Oct. 11, 2009

By Jerry Hill

Baylor Bear Insider

As good as the last nine years have been for Jason Jennings, including National League Rookie of the Year honors in 2002, the former Baylor All-American pitcher said his time in Waco were three of the best, "if not the best years of my life thus far."

"My wife now, she was down there with me. I had a great bunch of teammates. Obviously we had three great years on the field. And then just the experience I had at Baylor, on and off campus, was something I'll never forget. I made lifelong friends. And I've said it before, but I would never be where I am today if I hadn't spent three years there," said Jennings, part of the 2009 induction class for the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame that will be honored with a banquet on Oct. 23 at the Ferrell Center.

Arguably Baylor's best baseball player in school history, Jennings was a two-time All-American and the first consensus National Player of the Year in Division I in 1999. That season, he hit .386 and picked up 13 wins with 172 strikeouts and a 2.58 ERA.

The career leader in slugging percentage at .615, Jennings also ranks third all-time at Baylor with 27 career wins, first with 17 Big 12 victories and fourth all-time in saves.

"I just matured, not only as a baseball player, but as a person," he said. "If I would have gone straight from high school to rookie ball, I don't know if I would have turned out the same."

At Poteet High School in Mesquite, Texas, Jennings was a two-sport standout in football and baseball, earning all-district honors in football as both a punter and kicker. As a senior in baseball, he was named the district MVP, posting a .410 batting average with seven home runs and compiling a 10-3 record with a 0.92 ERA and 132 strikeouts.

Drafted in the 54th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks, Jennings turned down the offer to turn pro and came to Baylor in the fall of 1996.

"I'd say I was about 95 percent dead set on coming to Baylor," he said. "It would have had to be a high-round draft pick for me to give up the scholarship that Coach (Steve) Smith offered me. I think mentally and physically, I wasn't mature enough yet for pro ball. And in hindsight, after those three years at Baylor when I got in drafted in 1999, I knew I was ready."

The Colorado Rockies' first-round draft pick in '99, Jennings got his first call to the majors two years later. In an historic major-league debut on Aug. 24, 2001, he threw a five-hit shutout, went 3-for-4 at the plate and hit a home run in a 10-0 shutout of the New York Mets at Shea Stadium, becoming the first pitcher in modern history to throw a shutout and homer in his first game.

"That first game is something you'll never forget," Jennings said. "It's pretty surreal as you find yourself out on the field with guys that you've been watching on TV and playing at stadiums you've seen on TV. And you're playing in front of 30,000 or 40,000 people. It's pretty crazy, but it's something that you get used to in a hurry and it just becomes baseball again. It's the same game you played in college and the minor leagues and even back in high school."

After picking up four wins in his late-season call-up with the Rockies in 2001, Jennings earned National League Rookie of the Year honors the next year when he was 16-8 with a 4.52 ERA and 127 strikeouts in 185.1 innings.

"It's a cliché that it's a dream come true," he said. "But everything you work for - Little League, high school, college - and it all comes to a head there, and you get called up to the highest league in the world. Obviously it's a huge honor and something I've been fortunate enough to experience for eight years now."

Jennings struggled with health issues each of the two previous seasons, going through two surgeries and losing 14 of 16 decisions with the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers. Finally healthy again, he was a solid middle reliever for the Rangerst through most of this season in his first bullpen experience of his career.

But the Rangers released him on Aug. 27, when they called up young reliever Pedro Strop from Triple-A Oklahoma City, just five days before the major-league rosters could be expanded to 40.

"It was frustrating, just because my role had changed," said Jennings, who was 2-4 with a 4.13 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 61.0 innings. "They brought up a couple young kids, and I wasn't getting near as many appearances as I was in the beginning and middle of the year. That's when I was at my best, when I was out there every two or three days. That month of August, it seemed like it was every five or six days. And it was just hard to stay sharp, not getting as much work. I feel like I held my own being in the bullpen for the first time in my career. I still see myself as a starter, and I think that's what I'm meant to be, but we'll see what next year brings."

The blessing in disguise with his early release has been some additional quality time at home with his wife, Kelly, and three children, Braden, 8; Bailee, 6; and Keathan, 2.

"I'm enjoying family time right now," said the 31-year-old Jennings, "doing tackle football and cheerleading and taking the kids to school. That's the stuff that you take for granted when you're off on the road and you don't get to do that. You miss out on a lot of stuff playing ball. That's part of the game that most people don't realize. All they see is the glitz and glamour and dollar signs and ESPN. They don't realize I've missed half of my kids' lives thus far just playing ball. But it's nice to be home and go to practice with my son. And my wife's the cheer coach for my little girl. So we're having fun with that."

Tickets for the Hall of Fame banquet, which will be at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, at the Ferrell Center, are $45 ($35 for Baylor letterwinners). Contact the "B" Association's Tammy Hardin at 254-710-3045 or by e-mail at tammy_hardin@baylor.edu.