TSN: Jones: Reflecting on more than 15 years in the majors

Todd Jones looks back...(wipes tear away with 60-grit sheet of sandpaper)

Then steroids hit, and I just need to say that if Jose Canseco had hit 38 more home runs—giving him 500 and maybe a ticket to the Hall of Fame—none of this would have happened the way it did. Canseco would have been content. There would have been no subcommittee meetings or Mitchell Report, and guys out of the game wouldn’t have been dragged through the mud.

Baseball is more uniform now. Umpires adhere to one governing body of accountability. Used to be, they could be fat, pompous pigs—routinely out of position—and eject you with no warning and hold a grudge. Now, they’re polite and treat you with respect, and we have a much better rapport with them.

We were all shook up by 9/11. I feel we—and the NFL—helped the country begin healing. I’ll never forget the first night back. They played Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American, “ and we all cried.

As an older player, you never know when your time is going to be up, so the grass is greener and the park is louder. You thank God for your good health and good luck. You’ve stuck around long enough to figure out that your career is not about you; it’s about your teammates and how you leave the game. If somehow you made it better for somebody, you’ve done your job.