TACOMA – You trying to tell me that Bucky Jacobsen hit a home run over that light tower?
“Polls,” said flabbergasted Tacoma Rainiers manager Dan Rohn to his hitting coach Terry Pollreisz, “he doesn’t believe that Bucky cleared the light tower.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Rohn, it was just that, well, a home run of that magnitude would have been right out of the movie “The Natural,” in which the main character, played by Robert Redford, hit the light pole and set off electrical fireworks that only Hollywood could produce.
Jacobsen’s mighty wallop over the light tower, which is maybe 100 feet high, in left field at Cheney Stadium didn’t set off a pyrotechnic display, but it did have kind of a dramatic effect during a game this season.
“It was one of those home runs that silenced the crowd for a moment,” Pollreisz recalled with a faraway look, “because they didn’t know where it was going to go.”
“It may still be going,” snickered Rainiers outfielder Jamal Strong.
Strong, on the disabled list, was watching Jacobsen slam pitches off and over the walls during batting practice Friday night.
Jacobsen puts on quite a show – both before and during games.
The 28-year-old designated hitter was leading the Pacific Coast League in runs batted in (76) and extra base hits (45), was second in home runs (24) and slugging percentage (.685), and was in the top 10 in on-base percentage (.426) beginning a weekend series against the Portland Beavers.
When a TV reporter asked him on camera how it felt to be named the PCL’s Player of the Week, Jacobsen said, “I didn’t know I was.” Actually, he had won the honor for the second week in a row. “I don’t pay any attention to that stuff,” he said later.
Jacobsen’s just a big, likeable, unassuming guy trying to do his job, win games and let people in the Mariner front office know that they have a DH in Tacoma whom they might want to seriously consider as a replacement when Edgar Martinez retires at the end of the season.
The way the M’s are scuffling, they might want to get him up there sooner rather than later, let them see what he could do the rest of the season. What do they have to lose?
The problem is, though Jacobsen can play first base, he’s only played there three times this season. So he’d have to DH. And with Martinez still taking his whacks, though not very effectively, there isn’t room for two DHs on the roster. And Martinez isn’t likely to walk away in the middle of the season.
But, boy, it’s tantalizing to fantasize what Jacobsen might be able to do in the juiceless Mariner lineup. I say “might” because Jacobsen has never taken a cut at a major league fastball.
But unless he gets a chance, we’ll never know what he can do, will we?
“My suggestion – you’ve got to give him a chance sometime,” Rohn said. “His numbers warrant a shot.”
That sometime might come in September, when the rosters are expanded and top minor leaguers are called up. By then, Jacobsen might have 45 home runs and 140 RBI.
The way bodies have been moving in and out of the Tacoma clubhouse lately, any player having a good year has to wonder if he might be the next to be called up. As players arrived for Thursday’s game, infielder Justin Leone was packing his truck in the parking lot and getting ready to join the M’s in Seattle.
Jacobsen says he doesn’t concern himself with whether he might or might not get a call. “If Edgar ends up retiring this year, I’d like a shot to earn the (DH) job in spring training,” he said, as he stood awaiting his turn to jump back in the batting cage.
And don’t even mention the possibility of him nudging Martinez onto the bench before Edgar is ready to go there. “I don’t care if I’m hitting .500 with 50 home runs, I don’t deserve to push Edgar out of his job,” he said. “There’s no comparison between the two of us. If there’s any comparison, I’d like to consider myself a younger and less experienced Edgar Martinez.”
There could be another similarity. Martinez didn’t play his first full season in the big leagues until he was 27. Jacobsen also would be a late comer if he made it next season. He turns 29 on Aug. 30.
Needless to say, Jacobsen deeply respects Martinez. He even uses a bat that was especially designed for the Mariner DH – the M356. The M stands for Martinez.
“I fell in love with it,” Jacobsen said. “Plus, if Edgar uses it, it probably works.”
Jacobsen orders a dozen bats at a time. So far, he’s already into his second batch. “I’m breaking bats like it’s my job this year,” he joked.
His job is to hit the ball out of the park and drive in runs, and he’s been magnificent at both. He’s averaging a home run about every three games and better than an RBI a game. He’s also been hitting for average – .323 starting the weekend.
As Rohn says, you can’t ignore the numbers.
When players gathered around the batting cage the other night, the discussion turned to some of the more memorable shots Jacobsen has hit this season.
“He hit the wall in center field at Fresno last week,” Rohn said, “and it left a dent in the padding for the entire game. Then he hit one over the wall in about the same place, and then he did it again.”
But the light tower blow in his own ballpark is the one that sticks out in everyone’s minds.
“Majestic,” is how Pollreisz described it.
Told what the coach had said, Jacobsen shrugged and remarked, “God didn’t make me small.
“Sometimes they throw it and when it hits my barrel, it goes a long way.”
He’s a big boy and he swings a big bat. He’s listed at 6 feet 4, 220 pounds. That was about 50 pounds ago. “I’m scared to get on the scales,” he said.
In every ballpark, his height and weight are flashed on the scoreboard. When he stepped into the batter’s box at Fresno, there it was again – 6-4, 220.
“Two-twenty,” Jacobsen said to the catcher, “in my bra.”
The man has a sense of humor. He also has a sense of gratefulness.
“It’s cool that I’m on a team I cheered for growing up,” he said. “It makes me smile. I’m blessed with baseball as a career.”
His blessings could get a whole lot more bountiful before all is said and done.
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