Todd Jones hugs a teammate during the Tigers' emotional run through the playoffs last season. This year, the veteran reliever will be joined by another long-in-the-tooth bullpen standby, Jose Mesa.
File photo
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LAKELAND, Fla. — If you took all of the games that veteran Tiger relievers Todd Jones and Jose Mesa have saved in their careers and stretched them end to end, they would equal more than 3 1/2 undefeated seasons.
Together, Jones, who will turn 39 in April, and Mesa, who admits to being at least 40, are older than two thirds of the teams in the American League.
Yet last week they were on the Marchant Stadium mound, mowing down college kids young enough to be their own sons for an inning apiece, as the reigning AL champion Tigers began their spring exhibition season with a no-count, rookie-filled 14-0 romp over Florida Southern College.
"I don't care about the score, but I was real impressed with our guys," Jim Leyland said. "A good curveball is a good curveball, I don't care who the hitter is. And this is a very good (13-2) college team. I'm just glad we were respectful to them. We had a good time. I hope they did, too."
Together, Mesa who ranks fifth among all active pitchers with 320 saves, and Jones, who is seventh with 263, give the Tigers the most statistically impressive pair of relievers in the game.
Both wear their age and their accomplishments well.
Jones likes to think of himself as a "professional grump." Mesa refers to himself as an "old goat."
Leyland considers them both invaluable.
"With Todd Jones, we figure we have the ninth inning taken," Leyland said. "The value of a closer is so precious for that reason. When you've got a closer, that takes the pressure off everybody else."
Last year, opposing teams felt that they had to get to the Tiger pitchers in the first six innings, before Leyland turned the game over to Joel Zumaya, Fernando Rodney and Jones.
The Tigers themselves felt that if they could take a lead into the seventh inning, they were in good shape.
"That takes a lot of pressure off the manager," Leyland said.
The addition of Mesa gives Leyland yet another option.
"If Jones had pitched four days in a row and needed a day off, I wouldn't be afraid to use any of them," Leyland said.
"This is what we got Mesa for," explained Leyland, who personally called the well-traveled veteran right-hander out of the blue during the off-season to let Mesa know the Tigers were interested and to tell him exactly what his role would be.
"I told him, 'This is what we've got for you here. If you'd be happy doing that, fine. If not, you ought to look elsewhere,'" Leyland said. "You don't ever want an unhappy ballplayer.
"But he's a true professional. And professional pitchers figure out how to make adjustments. He's got a real live arm. He's a real warrior. Nobody in this camp will outwork Jose Mesa. He'll be a tremendous asset."
Thanks to his two stints with the Tigers, Jones is already the team's all-time save leader with 179.
But will he ever receive the credit he deserves?
"Probably not," admitted the often self-effacing Jones. "My 2001-04 vacancy out of the closer's roles and those two-week body-snatching experiences I have where I don't get anybody out will prevent that.
"But I can live with that," he said. "It is what it is. I'd have to pitch 1,000 games and get 400 saves before anybody would mention me for the Hall of Fame."
At least Jones can again look at himself and his baseball career with pride.
"There was a stretch when I was bitter," Jones confessed. "I'm vindictive. My whole career, I've been trying to prove to everybody I don't suck.
"Last year put away a lot of the demons in my career, as far as people saying I couldn't handle pressure. I proved to myself and to everybody that I could."
When the games were on the line last season, Jones delivered 39 times, including two wins. In the postseason, he saved four of the Tigers' eight victories.
Contact Jim Hawkins at jim.hawkins@oakpress.com.
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