SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - Cody Ross scurries through the clubhouse with a purpose, even in the early hours of the morning when many of his teammates are still arriving or grabbing breakfast.
He leans on the batting cage to watch the others take their swings as he waits his turn to step in, chatting up manager Bruce Bochy or someone else nearby. Then, Ross runs off to sign a few autographs for a throng of kids calling his name and hanging over the rail by the dugout at Scottsdale Stadium.
No question the right fielder is in his element with the World Series champion San Francisco Giants, his team for all of 2 1/2 months last year after he arrived in the Bay Area in August off a waiver claim from Florida and became an unlikely postseason star.
His life sure has changed since that remarkable run last fall. Nowadays, people recognize that shiny bald head and smiling face in San Francisco and beyond.
"It's obviously different than when I played in Florida," Ross said. "It's what you want, though, it's why we play this game. You want to win a World Series, want people to recognize you, ask for your autograph and take a picture. You have to embrace it, you have to accept it, that's part of it. And I do. I try to do the best I can with it."
"Popular guy! Popular guy!" pitcher Alex Hinshaw teased the other day as Ross chuckled and headed for the showers after a long day of practice and conditioning.
He had just given a Japanese television station several minutes of his time and recorded a message for kids there, while also talking music and other topics.
Ross, first baseman Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell have become quite the trio - three of the very castoffs and misfits who carried this club to its first NL West crown since 2003 last season and then the improbable run to the team's first championship since moving West in 1958.
"He's always been an outgoing guy," Huff said. "It doesn't take him long to get in a groove with all the guys."
Ross has said he waited all winter to get to spring training to get that "camaraderie" back with his teammates.
"That fire," he said. "We're fired up. We want to get out there and get going and pick up where we left off."
They will get their first chance Friday, when San Francisco hosts Arizona in its spring opener at Scottsdale Stadium.
The Giants have most of their roster intact from the title team, minus World Series MVP Edgar Renteria and emotional utility infielder Juan Uribe, who departed for the rival Dodgers.
"It's huge any time that you can keep for the most part the whole team together," Ross said. "Rarely do you ever see a team be able to keep all 25 guys. Our organization and front office has done a great job of trying to keep everybody."
The 30-year-old Ross showed in a hurry he was worth any apparent risk general manager Brian Sabean took in acquiring him at such a late stage.
Not even a regular until the NL division series against Atlanta, he hit three of his five postseason home runs during the NL championship series against Philadelphia. The Giants - in the playoffs for the first time since '03 - won in six games against the favored Phillies and Ross received MVP honors. He drove in 10 runs during the playoffs, two in San Francisco's five-game World Series win over the Texas Rangers.
And Ross' showing late in the season earned him a $6.3 million, one-year contract last month, a hefty increase from the $4.45 million salary he earned in 2010.
How does he possibly follow that up with an encore this year?
"For me, I go out and play the game how I've always played the game: with my heart," he said. "Let all the other stuff take care of itself."
Ross doesn't think about it all too much - even with the constant attention that comes his way. He has been plenty busy getting ready for the exhibition games to begin.
Ross has yet to pick his walk-up tune for 2011. So, that's something else to add to his to-do list before opening day. It will probably be a song by rapper Lil Wayne, quite a choice by the country kid who for years as a boy wanted to become a rodeo clown.
Instead, he picked baseball, and he's so happy he took that path.
"He's one of those guys who seems like he's always having a good day, and it shows," Bochy said. "What he did last year and his contribution during the World Series, it gave him a sense of belonging right away."
Notes: Opening day starter Tim Lincecum, the two-time NL Cy Young Award winner, will take the ball for the team's exhibition opener Friday. ... 1B Aubrey Huff will sit out the exhibition contest with a minor left wrist injury. Andres Torres is slated to DH, with Aaron Rowand in CF. Mark DeRosa - who missed most of last season with a wrist problem that required surgery - will play 2B in place of Freddy Sanchez, who is recovering from an arthroscopic procedure on his non-throwing left shoulder.
