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On the Diamond Jones, Wickman just happy to be here
Posted: Monday July 10, 2000 08:50 PM
By Dan George, CNNSI.com ATLANTA - By their own admission, Todd Jones and Bob Wickman are two of the most unheralded All-Stars you'll ever find. Jones is 32, a burly right-handed reliever who muddled through several up-and-down seasons with the Astros before landing the closer's job with the Tigers -- baseball's version of the Witness Protection Program -- four years ago. The 31-year-old Wickman has followed a similarly unspectacular career path, becoming the lowly Brewers' closer in 1998 after six solid but largely nondescript seasons as a spot starter/setup man, first with the Yankees, then with Milwaukee. Now they're getting ready to perform on baseball's biggest stage outside the postseason, the 2000 All-Star Game on Tuesday night at Turner Field. Both admit to being a bit awestruck. "I don't feel like one of these guys," Jones said Monday with a wry smile. "I've said it before: I'm just a guy passing through the game. These guys -- the Jeters, the Piazzas, the Griffeys -- they're great, future Hall of Famers. I'm just happy to be here." "It's a very high point," added Wickman, who like Jones is a first-time All-Star. "But everything I've got in baseball -- and everything I'll ever get -- after that first pitch on my first day in the majors is extra. You know?" Not that either is undeserving. While fellow All-Stars, such as the Yankees' Mariano Rivera and the Padres' Trevor Hoffman, continue to get the headlines, Jones and Wickman can make legitimate claims to being the top closers in their respective leagues this season. Jones leads the American League with 24 saves, an especially remarkable stat in that the Tigers have won only 38 games. Thanks to a slider he unveiled midway through last season, Jones is now striking out nearly 10 1/2 batters every nine innings to go along with his 2.53 ERA, and opposing batters are hitting just .248 against him. A year ago, he was on the trading block, but the Tigers have now made it clear he's not going anywhere. "I really wasn't surprised when I got picked [to the All-Star team]," Jones said, although he admitted a moment of doubt when Marlins closer Antonio Alfonseca was passed over despite a major-league best 27 saves. "I'd done about everything I could do, so if I wasn't going to get in this year, I wasn't ever going to get in." That the game is in Atlanta makes it even more special for Jones, who grew up in the Georgia capital and whose mother, Lise, still lives here. "You just can't describe the feeling, to have the chance to play in front of your family. I've purchased about 45 tickets for the game." Wickman's numbers aren't quite as glossy as Jones', largely because of a recent rough patch that bumped his ERA from 1.05 to 3.07, but he still has 13 saves for a team that's 36-51 overall and he's holding enemy hitters to a .214 average. The right-hander, who bears more than a passing resemblance to actor Michael Chiklis of The Commish fame, does not have typical closer stuff, relying more on movement than velocity. He lost the tip of his right index finger in an accident when he was 2 years old, so his pitches have plenty of life and he gets plenty of groundouts. Wickman was dealt to the Brewers in August 1996, just a couple of months before the Yankees won the first of three World Series titles in four years. Such a development might have had some players cursing their luck. Not Wickman. "I'm from Wisconsin. It's my home state, and I like the way things are going with our young players. [New general manager] Dean Taylor is doing a great job," he said. "Of course, one thing about being right there is that during the All-Star break I usually just hopped in the truck and headed home for three days," said Wickman, who lives about three hours north of Milwaukee. "This year, I told my wife we were going to Atlanta."
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