As beaming Cody Ross lived up to his "Smiles" nickname and accepted the 2010 National League Championship Series MVP trophy last week in Philadelphia, Kenny Groves got all choked up 2,000 miles away.
Ross has reached base four times in two WS games.
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Watching his flat screen in Carlsbad, N.M., Ross’ former high school assistant baseball coach said it was like watching a time warp.
"I had smiles and tears all at once," said Groves, now the head coach at perennial New Mexico state baseball power
Carlsbad High School (N.M.) the last five years. "It was tears of joy because it honestly couldn't have happened to a better kid. The person you hear praising his teammates, deflecting the attention, passing on the praise. … that's the same kid we all knew when he starred here."
Said former high school teammate and now Carlsbad assistant coach Justin Estrada: "The whole world now gets to know what we already knew."
That's because Ross, 29, is the starting right fielder and No. 5 hitter for the San Francisco Giants, who are two wins from winning their first World Series title since moving west from New York in 1958.
Folks from Carlsbad wouldn’t be surprised if their pride and joy led the Giants to such a historic triumph. The undersized Ross has always been fearless, doggedly determined, utterly likable and had a flair for the dramatic.
Like the first time he was called up to the Carlsbad varsity team during the middle of his freshman season. The Cavemen – named after the world-renowned Carlsbad Caverns National Park - a legitimate state and national baseball power, were playing in a midseason tournament against
Goddard (Roswell, N.M.), which featured pitcher and future Rockies draft pick Ryan Price.
Estrada and fellow senior Mike Perini convinced then-head coach Tom Forni to bring up Ross from the junior varsity team to face Price. Ross, who had worked out with the varsity players during the summer and even as an eighth-grader, had already blasted five home runs for the JV team.
"We asked coach to simply take the uniform from a senior who wasn't even playing and give it to Cody," Estrada said by phone on Wednesday. "We needed the extra bat."
OVER THE FENCE AND INTO THE SPOTLIGHTForni put Ross at designated hitter and his first at-bat on the varsity level was stuff legends are made of.
"He hit it over the fence, over the lights and over the road," Estrada said.
It didn't stop there. Later in the game, Ross hit a second home run, inspiring immediate comparisons to the Cavemen's other baseball giant, Shane Andrews, who hit three home runs in his first varsity game.
Andrews went on to lead Carlsbad to its first state title in 1990, and Baseball America ranked the Cavemen No. 1 in the country. Andrews later hit 86 major league home runs from 1995 to 2002 with three different teams.
"The famous story about Shane was that his first varsity game he had to carry everyone's bag to the field," Estrada said. "After he hit his three home runs, everyone wanted to carry his bag to the locker room."
Ross didn't get the bag treatment, but he did earn his own jersey and permanent DH spot in the lineup for a senior-laden team that year that won the state title in 1996.
Despite his lack of size – he was all of 115 pounds according to Estrada – and his years, Ross earned immediate respect from the older boys. It helped to be the youngest of four siblings and owning "the quickest hands you can ever imagine," Estrada said.
"He was a little scrawny kid, but man, he just swung it," Estrada said. "When he hit the ball it made a different sound than when everybody else hit it."
And he let his bat and glove do the talking. No flower child, Ross was indeed outgoing, but it was never about himself.
"He was always way more mature than his age," Estrada said. "He was no prima donna. If you make the varsity around here as a freshman, you earn respect. He didn't need to say anything."
The Cavemen won another state title in 1998, but lost in the state finals when Ross was a senior. He was not only the team's starting center fielder by his sophomore season, but the team's ace on the mound.
Ross pitched a perfect game his senior year, which Groves was reminded of when the king of eye black was interviewed Saturday for his MVP award. Groves remembered Ross being interviewed after the perfecto and he showed then the same grace that has made him a media and fan favorite at every stop – Detroit, Florida and now San Francisco.
"The first thing he did was credit his defense," Groves said. "He talked about how awesome his teammates were. As I was watching him the other night I kept thinking to myself that nothing has changed with Cody. He's the same hard-working, humble kid he always was."
'OUR LITTLE SHINER'Born in Portales, N.M., Ross and his family moved to the Dallas region where his father Kenny opened his chiropractor business. Kenny was the first athletic legend at Carlsbad before Andrews, a standout all-around star who played college football.
"He's a giant of a man, 6-foot-3, and he could run like the wind," said Estrada, who plays golf regularly with Cody's dad.
Kenny also was a professional bull rider, who helped get his youngest child interested in rodeo. For the longest time, Cody Ross wanted to be a rodeo clown.
"His dad bought him a cotton rope at 3 and everything that moved, Cody would try to lasso," said Cody's mother, Janet Ross, who has been a registrar at Carlsbad High the last 10 years. "The cat, the dogs….if you moved, you were going to get roped."
From watching his son lasso, Kenny recognized Cody possessed exceptional hand-eye coordination and good athleticism.
"He was always a little star," Janet said. "He was our little shiner."
And everywhere he went, he flashed that million-dollar smile.
"He was always a happy little guy," Janet said. "But he definitely had a big support system. He was the baby in the family and his two sisters (Sarah and McKenzie) did everything for him."
Groves said Ross was happy for a good reason.
"You couldn't draw up two better parents," he said.
Older brother Steven, now a doctor in Denver, was athletic and played rugby at the University of Texas. Sarah was a star basketball player at Allen High, but blew out her knee. Cody was a natural football player but as an eighth-grader broke his leg right before the family moved back to Carlsbad.
"That was the end of football," Janet Ross said. "It was baseball full speed ahead."
Back in Carlsbad, Ross spent much of his first months at school on crutches. When he finally got up and around, he worked out with the varsity players and immediately made an impact, which wasn't easy to do.
In 1995, Carlsbad had a pitching staff that featured three players who were later drafted: Tim Perry (Padres), Preston Ballew (Mets) and Paxton Crawford (Red Sox), who eventually became the setup man on the major league team for Derek Lowe.
TAKING CARLSBAD TO THE BIGSOver the years, Carlsbad has produced more than 100 scholarship players and approximately 40 have been drafted into the Major League system.
Impressive, considering the population is only about 30,000 in Carlsbad, which is located approximately 40 miles from the Texas and Mexican borders, and four hours south of Albuquerque.
"It was hard to be cocky in this program," Estrada said. "Cody was surrounded by guys who pushed him and he ate that up. This is just Carlsbad. We play baseball here. That's what we do."
And Ross hasn't forgotten his roots. He comes back to help Estrada with youth teams and to Carlsbad to inspire the high school team.
"He doesn't come back to sign autographs or just greet the kids," Estrada said. "He works out with the team. Helps give instruction. He also brings backs cleats he's worn and gives them to kids."
He gives back, according to his mom, because of the spirit and time Carlsbad gave to him. That sense of pride has helped him overcome a remarkably up-and-down professional career that has included five organizations, numerous injuries – a broken hand, broken toe and fractured finger during the minors – and many awards.
He was the Tigers' Minor League Player of the Year, twice National League Player of the Month and last week the NLCS MVP.
When Ross, who has the same number of major league homers as Andrews (86), gets hot, he is one of the league's most dangerous hitters. In his rookie 2003 season with Detroit, Ross hit a grand slam against then Indians young gun Cliff Lee, who started for the Texas Rangers in Game 1 of the World Series. In that same game, Ross doubled and then tore his left anterior cruciate ligament.
Despite the injuries and setbacks, Ross has persevered.
"One of Cody's strong points is his ability not to mope," Forni told the Albuquerque Journal
this week. "He just keeps going. He just keeps battling back."
Groves noted that even when Ross was in high school. Battling the ups-and-downs of the game is what has helped him reach such great heights.
"He wasn't ever real emotional on the field," he said. "He knew he was a good player and had confidence in himself. He never put his head down. What stood out always was his work ethic and knowledge of the game. He had a strong determination to be something. He never quit. He never missed a practice, never a weight-lifting workout. He went 100 mph and always gave 100 percent effort.
"With that attitude and the special talent he possesses, he was a can't-miss kid."
