Asheville – The Ram duo will be enshrined on Sunday, Sept. 29 in a banquet in the Omni Grove Park Inn. This is quite a time for Ram baseball. The Rams are two-time reigning 4A state champions, and return the nucleus of those title squads.
Two others will be inducted. Jayne Arledge, from Enka High, has been Western Carolina Lady Catamount basketball’s all-time scorer since in 1979. Avery County High alumnus Paul Johnson, who coached Georgia Tech football, is the other inductee. The non-profit Mountain Athletic Amateur Club will also honor longtime Asheville Citizen-Times sports editor Larry Pope with its Gene Oschenreiter Lifetime Achievement Award.
World Champ Cam
Cameron Keith Maybin managed the San Diego Padres Scout Team summer all-star squad of players younger than age 16, from across the country. They won the “freshman world championship” in 2023. The players include Trent Maybin, an Asheville High junior. He is the eldest of Cam and Courtney Maybin three children. Trent, at 6-foot-2, is within an inch of his father’s height.
Cam Maybin is WNC’s highest-drafted ballplayer ever, as a top-ten pick in 2005. He won a World Series ring in 2017 with the Houston Astros, joining the team in a late-season deal as a reserve outfielder and pinch runner.
His most pivotal hit in his career was in the second game of the 2017 World Series, against the Dodgers. He pinch hit. Maybin singled, and stole second base. He scored the go-ahead run in the Astros’ crucial 7-6 victory to even the series.
Maybin told the Tribune in 2017 that it felt “exciting” and “humbling” to finally become a world champion, after a decade of continually missing MLB playoffs.
After retiring, Maybin was a television color commentator for the New York Yankees, Cubs, Tigers, and most recently on the MLB TV network. Maybin was enthusiastic as an often-grinning ballplayer, and as a broadcaster. He spoke about confidence-building triumphs. Maybin is a role model. As a guest on the MLB cable television network’s MLB Tonight, Maybin said, “Character goes a long way, boys and girls. Remember that. Be a good teammate. It works!”
When retiring, Maybin tweeted, “To the four-year-old ‘Killa Cam’: You did it, man!” You never stopped believing in yourself.”
Superb Base Stealer
Maybin batted .254 over 15 MLB seasons with 187 stolen bases, 72 home runs, 556 runs scored, and 354 runs batted in. He stole 40 bases in 2011, 33 in 2017, 26 in 2012, and 23 bases with Atlanta in 2015. When pro-rated for a full 162-game schedule, Maybin’s averages are 26 steals and 78 runs.
Maybin batted .315 for Detroit in 2016. He hit .285 for the Yankees in 2019, with a career-most 11 homers in the equivalency of a half-season. He debuted in August, 2007 and smacked a “bomb” (homer) off of star Roger Clemens. Maybin played for 11 different MLB teams through 2021. The Marlins got Maybin and (UNC alum) pitcher Andrew Miller by trading future Hall of Fame slugger Miguel Cabrera in 2008.
Maybin was the tenth overall pick of the MLB draft in 2005. He was the second high school in that draft class, after Justin Upton. Maybin was a two-time minor league All-Star Futures Game participant.
Maybin the state tournament MVP in 2002, as a Roberson freshman. Baseball America named him the national Youth Player of the Year in 2004, when he won the Connie Mack Summer League batting title and its World Series MVP award. In 2005, Maybin made the All-USA Today National Baseball Team. Maybin’s Ram number 4 is honored on the school’s outfield wall.
A pro scout compared Maybin’s power-generating, quick wrist swing to that of Hall of Famer Vladi Guerrero. Maybin had the speed to play center field, and the arm for right field. He is grateful to managers such as Roberson’s Tom Smith and the Tigers’ Hall of Fame manager Jim Leyland for stressing all-around fundamental skills.
Cam and Courtney’s Maybin Mission started in 2016. Pre-COVID, it provided Christmas meals and gifts to local disadvantaged children. Cam put on a free baseball clinic at UNC-Asheville in 2022.
Coach Tom Smith
Tom Smith is in the N.C. Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. He and Maybin are in the Ram Ring of Gold. Smith led Roberson to the first three of its six state baseball titles – in 1983, 2000, and in 2002 with Maybin. Ironically, Smith is a graduate of TCR’s arch-rival A.C. Reynolds.
Smith managed the Rams to state playoffs in 19 of 28 seasons. He won 14 conference titles. He was 478-183 (.723), starting in 1979. He led UNC-Asheville baseball for five years, starting in 2010.
The Hall of Fame banquet begins at 5 p.m. Tickets are $60 each. They can be purchased via www.wncsportsaward.org.