I can see where they would come and try to bring that case and try to make me look like a certain player.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
Marcus 2.0, baby.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
So when Kevin went from the Marlins to the Cubs, we played them in Florida. Dan hit a home run off of him to tie the game in the ninth, and I came up right after and hit a home run to win it.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
Back-to-back, Kevin Gregg. Two Gs. Cody Ross, left field. That looks deep. That looks good. It's over. Oh, yeah.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
Well, you find out either that day or the next day, right, David? I remember it's really, really fast.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
I remember I was obviously in Florida the next day and my agent called me before I actually went into spring training. And he was like, great news. We won, blah, blah, blah. And I'll never forget it because I remember thinking now, wow, I'm a multimillionaire now. I just got four and a half million dollars. I can tell people I'm a multimillionaire. So that was kind of my thought process behind it.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
So, yeah, by the time you get back to spring training the next day, you already know that you won and, you know, when you win, it's nice because you can walk around the clubhouse and be like, ah, I just kicked their ass. Yeah, we won. We won. You know, so it's kind of a... And then, you know, you see the front office in the clubhouse the next day and you walk by like, what's up, guys?
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
It hurts the Yankees and it hurts the other teams too because then the other teams have to negotiate on the behalf of the Yankees. And like, well, the Yankees are just handing money out. Then for the teams like the Marlins, they're trying to save every penny they possibly can. So it creates this kind of distance between teams too.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
Woody Ross played for the Marlins from 2006 to 2010. First of all, Dan, you're making me dizzy, bro. You're like moving around. I know. I mean, I'm like, I had too much wine last night, maybe. I don't know. But you're going to like stay still for a second.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
Well, you get coached up on it by your agents to, you know, how to act, what to do, what not to do. And, you know, you're just super polite when you walk in the room. I don't remember if we shook hands before. We shook hands. I knew we shook hands after with the arbiters. But I remember just, like, you know, trying to give them that, like, you know, cute little smile that I have.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
Like, you know, maybe a couple.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
I think for me, the reason why there was no sort of animosity or hate, I think obviously I have to give a ton of credit to Dave, even though I don't like to. I'm going to give him a ton of credit. He was so good about coming back on the team plane, hanging out with us, playing poker, having a couple drinks with us on the back of the plane, talking shit, just so much fun just to be around.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
I do have an office. Do you have an office in your 15,000-square-foot house?
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
And then when it came time to do business, he was completely honest with us, whether we were good or bad. And that is exactly what you want as a player. You don't ever really get that. You don't get the personal, usually, and you don't get the honesty, secondly. And that's what... Made him so amazing.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
There he is. Anyways, back to me. Yeah, so 2006-2010... Never really got an opportunity at the first few places that I was at. And then got to the Marlins and had an incredible opportunity. I remember being with the Dodgers in spring training in 06. And I was just praying. I'm like, please, let me go to the Marlins. I see what they're doing over there. They're young and they're enthusiastic.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
And anyways, yeah. So I guess I always say this to people about David. I say he's the second best president I've ever had. in my life. All right. This is where you ask the questions. Everybody else is tied for first.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
That's correct. Yes, and I'll remember mine very vividly. Although I don't remember the actual numbers, you can probably tell me the numbers below.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
This is what happens with Marlins. I think we're the first team to start this file and trial deal. So if you file the number, there was no negotiating between the time you filed and the time your arbitration hearing. So there was a deadline. I'll never forget. My agent was calling me at the witching hour going, hey, they're not budging. And I'm like, well, I'm not budging either. And so...
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
We'll just go to arbitration. And so hung up. And sure enough, the time came and I'm like, let's see if they budge. You think David's budging? Hell no. He ain't budging. And so he texts me or call me the next day. He's like, you idiot. Now we got to go to arbitration in Florida. Oh, gosh, this is going to be painful. Like, just wait and see how much we're going to talk about you.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
You're going down. I'll never forget it. To finish my story, I'll never forget. I fly in to Jupiter for spring training and our arbitration case is in Tampa. And David calls me and he's like, hey, he's like, hey, I'm taking my family to Tampa. And do you want to jump on the jet with us to go to your arbitration case? And I'm like, yeah. And so am I, why not? My wife and I get on the private jet.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
But meanwhile, it probably costs more to fly there on a private jet than what I'm actually going to either win or lose in arbitration. And so we get on the jet. We get there. We're cutting it up, having a good time, going to the room. And even though I put up a good year going into that year, they bring out some of the craziest stats you've ever seen in your life of how bad you are.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
And compared to, you know, some guy from 1973, like, what? How do I compare to that guy?
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
Like Dan, I mean, I'm coming from basically nothing and I'm, you know, we're talking about a few hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, so basically you're in a hotel conference room and it's like David said, a long rectangular table. On that side of the table is your team that you're playing for. And the commissioner's office has a couple of attorneys. And then over here is the arbiters.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
On my side, I have my agents, attorneys, MLBPA attorneys. And then, so I'm sitting closest to the arbiters. And I see David over there. I think, was Vinefest there? I can't remember. Yep. Was Vinefest there? Yes. Yep. Yep. And I just was looking at film the whole time. David's got his little smile and he's like smirking at me and I'm like smirking at him.
Pablo Torre Finds Out
The Room: Behind Closed Doors of the Messiest Ritual in Sports
And meanwhile, my agents are like, hey, you can't like, when they're talking about you, when we're talking about you, you just like, you're literally like in a courtroom. But I just wanted to go in and hear what they had to say. Because I felt like even that was going to make me better going into the following year.