Keeping Up With Jones : 12 Months, 3 Trades Later, Tracy the Tiger Feels at Home

The manager wanted to prove his point, so he cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered from the dugout: “Hey, Tracy Jones!”

In the sunshine of Anaheim Stadium, Tracy Jones smiled and waved as he trotted by, but he did not say a word.

“See, I told you he doesn’t say much to me. He’s real quiet,” said Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson, with a smile of his own. “Besides, I always judge a person by how they are with me, not how they are with someone else. That’s not fair. I won’t ask another manager how a player is. I decide.”

And for this Jones is thankful. The 28-year-old former Lawndale High School and Loyola Marymount star outfielder has been purposely unobtrusive since his trade from the San Francisco Giants to the Tigers on June 17.

After two tumultuous years in the big leagues that have included numerous squabbles with management, a reputation as one of the sport’s most disliked players and three trades in 12 months, Jones says he’s ready for a quieter and more stable life.

“Everything I say is sometimes mixed up or taken out of context. It got me in trouble in Cincinnati and it got me in trouble in San Francisco,” Jones said before a recent game against the Angels.

“So now I’m just low-key. I just keep saying boring stuff. I just want to stay here and keep my mouth shut. You never know. You may be misunderstood and get in trouble.”

Jones hopes that Anderson understands him because others have not. In 1987 Jones, a right-handed hitter and a 1983 first-round draft choice out of Loyola, became a popular Cincinnati player by batting .290 and stealing 31 bases. His spirited style of play gained the admiration of both Reds fans and manager Pete Rose.

But early in the following season, his hustle placed him on the disabled list when he injured his knee trying to field a foul ball. When he returned, Rose platooned him with lefty batter Paul O’Neill and bitter exchanges between Rose and Jones ensued. During the ’88 All-Star break, Jones was traded to Montreal.

“When I came in, I was getting standing ovations in Cincinnati. I could do no wrong. Everyday I’d pick up the paper and there would be something about me. Everything was positive,” Jones recalled.

“Then you start having a little trouble or you go into your first slump. Then you run into trouble with Pete, which wasn’t really all that much, and you don’t read about yourself on the sports page--but on the front page on the paper: ‘Jones and Rose at It Again.’

“Stuff like that just wore on me. It’s tough to play like that.”

Although he batted .317 for the Expos, Jones didn’t last long in Montreal. During the winter meetings last December, Montreal swapped Jones for another outfielder, San Francisco’s Mike Aldrete.

“I figured I’d be in Montreal for a while. I liked it there and I did well,” Jones said. “I like (Expos manager) Buck Rodgers, and my teammates were great. I bought a home in Juno Beach, Fla.(near the Montreal spring training camp), and I’ll be damned if I don’t get traded. And Candlestick was not one of my favorite ballparks.”

Jones did not have much time to lament about Candlestick, or anything else in San Francisco. Like Montreal, San Francisco was merely a pit stop. In 97 at-bats Jones hit .186, seeing little playing time.

“I wasn’t being counted on in San Francisco. It’s like I told (Giants manager) Roger (Craig): ‘If you think I’m the 24th guy on the team, you’re wrong.’ It was getting so bad that I couldn’t sleep. I was going through that much of a problem. It was really the first time that I had failed. That has hurt me a lot as far as confidence. I got it back here.”

So for Jones, being traded from a first-place team to the club with the worst record in baseball has had advantages. In the 28 games he has played for Detroit, Jones is batting .264 with three home runs, including a homer in his first at-bat as a Tiger on June 17.

“Jeez, he ( Jones ) has to be important here,” Anderson said. “When you’ve got (Will) Clark and (Kevin) Mitchell, you become very unimportant. Once he gets his knee squared away, there’s no question he’ll be playing every day. He’s a strong kid.”

Anderson is concerned about Jones’ knee because the 6-foot-3, 210-pounder still experiences soreness after arthroscopic surgery last season and shares time with left-handed batter Fred Lynn. Jones will be operated on again after this season.

“It’s a little shaky and it’s going to have to be worked on,” Jones said. “I can’t run the way I used to. I’m a little slower and I’m taking it easier.”

Jones has decided that being reserved on the playing field as well as in his public comments is the best way for him to lengthen his young--yet action-packed--career.

“I feel like I’ve been through so much in four years that players who played 10 or 12 never go through. That’s why I’m saying I’m exhausted from moving. I’m tired of it and tired of the pressure. The things that I’ve said to the management and the press have put more added pressure on,” Jones said.

“I’m just glad that’s through. It’s too hard mentally. People start thinking that there’s something wrong with me and that I’m a troublemaker,” continued Jones, who was voted the National League’s “most hated player” by his peers in a USA Today’s preseason poll last season.

“They get real skeptical of me and I don’t want that because anybody that has ever come in contact with me hasn’t had problems.”

Staying in one place is even more important to Jones now that he and his fiancee, 24-year-old Debi Horn, have set a wedding date of Oct. 27. Horn has moved with Jones throughout the year, and while he says the difficult times have strengthened their relationship, love does know some bounds.

“She just tells me to keep my mouth shut. She says she’s tired of packing my stuff and if I get traded again, I’m packing,” Jones said.

Finally, it looks like keeping up with Jones might just get a lot easier.