Ellis fondly recalls time in Jackson

A.J. Ellis left Southeast Missouri long before he had a chance to become a well-known local athlete.

But the Los Angeles Dodgers' No. 2 catcher still fondly recalls the area where he spent his early years.

"You never forget where you were born," Ellis said Tuesday during a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where the Dodgers were preparing to play the San Francisco Giants.

Ellis, 29, grew up in Jackson although his official major league bio lists him as being born in Cape Girardeau since he took his first breath at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

The Ellis family had no previous ties to the area when his parents moved here because of his father's work at Procter & Gamble. Ellis said he was 11 when his father was transferred to Baltimore.

Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis was batting .204 with a double and eight RBIs through Monday's game. (FRANCIS SPECKER ~ Associated Press)

"I have great memories growing up there," Ellis said. "We lived in Jackson. I spent a lot of time in Cape, but Jackson is where I grew up playing youth sports.

"I remember going to Cape [Central] Tigers-Jackson Indians football games, how big that was. I was looking forward to playing in that, but then we moved."

Ellis said he hasn't kept in touch with anybody he grew up with but "we still have a lot of great family friends that my parents had when we were there."

Ellis said the family moved from Baltimore to Lexington, Ky., when he was in eighth grade. After graduating from high school in Lexington, Ellis went on to star at Austin Peay, which like Southeast Missouri State competes in the Ohio Valley Conference.

"It was always funny, when I was in college and we would come there for games, the baseball field where SEMO played [Capaha Park] is right across from the hospital," Ellis said. "I would tell everybody that's where I was born."

Ellis (A.J.)

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Ellis was selected by the Dodgers in the 18th round of the 2003 draft. He put up strong minor league numbers and had several brief call-ups with the Dodgers in 2008 and 2009 before spending virtually all of this season on the major league roster.

While Ellis' playing time has been limited, he said he relishes his ascent at his relatively late age. Ellis had appeared in 19 games and was batting .204 (10 for 49) with a double and eight RBIs through Monday. He entered this season with one hit in 13 major league at-bats.

Ellis, who serves as two-time all-star Russell Martin's backup, has had one particularly memorable game this year. He delivered an 11th-inning walk-off single to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win over the Atlanta Braves on June 6.

"That was an awesome moment, to see all my teammates running out to embrace me," Ellis said. "It kind of shows you all the hard work has paid off."

Ellis is a career .278 minor league hitter, including Class AAA batting averages of .321 in 2008 and .314 in 2009. The 2008 Pacific Coast League all-star led the organization with a .438 on-base percentage last year.

"I have not performed as well offensively as I'm capable of. It's tough to find the rhythm and groove, but I'm working on it every day. The hardest part is to maintain a good stroke when you're not playing very much," he said. "But that's my role. You really have to focus on calling a good game and doing really well defensively."

Dodgers manager Joe Torre has seen enough of Ellis to come away impressed even if this year's numbers are not overwhelming. Ellis received plenty of playing time in the spring when Martin missed several weeks with an injury.

"He handles a game well. He's a tireless worker. Being a former catcher, I know how important the defensive end is. He's made himself a good hitter, he's a grinding type of guy. I've seen him enough to be comfortable with it," Torre told MLB.com in March.

Ellis said one of his closest friends on the team is fellow Southeast Missouri native Blake DeWitt, a Sikeston product who was a first-round draft choice in 2004 and is the Dodgers' regular second baseman.

"Blake and I are really good friends. He was drafted a year behind me and we came up together through most of the minor league stops," Ellis said. "What a great guy."

Ellis, who is married with a 2-year-old daughter and a son born in May, has a younger brother also playing professional baseball. Josh, a 25-year-old pitcher also born while the family lived here, is in Class AA with the Arizona Diamondbacks organization.

"He's doing real well," Ellis said.

While Ellis only occasionally has started when Martin needs a break, he did start twice during last weekend's four-game series against the Cardinals in St. Louis.

Ironically, Ellis said he was never much of a Cardinals fan even though he and his family went to quite a few games at Busch Stadium while they lived here.

"I grew up more of a Cubs fan, but I remember going to a lot of Cardinals games," he said.

The recent series in St. Louis did allow Ellis and his parents to see some old friends.

"My mom and dad came to the games and they had a lot of people [from Southeast Missouri] there," Ellis said. "I had people come up to me and say I remember you when you were in Jackson.

"I'm definitely proud to be a Southeast Missouri native."