Bucky Jacobsen won’t complain about the bum knee that probably will prevent him from starting the baseball season with the Seattle Mariners.
He doesn’t whine anymore about all those one-way tickets to the minor leagues when he believed he was good enough to be a major leaguer.
There’s no room for selfishness in Jacobsen’s heart, because he knows the power of love, life and death.
December 29 was supposed to be the best day of Jacobsen’s life.
He was getting married to his longtime sweetheart, Jennifer Bon, in his hometown of Hermiston, Ore., where the families had gathered and the celebration was reaching a crescendo.
Then, Bucky and Jennifer’s greatest moment crumbled into unbelievable grief.
The day before the wedding, Jennifer’s father never woke up. Aldo Bon died in his sleep at a hotel in Hermiston, apparently of a heart attack.
“He’d just had his hip replaced, but he seemed completely healthy,” Jacobsen said. “They found in the autopsy that he had coronary artery disease.”
The man who was supposed to walk Jennifer down the aisle was gone. Now what?
“I told Jennifer she didn’t have to go through with the wedding,” Jacobsen said. “I told her I’d marry her tomorrow or next year or 10 years from now.”
Jennifer cleared her head and made a decision.
“Daddy would want me to get married,” she told Bucky.
“She was strong. She toughed it out,” he said. “That night was tough, trying to go through the rehearsal. And the next day was difficult.”
Jacobsen said he and Jennifer got through it because they had each other.
“If Jennifer and I needed a validation of how much we loved each other and how we’d be there for each other, that was it,” he said.
Baseball and the struggles that come with it never seemed so insignificant.
Jacobsen already realized that. His mother, DeAnne Malmberg, is a breast cancer survivor.
“Ever since my mom had breast cancer, the injuries I got in baseball or the strikeouts or going back to the minor leagues weren’t that important,” said Jacobsen, who reached the majors with the Mariners halfway through last season after 7 years in the minors. “There are a lot of people in the world who would love to play Double A baseball. I used to whine about it and be bitter about it, but now I’m not. I’m blessed to play this game.”
That’s why he keeps a smile on his face and faith that he’ll open the season with the Mariners, even though it seems certain he’ll wind up back in the minor leagues.
Jacobsen had surgery last September to repair an old injury to his right knee, and the procedure revealed more damage than doctors had expected. He still isn’t fully recovered and, although he can swing a bat with no problems, he can’t run.
The Mariners don’t believe Jacobsen will be fit to play until late in the exhibition season, and general manager Bill Bavasi last week all but ruled out the possibility that Jacobsen will start the season in the majors.
Even healthy, it would take a strong spring training for Jacobsen to make a team that added sluggers Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre in the offseason.
Despite the bad knee, Jacobsen hit 26 home runs in 81 games at Class AAA Tacoma last year, then nine homers in 42 games after being called up to the Mariners.
Mariners trainer Rick Griffin said he was amazed that Jacobsen played so well despite a “divot” in his right knee that affected his stride. He had played three seasons with the injury, suffered when he ran into a tarp while chasing a foul ball in the minor leagues.
“I got used to the pain because I’d been playing with it for three years,” he said. “But when I would pick up my foot to stride (into a pitch), I couldn’t stand there on one leg. I stood upright a little more than I normally do and I ended up lunging toward pitches more than I did in the past few years.
“No excuses, though. My body didn’t feel real good, but it’s the same body that was able to hit the ball out of the park. It worked, but it just didn’t work as well as it could have.”
Jacobsen will begin spring training with a restricted workout regimen until the leg is fully healed. He’s OK with that, although he believes he’s healthy enough to fill the DH role from the beginning. He has been hitting without pain this month in the batting cage at Safeco Field.
“If they want to restrict me on running or taking ground balls, fine,” Jacobsen said. “But if I can hit and do the job of a DH at 100 percent, let me do it at 100 percent. I’ve got to do everything I can to win that job. My knee feels better now than it’s felt in three years. It feels strong and there’s no pain.”
The pain in his heart, that will never completely fade.
Kirby Arnold is The Herald’s baseball writer.
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