CHICAGO -- The most popular grandpa in Chicago these days just might be a 39-year-old with three young children who happens to play for the most dominant team in the majors.Oh, and he does not actually have any grandkids.Even so, David Ross might as well be a grandpa by baseball standards. And as his career winds down after 15 years, hes getting a grand send-off with the Chicago Cubs. While a long-suffering franchise eyes its first World Series championship since 1908, a lifelong backup catcher is being treated like a star on his way out the door.I was at dinner last night, Ross said. Somebody yelled across the restaurant, `Hey grandpa! when I walked in. Im like, `How we doing? Hows it going? A lot more attention. Its unique, different for me.Yes, its quite a time to be Grandpa Rossy.Grandpa Rossy? Well, that started in spring training.Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo were at dinner with Ross and some other players when the two young sluggers decided to have some fun and open an Instagram account documenting his final season.Grandparossy-3 started with three pictures posted on Feb. 21 -- of Ross posing at a sporting goods store with a Cubs shirt and mitt in one hand and pants, batting gloves and knee pads before his last first day; of a black-and-white Ross baseball card from when he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers in a nod to his age; and of the three of them at a Phoenix Suns game. The account has grown to one with 136,000, and the retirement tour spurred such a demand that the Cubs are selling Ross t-shirts at Wrigley Field for the first time since he joined the club before last season.Its his last year playing baseball, Bryant said. We wanted ... to make him feel really special, that we really care about him and are gonna miss him.Even better, theyre having fun along the way.The Instagram account became a vehicle for Ross to post pictures from the road and of his family and teammates. There are shots of him playing, working out and hanging with Rizzo in Las Vegas.There are videos, too. One from spring training shows Ross in a G-PA ROSSY No. 3 jersey walking hunched over in the clubhouse using a bat like a cane as Rizzo and Bryant help him.Almost there, Rizzo says.You can do it, Bryant chimes in.In another, Ross and Rizzo perform an acoustic rendition of Vanilla Ices Ice, Ice, Baby, with Ross on guitar and vocals and Rizzo on a conga drum.The Cubs organization also jumped on the Grandpa Rossy phenomenon and produced a series of videos with Ross to generate All-Star votes for his teammates.In one, Grandpa Rossy uses a rotary phone to implore fans to dial (hash)votecubs and call in their vote. In another, he encourages them to fax it.Teammates also gave Ross a motorized scooter during spring training to help him get around.At first, we kind of felt bad calling him grandpa, Bryant acknowledged. Hes like 38 years old. Thats pretty young for a normal person. Hes enjoyed it.It hasnt been all jokes and gag gifts. There have been sweet gestures, like this one compliments of Jason Heyward: Suite upgrades for Ross and his family on the road.For Heyward, who signed with Chicago in the offseason, it was a way to thank someone who helped him when he was breaking into the majors with Atlanta six years ago. He learned quickly that Ross had a way with words, like that time the Braves were playing an exhibition game against the Mets before his rookie season.Heyward took his turn in batting practice and went inside. Ross wanted to know why he wasnt shagging fly balls instead.If theres something thats not happening and needs to happen, hes the person to say something about it the right way, Heyward said. When he speaks, its probably a good idea to listen because hes saying something thats gonna help you as an individual and hes definitely saying something thats gonna help the team.Jon Lester, who played with Ross in Boston, said, He knows how to push you the right way.That in part helps explain why the Cubs consider Ross, a career .229 hitter on his seventh team who has never played in more than 112 games and has logged more than 200 at-bats only two times, so important.It goes beyond the raw numbers. He is a steady hand behind the plate and in the clubhouse, a player who won a championship with Boston in 2013 and is trying to help a team loaded with stars from Bryant and Rizzo to Jake Arrieta and Lester finally bring home a championship to Wrigley Field.I look back on what I bring and my skillset and how I got this much time in the major leagues, it blows my mind, Ross said. I try to appreciate that and not take that for granted.He is someone manager Joe Maddon saw as a perfect fit from the moment he found out. Maddon was driving around Tampa and pulled into a parking lot to call Ross.Fun, passionate, aggressively wanted to win, great teammate. All that stuff came through in that phone conversation, Maddon said.Now, a career that started with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2002 nears the end, Ross is soaking it all in and having some fun along the way. He started keeping a diary documenting the season in a leather notepad his wife gave him and now makes a few entries a month on his phone, instead, usually during flights.Its time to go home, its time to be a family, its time to start a different chapter in my life, Ross said. I love baseball, dont get me wrong. I love playing, I love competing, I love these guys. Theres a perfect atmosphere here. Yeezy Ireland . Two pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the April 15 race in an area packed with fans cheering the passing runners. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured, including at least 16 who lost limbs. Cheap Authentic Yeezys . According to a report from the Winnipeg Free Press, the Bombers will name Acting GM Kyle Walters to the post full time. http://www.wholesaleyeezy350ireland.com/ . 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Editors note: Maura Healey, the attorney general of Massachusetts who played womens college basketball at Harvard, pays tribute to Pat Summitt.Like many, I awoke this week to the news that legendary Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt had died. Throughout the day, I exchanged texts with fellow hoopsters, coaches and friends, all saddened by the news. I was moved by the tributes and stories chronicling her career and impact. Pat Summitt is rightly hailed as a pioneer, a trailblazer, a role model and an inspiration. She got the most out of her players, put womens hoops on the map and profoundly changed the perception of gender across American sports culture. She broke records, pushed teams and players beyond what they even imagined was possible, and she showed that girls can play.Coming into coaching just after Title IX went into effect, she made the most of that opportunity, and over the course of her career blew doors open to advance gender equity and became the winningest basketball coach in NCAA Division I history to boot.I didnt know Pat Summitt and I didnt play for her. But for me, like so many, Pat Summitt was a big-time influence on my life. Sadly, its in her passing that I find myself appreciating all that she meant.In a hot July summer when I was 15 years old, I made a trip to Knoxville, Tennessee. I was on my way home to New Hampshire with my coach following play in the national AAU tournament in Oxford, Mississippi. We came in fifth place and I took home an All-American award.I was excited and determined to visit the playground and classroom of a coach I hoped to play for someday. Because if you were a young girl growing up then, the coach you knew, the one you wanted to play for, the ultimate destination, was Pat Summitt. When I did my ball handling, shooting and zigzag drills in cold winter gyms and outdoors on playground hard-top under pelting summer sun, when I did fingertip pushups and sit-ups in my bedroom calculating that Id play on four Olympic teams before I was done, my eye was on Pat Summitt. Because when you were a young girl with big hoop dreams, when you thought you could do and be anything, you dreamed of playing for Pat Summitt in a Lady Vols uniform.So when we pulled up to the athletic complex that day, I felt like I was visiting the promised land. Maybe it was because of my wide eyes -- or maybe it was our funny accents -- the kind receptionist who looked like shed seen this movie before took pity on us and said that Coach Summitt was on the road recruiting, but that I could meet with one of her assistants. A short while later, out came assistant coach (and current Tennessee head coach) Holly Warlick.Holly had been a super player and a point guard like myself, so I was immediately pumped. (In retrospect, I can imagine that poor Holly had to deal with this scenario many times each week.) She walked us around the facility and showed us the trophies and Lady Vols memorabilia. I was like a kid in the candy store; I bought a Lady Vols T-shirt at the campus store and we hit the road. After, Coach Warlick sent me a nice letter and told me to keep in touch -- a gracious touch but one I now realize was extended to probably thousands of girls who showed up similarly unannounced at the door. But I was pumped and returned to New Hampshire fired up.Later on, I got invited to try out for the national team. I went to the trials and was promptly cut after the first couple of sessions. Before I did, I had the chance to scrimmageunder the watchful eye of Pat Summitt, who was helping scout for the team. And for those few hours one day, I felt like a champ, getting to share the hardwood with Pat Summitt.dddddddddddd.I remember at the end, before heading home, I wanted to go up to her and tell her how great she was. Instead, I got shy and merely mumbled something like, Thanks for having me. I learned a lot. But, Ill never forget, she looked at me with those steely blue eyes, and said, Just keep working hard. That was it. No fuss, no muss. That was my first and only interaction with Pat Summitt.Years later, after I had the chance to play college ball for a great coach and an even better person, Kathy Delaney-Smith at Harvard, I watched and rooted for Pat Summitts teams. It was visceral. I couldnt exactly explain why I felt that way, but I did. Even as the New England favorites UConn Huskies -- a great program with great players and a great coach -- came to dominate, I still always rooted for Pat.Im older now. I still play, but very poorly. But I think I better understand.Pat Summitt made it OK for girls like me to compete, to play hard, to bring it with sweat, conviction and emotion. To dream big, even foolishly, but to dream. She made us believe in ourselves and value ourselves as women competing in sport. But, importantly, she made America sit up and take notice -- to recognize that women bring as much to any endeavor as their male counterparts.I think that what I was also tuning into -- but I didnt know it at the time -- was the power of leadership. Basketball is a team game; success depends upon getting five players to work together in sync on the court, and for the entire team to get those on the court in the best position to succeed and win at any given time. Leadership is about recognizing the skills and talents -- and limitations -- of all the players and then figuring out how to maximize their efforts in a way that gets collective results.Pat Summitt was willing to lead, to take chances, to advocate. And she trusted her players and her coaching staff. She put the right people in place in the right time and got them working together. She also was tough. And tough is good. Because if somethings worth doing, its worth doing with intensity and intent.Look at clips of her coaching from the sidelines. With just one piercing, penetrating look, Pat Summitt could convey to a player that she wasnt doing enough. But look at the same time, at the hand extended, a hand that says I believe in you. I encourage you.Leaders inspire and push people to be their better selves. And thats what I took from watching Pat Summitt -- taking whatever skills you bring to the dance and making that work for the team and getting people together to get it done.Look, I didnt have the opportunity to play for her, so this is only what I observed. Pat Summitt was a leader. You could put her on any battlefield, in any board room, and she would make you a winner. Great coaches know how to inspire, they know how to push people beyond where they think they can go, and they know when to give a high five, a hug, or a stern talking to.Pat Summitt was a genius. She knew how to do it. She changed the face of what it meant to be a female athlete. To compete, to work hard, to sweat, to get angry, to rally, to win. She knew defeat and she knew victory, and she knew the difference that mattered. The country is a poorer place with her gone. I never got to tell her this: She mattered to me, and a whole bunch of people. And thats a great legacy. Touching people you never knew you touched.Well before orange was the new black, we had Pat Summitt.Its a playbook to follow. ' ' '