Ross Gload

Arguably, the toughest job in baseball belongs to the “utility” or part-time player/pinch-hitter who must come off the bench into a game, often at a critical point in the contest. In the years of the 25-man roster, having players on a club who could deliver as pinch-hitters, or who could provide improved late-inning defense provided a major-league manager with great decision-making flexibility. Today, with enlarged pitching staffs, the multi-position player is an absolute necessity on a big-league roster.

Since all major-league players are exceptional baseball talents, how did one player become a regular, while another settled into the role of part-time utilityman? Historically, sometimes, it was because of a player’s defensive deficiencies, with guys like Jerry Lynch or Dusty Rhodes being prime examples. Sometimes a regular player simply got older and settled into a pinch-hitting role, like Smoky Burgess. Occasionally, the player is simply on the wrong team – playing the same position as the team’s established star. Charlie Silvera comes to mind as one of those guys. In today’s game, the universal designated hitter has diminished the importance of pinch-hitting or defensive deficiencies, although a player able to play multiple defensive positions is still coveted.

Ross Peter Gload, who performed for 10 seasons in the majors (2000, 2002, 2004-2011), provides an example of a player who played several years with the wrong team. A good hitter (.281 lifetime) and excellent defensive first baseman (.995 lifetime), Gload after two brief stays in 2000 with the Cubs and in 2002 with Colorado, made an Opening Day roster with the Chicago White Sox in 2004. Except for minor-league rehabilitation assignments, he remained in the majors until his retirement in 2011. With the White Sox, he found Paul Konerko blocking his path to full-time play until 2006. Traded to Kansas City for left-handed pitcher Andy Sisco after the 2006 season, he played two years as a semi-regular for the Royals. Days before the 2009 season began, the Royals sent him to the Florida Marlins for a player to be named later (right-handed minor-league pitcher Eric Basurto). He backed up starting first baseman Jorge Cantú in Florida. After one season with the Marlins, he played out his option and signed a free-agent deal with Philadelphia, where for his last two years in the majors he pinch-hit and played occasionally at first, behind Ryan Howard, or in the outfield.

Gload, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound, left-handed-hitting/throwing first baseman, was born on April 5, 1976, in Brooklyn, New York, to Ross P. Gload, a carpenter, and Regina E. (Creegan) Gload. He starred in soccer and basketball at East Hampton High School on Long Island. He was conference all-star in soccer1 and consistently excelled in basketball.2 While he performed well in those two sports, he positively dazzled in baseball. He had no opportunity to play baseball during his early childhood in Brooklyn. He remembered, “We didn’t even have a backyard.” Baseball? “My parents never pushed me into it. I never played.”3 

Moving from Brooklyn to Long Island opened up a new world for Gload. He quickly realized that he had considerable ability at the sport and in high school put up spectacular numbers. He began by hitting .368 as a freshman with two home runs. His sophomore year he improved to .492 with 9 home runs, saw his average drop to .338 as a junior, but increased his homer total to 10, then had a ridiculous senior season, hitting .488 with 20 home runs and 61 RBIs in only 26 games. Just to show he was not one-dimensional, he also had a 7-1 record on the mound with a microscopic ERA of 1.16 and 80 strikeouts in 57 innings. That season earned Gload the 1994 (Carl) Yastrzemski Award as the outstanding high-school player in Suffolk County, which encompasses most of Long Island. A number of prior award winners went on to play major-league baseball, including Don DeMola, Tom Veryzer, Neal Heaton, Keith Osik, Jim Mecir, Tony Graffanino, and Bill Koch. 

Because of his high-school performance, a number of university baseball coaches were very interested in having Gload play for them. Recruited by the University of South Florida, South Alabama, Clemson, North Carolina and West Virginia, Gload chose the South Florida Bulls.4

Gload’s NCAA debut season drew rave reviews. He hit .352 with 14 home runs and 69 RBIs (regular season).5 National Amateur Baseball Federation coach Mark Cuseta said, “I’ve got five former players in the big leagues including (Colorado Rockies) shortstop Walt Weiss and Ross is the best player I’ve ever coached.” Tulane coach Rick Jones chimed in: “He’s the best young college hitter I’ve seen in a long time. And he may be better on defense. My only regret is we’ll have to face him three more years.”6 Gload continued his excellent play his sophomore season, hitting .371 with 16 home runs and 68 RBIs (regular season).7 His junior year provided another spectacular season on the diamond. During the regular season, he hit .417 with 18 home runs and 79 RBIs in 59 games. On the verge of the NCAA tournament, Gload had set South Florida career records with 54 home runs and 240 RBIs (NCAA tournament games in 1995 and 1996 included). He had also compiled the second-best average in school history, .380.8 In June 1997 the Florida Marlins selected Gload in the 13th round of the amateur draft. Gload signed on June 12 and headed for Class-A Utica in the short-season New York-Pennsylvania League to begin his professional career.

Gload’s season at Utica started slowly. Through his first 46 games, he hit only .233, with 3 home runs and 26 RBIs.9 He improved over his next 22 games, hitting .314, with 17 RBIs, finishing the season with a .261 average, 3 home runs, and 43 RBIs. Surprisingly, the normally smooth-fielding Gload committed 16 errors in 63 games while playing exclusively at first base. Promoted to the Class-A Midwest League for the 1998 season, Gload had a much better year. Playing for the Kane County Cougars, he finished ninth in batting with a .313 average and led the league with 41 doubles. His 92 RBIs were good for third in that category. In 1999, playing for Brevard County in the advanced A Florida State League, Gload had a decent season, a .298 average, with 10 home runs and 74 RBIs. At both Kane County and Brevard County, his fielding improved. Still playing exclusively at first, Gload made 14 errors in 129 games in the Midwest League and improved to 9 errors in 133 games for Brevard County. His .993 fielding percentage placed him second among Florida State first basemen who played more than 100 games at the position. After two solid seasons in Class A, the Marlins promoted him to Portland, Maine, in the Double-A Eastern League.10

By the end of July, Gload was hitting .284 and leading Portland with 16 home runs and 65 RBIs. Then on July 31, the Marlins traded Gload to the Chicago Cubs organization for slugging outfielder Henry Rodriguez. His teammates clearly saw Gload’s trade as a big loss. Todd Betts said, “We can’t let that affect us. … We have to keep going at it.” Chris Norton was even more explicit, saying, “He was carrying us basically. When you lose a good bat like that, it puts more stress on the team as a whole to put up runs.”11 After acquiring Gload, the Cubs promoted him to Iowa of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.

A new organization was not the only change for Gload in 2000. Portland had begun using him in the outfield as well as at first base, and he played exclusively as an outfielder at Iowa. Gload turned in a schizophrenic performance while playing in Des Moines just over four weeks. He was Ruthian at the plate, hitting .404 with 14 home runs and 39 RBIs in 28 games. For the season, his home-run total placed him in a tie for fourth on the team. But he played the outfield erratically. In 28 games in the outfield for Iowa, Gload made four errors. Nonetheless, his aggregate .309 average, 30 home runs, 104 RBIs, .586 slugging percentage, and .944 OPS, earned him a promotion to the Cubs on August 30.12

Called up when the Cubs demoted outfielder Brant Brown to Iowa,13 Gload debuted at Wrigley Field on August 31, 2000, going 0-for-4 against five San Diego pitchers in an 11-5 loss to the Padres. He flied out to center against Padres right-hander Jay Witasick in his first at-bat. He got his first major-league hit on September 4 at Coors Field in Denver, a solo home run in the fourth inning off Colorado right-hander Brian Rose in a 6-2 Rockies win. Gload played 18 games at the end of the 2000 season, going 6-for-31 (.194). He showed enough potential in his brief late-season trial that one publication claimed that “[h]e has shown enough with the Cubs to be in the mix for a backup role next spring.”14 Apparently the Cubs did not agree; they again assigned him to Iowa for the 2001 season.

Gload spent the next three seasons playing Triple-A ball with three organizations. He had a solid season at Iowa in 2001, .297, with 15 home runs and 93 RBIs. He tied for the league lead in triples with 10 and slugged .501, with an OPS of .845. He again split time between the outfield and first base, making only one error in 50 games at first and only two errors in 72 games in the outfield. The Cubs rewarded Gload by releasing him on waivers on September 8.15

Gload signed with the Rockies four days later. They sent him to Colorado Springs in the Pacific Coast League for 2002, his sixth year in the minors. He spent all but two weeks of that season at Colorado Springs and batted .315 in 104 games with 16 home runs and 71 RBIs. On July 1 the Rockies called Gload up to replace Greg Norton, who went on the 15-day disabled list.16 He was sent back down when Norton returned on July 18,17 but returned to the Rockies in September.

Gload did not have long to ponder his future with the Rockies because on January 21, 2003, they sent him to the New York Mets in a deal involving three teams and including 11 players. Five days later, the Mets sold him back to Colorado. Then on March 27, the Rockies traded him to the White Sox for minor-league left-handed pitcher Wade Parrish. The White Sox assigned Gload to Charlotte in the International League, his fourth season in Triple A and his seventh season in the minors. Perhaps Gload had been pigeonholed as a career minor leaguer. While never the best player, he was arguably one of the top 25 players at every level of the minors. Through 2002, he posted a career minor-league average of .302, with 86 home runs and 477 RBIs. His Triple-A statistics were better than his numbers at the lower levels. In the equivalent of two full seasons, he’d hit .315 with an average of 22.5 home runs and 101.5 RBIs a year. He had a .551 slugging percentage and an outstanding OPS of .904. He truly had nothing left to prove in the high minors.

Nonetheless, Gload dutifully reported to Charlotte for the 2003 International League season. Again he had a fine year, hitting .315 with 18 home runs and 70 RBIs, a .524 slugging percentage, and an .873 OPS. (Interestingly, Gload stayed in the minors all year despite the awful season White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko was having. By July 8 Konerko was hitting .183 with 4 home runs, and 18 RBIs. But while Konerko struggled, Gload stayed in North Carolina. Konerko ultimately hit better in the season’s second half as the White Sox finished second in the American League’s Central Division. At the end of the 2003 season, Gload, 27 years old, likely wondered if he would ever get the chance to spend a season in the big leagues.

Gload’s first real chance came in the spring of 2004, and he made the most of it. By mid-March, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén declared that Gload “right now, in my mind [is] … on my team. There’s no doubt about it.”18 Finally, Gload went to a spring camp with a legitimate shot at making the team, which was “all [I] ever wanted.” Discussing his experiences with the Cubs and Rockies, Gload said, “I was never treated unfairly, but just being given a shot here is the thing. I had a good year in Triple A with the Cubs [in 2000], but the next year they knew [coming into camp] there was no way I was going to make that team. … They knew I was going to be the first guy sent down. From my standpoint that’s discouraging.” As for his current opportunity, Gload minced no words: “Now it’s kind of nice just to be in the running in spring training, where you have a chance and maybe can help the club in April, when it counts.”19

In 2004 Gload played in 110 games, hitting .321 with 7 home runs and 44 RBIs, with a .479 slugging percentage and an .853 OPS. He started 21 games at first and played as a defensive replacement in 21 more, fielding 1.000 at that position. He played 39 games in the outfield (25 starts) with somewhat less defensive success (3 errors and .952 fielding percentage) and seven as designated hitter. Gload got off to a slow start; by May 29 he was hitting .241 with 2 home runs and 10 RBIs. By July 21 he was still hitting only .265 with 2 home runs and 20 RBIs. For the remainder of the season, he hit a scorching .372 with 5 homers and 24 RBIs. Arguably the most memorable game during that stretch was his 3-for-5 performance against the Angels on September 11. His three hits included two singles and a home run for four RBIs as the White Sox crushed Anaheim, 13-6. While the club disappointed, finishing a distant second in the division, nine games behind Minnesota, Gload had a thoroughly successful rookie season. At the end of the year, he finished seventh in Rookie of the Year voting.

The 2005 season was a magical year for the club but a lost season for Gload. The team started 15-4, but something was wrong with Gload. By April 24 he had played in only seven of the team’s 19 games with 13 at-bats. His left shoulder was inflamed, preventing him from playing in the outfield. On April 30 the club placed him on the disabled list, retroactive to April 25.20 For the next 2½ months, he tried valiantly to rehabilitate the shoulder. Sent to Charlotte on a rehabilitation assignment, he could play only first base. In mid-June, while the White Sox continued to play well, Gload’s balky shoulder kept him in Charlotte. A frustrated Gload, in Chicago for an MRI, told a reporter, “No one likes a setback like this. It’s even worse when you see the team’s doing so well and you’re [not] in the mix. I think a week ago I said, ‘Hey, the White Sox won last night,’ as opposed to ‘We won.’”21 When the MRI revealed no new damage to his shoulder, Gload returned to Charlotte to continue his rehabilitation. Except for a nine-day period back with the White Sox in late July, he remained in Triple A until September 1. From then until the end of the season on October 2, he played in only 14 games, starting only three, getting 4 hits in 19 at-bats. About the only satisfying moment in a Chicago uniform that season came on September 30, when his two-run double in the 13th inning drove in the winning runs in a 3-2 White Sox victory over Cleveland that clinched home-field advantage for the White Sox in the American League postseason. Ineligible for the postseason, Gload could only watch as the team dominated three postseason series and won its first World Series championship since 1917. As for his performance, while he sizzled at Charlotte with a .366 average, 15 home runs, and 45 RBIs in 59 games, he never found his stroke in Chicago, finishing at .167 with no home runs and 5 RBIs in 28 games. Shortly after his September recall, he summed up his 2005 season this way: “It was disappointing. I didn’t want to play this year in Charlotte, it just kind of happened. I don’t know what they think of me at this point. I’ve done everything I could do to get healthy and get back here. I’ll just kind of start over again.”22

Gload did indeed get back, playing another six years in the majors. While his shoulder eventually improved, it likely never really completely healed. For the last six years of his major-league career, he played only 40 games in the outfield. Despite his diminished versatility, in 2006 he turned in a fine season as a utilityman, hitting .327 with 3 home runs and 18 RBIs in 156 at-bats. After that season, the White Sox traded Gload to the Kansas City Royals for Andy Sisco. In Kansas City he got his only chance to play semi-regularly, as he became the club’s primary first baseman, playing in 224 games over two seasons, with 200 games at first. He had his only two major-league seasons with more than 300 at-bats. In 320 at-bats in 2007, he hit .288 with 7 home runs and 51 RBIs. In 388 at-bats in 2008, he finished at .273 with 3 home runs and 37 RBIs. Traded from Kansas City to the Florida Marlins on the eve of the 2009 season for a player to be named later, he reacted to the deal philosophically, saying, “It’s always shocking. I’ve been traded. I’ve been waived. I’ve been designated. I think (saying goodbye) to the guys is the toughest part. But that’s baseball.”23

In Miami Gload returned to his familiar utility role, while adding significant pinch-hitting duties. He had some experience and some success as a pinch-hitter in his previous major-league stops. For the Cubs, Rockies, and White Sox, he’d come off the bench to hit 89 times, getting 25 hits in 87 at-bats for a .287 average with 2 home runs and 11 RBIs. As Kansas City’s nominal starting first baseman, Gload had only 11 pinch-hit at-bats in two years. In Florida, however, he excelled in that role, hitting .318 in 79 games (66 at-bats) and leading all major-league pinch-hitters in runs scored with 14 and hits with 21, while tying Philadelphia’s Matt Stairs in RBIs with 15 and total bases with 30. In 2009 Gload displayed a penchant for game-winning hits. On May 24 he singled in the bottom of the 11th to give the Marlins a 5-4 win over Tampa Bay. On July 28 he hit a two-run pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the ninth against Atlanta closer Rafael Soriano as the Marlins came from behind to win 4-3. On September 19 his two-run pinch homer in the eighth off Cincinnati’s Bronson Arroyo provided the winning runs in a 3-2 victory. On September 30, another two-run home run, this one against Javier Vázquez, gave the Marlins their winning runs against Atlanta. That season he played the most games in his career, 125. He made only 39 starts and finished the year at .261 with 6 home runs and 30 runs batted in. At the conclusion of the season, he became a free agent, and signed with the Philadelphia Phillies on December 8.

In Gload’s final two major-league seasons, he continued to be used almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter, appearing in that role 148 times in the 187 games he played for Philadelphia. In 2010 his pinch-hitting statistics did not equal his 2009 numbers, but he still made 15 hits in 66 at-bats with 3 home runs and 9 RBIs. While not filled with the dramatics of his 2009 season, 2010 saw Gload enjoy two of his most productive major-league games, a three-hit, four-RBI game against Toronto on June 25 and another three-hit (with two home runs), four-RBI game against the Dodgers on August 10. He finished with a .281 batting average with 6 home runs and 22 RBIs in 94 games. In 2010 Gload participated in his first postseason play as the Phillies won their division by six games over Atlanta. He did not play in Philadelphia’s Division Series sweep of Cincinnati but played in all six games of the National League Championship Series against the eventual World Series-winning San Francisco Giants. He went 0-for-5 with a walk as the favored Phillies dropped the Series in six games to the upstart Giants.

Gload played his final season in 2011. He appeared in 93 games, 79 as a pinch hitter, hitting .257 for the season with no home runs and 8 RBIs. The Phillies again won their division by 13 games over Atlanta. Matched against the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS, they again disappointed, losing the series three games to two against the eventual World Series winners. Gload made three appearances in the series, all as a pinch-hitter, going 1-for-2. (In his third appearance, he was lifted for another pinch-hitter.) He reached base twice in his two at-bats, hitting a single in the eighth inning of Game Four, and reaching base on Yadier Molina’s error in the eighth inning of Game Five. As the 2011 postseason concluded, Gload faced an uncertain future. He had suffered from a degenerative hip problem during the season that was expected to require surgery.24 On October 30 he again became a free agent. However, no one signed him and he never played again in professional baseball.

Gload finished with a lifetime average of .281, with 470 hits, 34 home runs, and 222 RBIs in 795 major-league games. While managers tended to platoon him, he hit better against left-handers (.293) than against right-handers (.278), but displayed considerably more punch against right-handed pitching, hitting 31 home runs and slugging .415 compared with 3 home runs and a .376 slugging percentage against left-handers. As a pinch-hitting specialist, he finished with a .270 average on 81 hits, with 8 home runs and 43 RBIs. Fewer than 14 percent of Gload’s outs came via strikeouts.

Regrettably, the author was unable to contact Gload for an interview. And information on his personal life is scant. However, he apparently remained involved in baseball after the end of his playing career. In 2021, the South Carolina House of Representatives honored Gload as a coach for the Legion Collegiate Academy [High School] baseball team … winners of the 2021 South Carolina Class AA State Championship.25 It appears that in 2024 Ross Gload resided in South Carolina with his wife, Elizabeth. They have two teenage children, a son, Greyson, and a daughter, Belle.

Last revised: March 1, 2025

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Unless otherwise attributed, all statistics and game accounts come from these sites.

Notes

1 “Boys Soccer All-Stars, “Newsday (Long Island, New York), December 12, 1992: 86.

2 “Another Title for Bay Shore,” Newsday, February 11, 1994: 187.

3 John Valenti, “No Doubt About It!” Newsday, June 16, 1994: 74.

4 Valenti, “No Doubt About It!”

5 “Breeze Takes the Wind out of Jump by UK’s Edwards,” Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida), June 26, 1995: 48.

6 Ron Kaspriske, “USF Discovers Treasure in Long Island Long Shot,” Tampa Bay Times, April 4, 1995: 40.

7 John C. Cotey, “Had Potential, Has Performed,” Tampa Bay Times, June 14, 1996: 5C.

8 Scott Purks, “Gload Has One Ring in Mind,” Tampa Bay Times, May 22, 1997: 1C, 6C.

9 “Minor-League Baseball Statistics,” Tampa Bay Times, August 9, 1997: 18.

10 Craig Carter and David Sload, eds., Baseball Guide 2000 Edition (St. Louis: The Sporting News, 2000), 517-18.

11 “Dogs Lose Slugger, Game,” Portland (Maine) Press Herald, August 1, 2000: 1C, 6C.

12 Neil Milbert, “Sosa Says He Expects to Take a Day Off – in October,” Chicago Tribune, September 1, 2000: 235.

13 “Knoblauch Could Be Out Rest of Season,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 31, 2000: 53.

14 “Grace Under Pressure as Cubs Look for More Offense,” The Sporting News, September 18, 2000: 69.

15 Teddy Greenstein, “Fall Play Assigned for Some Prospects, Chicago Tribune, September 10, 2001: 42.

16 “Deals,” Reno Gazette-Journal, July 2, 2002: 11.

17 Associated Press, “Baez Went into Twins’ Clubhouse to Confront Hunter, Not Apologize,” Flint (Michigan) Journal, July 19, 2002: 48.

18 John Mullin, “Gload Winning Game of Chance,” Chicago Tribune, March 17, 2004: 4-4.

19 “Gload Winning Game of Chance.”

20 “Thome Leaves Game with Back Spasms,” Hartford Courant, May 1, 2005: E09.

21 Jeff Carroll, “Thomas: I’ve Got to Stay Healthy,” Hammond (Indiana) Times, June 15, 2005: 174.

22 George Castle, “Gload Among Three Called Up,” Hammond (Indiana) Times, September 2, 2005: 77.

23 Bob Dutton, “Royals Trade Gload,” Kansas City Star, April 2, 2009: 33.

24 Mandy Housenick, “The Phillies Have Some Work to Do,” Allentown (Pennsylvania) Morning Call, October 24, 2011: C3.

25 https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess124_2021-2022/bills/4859.htm. Accessed October 2, 2024.