The pitchers, Cody Ross says, played everywhere. Good courses, too. Baseball teams play 81 road games a year, mostly at night, and starting pitchers play once every five games, so yeah, they play golf.Â
And Ross, at the end of his 12-year career, was going to join âem, damnit.Â
âMost teams I was with, the pitchers, at least two of them would go out and play every city,â Ross said on GOLFâs Subpar podcast this week. âAnd I always told myself when I got later in my career that I wanted to do that because weâre going to cities that I will never travel to to go play golf. Like for example, Pittsburgh. Like, when Iâm in Pittsburgh, Iâm taking my clubs. Like, Iâm going to go play Oakmont, Iâm going to go play all the great places in Pennsylvania that are close to there.â
Only a funny thing happened on the way from the dugout to the first tee.
Ross, over 1,073 games for eight teams, pitched just one inning.
He was an outfielder.
âAnd Iâm like, oh, I never did it,â he said. âBecause the last thing I wanted to do is be outside and be on my feet for four hours, and I just wanted to be in my hotel room, watch movies and order room service. So I never ended up doing it. I regret it to this day.â
His baseball career had little else to lament. Ross finished with more than 900 hits and 100 homers. He was the 2010 NLCS MVP, and that San Francisco Giants team won the World Series. Heâs gotten a good amount of golf in retirement, too. The self-described âgolf nutâ said on Subpar heâs now playing to a 3-handicap, and he recently made his first hole in one, at Pebble Beach of all places.Â
Still. It would have been nice to play with the pitchers.
âWe are jealous that theyâre doing it,â Ross said, âand then as soon as they start sucking, then weâre pissed.â
âYeah, you bring it up?â co-host Drew Stoltz asked.
âWeâre like, instead of going out playing golf, why donât you go pitch?â
To hear the rest of Rossâ Subpar interview, including stories from his MLB career, check out the video below.