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SO LONG TODD!

Posted by bigD | September 28, 2008 .

He was booed on many occasions. He recommended that the Tigers market a Todd Jones t-shirt that would have said, “I love Todd Jones” on the front and “I hate Todd Jones” on the back. He had a high ERA. He blew many saves. Even the saves he converted were adventures. But the one thing you can say about Tiger closer – Todd Jones is that the man is 100% class all the way. Speaking of class, it was great to see Tiger owner Mike Illitch lead a ceremony before Saturday’s game honoring the longtime Tiger closer. Indeed it was a class act all the way. Jones claimed “I got wise to the situation and chose to walk out of the door, before I was shown the door. I was smart enough to figure out when it was time to go.” Jones wanted to go out his way and he felt it was the right time. You have to respect that no matter what.

 

Jones played for 16 major league seasons and he ranks 14th on the all time saves list with 319 (235 saves with the Tigers). All told, Jones converted almost 86% of his save opportunities but even still was often in the doghouse with Tiger fans. That’s to be expected with the closer heart attacks he used to give us. But even through it all, Jones was always a stand up citizen in Detroit, a good person and a quality closer and you certainly can’t take that away from him. He left Detroit briefly and had a great tenure with the Marlins which rejuvenated his career. Mainly though, that stint brought him back to Detroit where he wanted to be. Jones loves Detroit and the fans of Detroit. He will leave a Detroit Tiger and that’s also what he clearly wanted.

 

Nowadays classiness in sports is rare. When you find a good person who matches that trait with strong talent you really find something special in a player. In Todd Jones that’s exactly what the Detroit Tiger’s organization found. Jones never won a world series or anything spectacular but even on the darkest days, ”The Roller Coaster” (one of his many nicknames) found a way to be positive and always carried himself professionally. Indeed, it’s too bad there aren’t more players out there like Todd Jones. So long Jonesie. It will be less entertaining without you. I know I speak for the entire city of Detroit and baseball fans everywhere in saying, WE’LL MISS YOU!

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