The most famous alumnus in the storied history of Rapid City Post 22 baseball, Mark Ellis has been a success story at every level of organized baseball.

LEGION
   Ellis was a three-year starter for Rapid City Post 22, becoming the only player in South Dakota history to earn state Player of the Year honors twice.
   He was all-state in 1993 and 1994, while earning the Player of the Year award for his play in the 1994 and 1995 State Championship Tournaments.
   Ellis batted sixth and played short for Post 22's 1993 national championship team that put together an astounding 70-5 record.
   In his final year, 1995, Ellis hit .471 with 11 homers and 91 RBIs in 83 games. He also stole 43 bases and added 10 triples, setting team records with 138 hits and 129 runs scored.
   He was Baseball America South Dakota Player of the Year in 1994, and was USA Baseball's Golden diamond Amateur Junior Player of the Year in South Dakota in 1995.

COLLEGE
   At the beginning of Ellis freshman season, it appeared as if he would be on the bench. But he quickly emerged as the Gators starting third baseman in 1996, spurring the squad to the College World Series. He hit .351, third on the team, and was among the Southeastern Conference's leaders.
   He hit nine doubles, drove in 26, and had seven sacrifice bunts - the third most in school history. He also posted a 16-game hitting streak, as Florida won 50 games en route to an SEC Eastern Division crown and a 2-2 finish in the World Series.
   During his sophomore season, Ellis moved between third and short, starting 59 of the Gators' 62 games. He hit 11 home runs, including three in a game against South Florida. Another highlight to his year was his game winning 11th-inning sacrifice fly against Florida State, a game in which he didn't even start due to a strained rotator cuff.
   He earned Defensive Player of the Year honors from the Florida coaching staff, and finished with a .326 average, 45 RBIs and 67 runs scored. He had multiple hits in 26 times, and also had a game-winning hit against Miami that season.
   In 1998, Ellis and the Gators returned to the College World Series, compiling perhaps the best offensive season in Florida history.
   Starting 42 games at short, he hit .338 with 14 home runs and 51 RBIs, and strung together a 15-game hit streak, much of which took place during the Gators run to Omaha.
   He had a five-hit game against Wake Forest in regional play, then had four hits, one a home run, against eventual national champion Southern California in the World Series.
   Ellis' Florida career ended with a frustrating 32-24 season in which the Gators failed to qualify for postseason play, losing their last four inside the conference.
   Individually, however, Ellis finished his collegiate career in style, hitting .344. He hit 18 doubles, 10 home runs and 42 RBIs, while stealing a career best 20 bases.
   Ellis was such an integral part of Florida's runs to the College World Series, he finished his career with 31 hits in NCAA Tournament play. That remains a Gator record, ten years after he left Gainesville.

MINORS
   In the ninth round of the 1999 Amateur Draft, the Kansas City Royals selected Ellis as a shortstop. The Royals signed him the day after the draft - June 3 - and sent him to play rookie ball for the Northwest League's Spokane (Wash.) Indians.
   Ellis starred as the team's everyday shortstop, tallying a team best 92 hits and scoring 87 runs, hitting .327. He led the team with 21 stolen bases, but also hit 14 doubles and seven homers. Even more impressively, Ellis hit into only one double play in 343 plate appearances.
   His sophomore year in the minors was mainly spent in Wilmington, N.C., for the Carolina League's Blue Rocks. Playing in 132 games, Ellis hit .302 - the only member of the squad to hit over .285 - with a team high 27 doubles. He tallied four triples, six home runs and 62 RBIs, compiling a .404 on-base percentage. For the second straight year, he dominated his team in runs scored, crossing the pentagon 83 times.
   Ellis also received a cup of coffee with the Class AA Wichita Wranglers in 2000, going 7-for-22 with five walks in seven games.
   In January of 2001, Ellis was involved in a seven-player, three-team trade between the Royals, Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays. The trade, which featured all-stars outfielder Johnny Damon and closer Roberto Hernandez, sent Ellis into the Athletics farm system.
   The A's wasted no time in recognizing his talent, sending him to AAA immediately. Ellis spent the entire 2001 season with Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League.
   Starting 130 games at short for a division champion, Ellis hit .273. He led the team with 38 doubles and five sacrifice bunts, while hitting 10 long balls and driving in 53.

MAJORS
   Ellis played his way onto the Major League roster for the 2003 season, becoming the third Post 22 graduate to play in the Majors.
   Success was not immediate, however - Ellis played in four games, starting only one - before being sent back to Sacramento in late April.
   But seven weeks later, Ellis was back on the big club, and this time to stay. Playing second base - a position he had rarely played in the minors - he excelled. In just his fifth major league start, he went 3-for-5 against the Milwaukee Brewers, and followed that up with another three-hit performance the next day.
   In fact, Ellis had hits in 10 of his first 11 career starts, including an eight-game hit streak, spending most of June hovering around the .300 mark. He finished the year eighth in the Rookie of the Year voting, hitting .272 in 98 games.
   The A's reached the playoffs that season, and although Minnesota beat Oakland three games to two, it was no fault of Ellis'. Starting every game of the ALDS, he hit .368 (7-for-19) with two doubles, a home run and four RBIs.
   After his impressive rookie campaign, Ellis was named the everyday second baseman in the spring of 2003, starting 148 of his team's 162 games there. He hit nine home runs and 51 doubles, but posted just a .248 average.
   The promising career was temporarily derailed in March of the following year, when Ellis collided with short stop Bobby Crosby in a spring training game. Ellis suffered a torn labrum in his right shoulder, and was forced to sit out the entire 2004 season.
   He came back from the setback with a vengeance, hitting a team-best .316 - 10th best in the American League. He also led the A's with a .384 on-base percentage and .477 slugging percentage, drilling 13 home runs.
   It wasn't just his offense that improved - his defense was nearly impeccable. Ellis committed only six errors in 115 games at second, a .989 fielding percentage
   The year 2006 was even better for the Rapid City native. Ellis set an American League record, totaling a .99685 fielding percentage. He committed only two errors in nearly 1,100 innings at second.
   He didn't win the Gold Glove, but he did drive in 52 runs for the third straight year, helping Oakland reach the postseason. Unfortunately, he didn't get to enjoy the A's run to the ALCS - a hand injury in game two of the divisional series kept Ellis out of the rest of the playoffs.
   Ellis' 2007 season featured another occasion in which Ellis put his name in the Major League record books. On June 4, he became only the sixth player in Oakland history to hit for the cycle, doing so against the eventual World Champion Boston Red Sox.
   For the entire year, he hit .276, with career highs of 33 doubles, 19 homers, 76 RBIs and 84 runs scored. Defensively, he was again solid, making just five errors in 1,322 innings at second - a league best .994 percentage at the position.
   Last year was a year of mixed emotions for Ellis. He stole 14 bases, easily a career best, but only hit .233 in 117 games. Cartilage damage in his shoulder, in part due to his previously torn labrum, forced Ellis to sit out the final two months of the season.
   After successive surgery last September, and is expected to be healthy by Spring Training. The injury didn't bother A's management, though. Oakland's front office, highly regarded for its shrewd management and personnel decisions, signed Ellis to an $11 million contract for the 2009 and 2010 seasons, with an option in 2011.