Gross back for more at Home Run Derby

Gabe Gross doesn’t remember the number of home runs he hit to win last year’s Wiregrass High School Home Run Derby.

Everybody else does. Gross hit a record 26 in the final round to edge Clint Robinson. Brad White of Holmes County High School won the high school competition.

The annual event returns today at Pitman Field in Dothan. Thirty-nine high school players will compete for the right to swing with professional players Gross, Robinson, Cody Johnson, Adam Godwin and Robert Brooks.

Elimination rounds begin at 9:30 a.m. The championship round and professional hitting exhibition is scheduled to start at 3 p.m.

Tickets are $8 at the gate for the event, which is a fund-raiser for the Dothan Post 12 baseball team.

Gross participated in the derby as a high school senior at Northview, then as a professional player every year since 2002. Last year’s exhibition turned into a long-distance show.

“We had good weather, which it appears we’re going to have this year,” Gross said before taking batting practice Thursday at Rehobeth High School.

“Hitting in a home run derby, or any specialized competition, is all about just getting in a rhythm and having things go right from the jump. And it did. I got a nice feeling and hit some balls out. Hopefully I can do it again this year. But I’m not putting any money on it.”

It was a nice moment before a season that was full of them. Gross was traded from Milwaukee to Tampa Bay and joined baseball’s greatest story in years.
The surprising Rays, who had never had a winning season, captured the American League East, then beat Chicago and Boston in the playoffs to reach the World Series.

“It was very special just to get to play in a World Series,” Gross said. “You think about playing or wanting to play in a World Series since you were 4 years old and you knew what it was about.

“To get there and to stand on the field and be a participant in one was just really special.”

But Gross also said that, even on the game’s biggest stage, it’s still baseball.

“Once you get over the fact that the World Series logo is painted on the field and you’ve got the patch on the side of your jersey, the first pitch is thrown and it’s a baseball game,” he said. “You’ve got to play baseball and do all the same things that you’ve done all year long.”

He’s eager to get back to work, despite the shortest offseason in the team’s history. Gross reports to Port Charlotte, Fla., next Saturday.

“Playing through October, it got to where this offseason, there wasn’t a lot to it,” he said. “It was very, very short from the time we were done to the time I had to get myself ready to go again. And now I’m a week away from leaving.

“But I’m excited about it. It was a short offseason, but I got rested and ready to go. The more I’ve thought about rejoining these guys and the potential we have in front of us, the more excited I get.”

He’s no old-timer, but Gross has been in professional baseball long enough to truly appreciate the 2008 season and look forward to this year. Asked what he’s looking forward to most, he said, “Just seeing everybody again.”

“I’ve thought about that a lot in the last week,” he said. “Getting down there and walking in the clubhouse and seeing everybody again — because it was a special group.”

But today is about giving back, both to Dothan Post 12 and to Northview High.

The Gross family purchased Northview’s new scoreboard in centerfield. The Northview Diamond Club will dedicate the scoreboard between 11 a.m. and noon today, before he participates in the home run derby.

“They’ve been improving that baseball field ever since I was there or maybe a little bit before,” Gross said. “It looks really good right now. I was just fortunate that me and my family are in a position we can help them do that.

“It’s just pretty special to me that they still recognize me and still remember me and want to do things that are very special towards me.”