Carlsbad High Grad Cody Ross Earns NLCS MVP Honors

After a nerve-racking road win in Game 6 of the NLCS Saturday night in Philadelphia, Cody Ross of the San Francisco Giants was justifiably awarded the NLCS MVP trophy after torching the greatest playoff rotation ever assembled.  Ross got very hot at the right time, just like the Giants really.

My opinion of Ross has always been that he is a serviceable Major Leaguer with a chance at a decade of service.  He is athletic enough and is a good enough clubhouse guy to keep getting contracts.  The reason I write this, however, is to inform the world that the man called “Smiles” is a New Mexico native, and we are all very proud of him.

Ross was born in Portales and moved to Carlsbad where he attended Carlsbad High School.  Ross graduated in 1999 and was promptly drafted by the Tigers a couple of weeks later.  The dude spent around 4 years making the climb prior to his debut on April 7^th of 2003.  He has appeared in Tigers, Dodgers, Reds, Marlins, and Giants uniforms as well as a bunch of Minor League ones in his 11.5-ish year professional career.

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Ross knows how to grind the game out, and the entire state should celebrate this man’s life because he displayed over the last week a great deal of heart and character.  Cody Ross was that team’s go-to guy at the time when they weren’t really sure who to stand behind.  Keep it up Cody.  We will be watching you wearing our own smiles next week.

Other notable Carlsbad grads (and I’m sure I will forget a few) are Shane Andrews, Brian Flores, Mike Perini, Paxton Crawford, and John Crider as well as a handful of later-round guys.  I will take this time to give a shout to StrikeZone Cardinal Andrew Castillo since he also is a Carlsbad grad.  Andrew recently began his collegiate career at Eastern Arizona this August.  We at the Sombrero look forward to following his new baseball adventure this spring.

Traditionally Carlsbad, Farmington High, and Eldorado High have been the winningest teams from the South, North, and Metro areas respectively and have a longstanding rivalry based on 50 years of battles.  Over the last decade a number of Albuquerque metro schools have popped up with open enrollments, and this has allowed entire classes of players to congregate into a single school.  This happened with La Cueva High in the early half of the 2000’s as BA and Collegiate Baseball twice crowned them national champs.  Rio Rancho had its run shortly after, and now those two schools battle it out for 5A supremacy basically annually.  Carlsbad still is well respected, however, and will challenge for South supremacy every season.  Cody himself has a program back home to be proud of as well.