Despite yearly breakup rumors, Hunter and Jones stay together

By Jim Souhan
Star Tribune

FORT MYERS, FLA. -- Torii Hunter and Jacque Jones jogged to the outfield together at Hammond Stadium on Friday afternoon, same as it ever was, to begin what probably will be their last spring together.

They met in the Twins' instructional league in 1996, two former football players years away from the big leagues with skills to hone, buses to ride, time to kill.

"We liked each other right away," Hunter said. "We started hanging out every day, playing dominoes, going to eat, going to bars -- yeah, we were 21, I think. We'd just hang out. Go to Hooters, bowling, movies."

"We started talking about playing next to each other," Jones said. "We were both center fielders, so they made us compete with each other. We looked at it like there was room for both of us."

They've spent 10 years together in the Twins organization, half of those covering each other's flank in the Metrodome outfield, the last few wondering when Hunter and Jones would be separated the way good friends/teammates had in the past: Radke and Milton, Koskie and Mientkiewicz, Guardado and Hawkins.

"You know my story," Jones said. "I've been getting traded for four years."

"But he's good," Hunter said. "So they keep bringing him back."

On this sunny March morning, Jones is sitting in the far corner locker in the Twins' spring training clubhouse, back to the wall, so nobody trying to trade him can sneak up from behind. Hunter sits two stalls down, in roughly the same spot as when he lockered near Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield back in 1994, the year after he was drafted out of high school.

It's a quiet clubhouse these days, with Mientkiewicz, Guardado, Hawkins, A.J. Pierzynski and Denny Hocking gone, quiet except for the laughter coming from this corner, where Jones and Hunter honor the grand tradition of baseball needling.

Their favorite story? "We can't tell many of them, unless you're HBO," Hunter said. "But this one, you can print.

"Me and Jacque were always pushing each other, joking around, slap-boxing, and every once in a while I'd really get him -- pick him up, beat him up.

"So one day in Portland, I was going back on a fly ball, and I hit my head on the steel fence out there, 'Boom!' I'm on the ground with grass in my mouth and the ball hanging out of my glove. I'm asleep, and Jacque runs over and slaps me ... and slaps me ... and slaps me again. It's like, 'Pow, pow, pow.'

"I'm coming to, and I look up and see Jacque with his hand back, ready to hit me again, and he's got this big smile on his face. I yell, 'What are you doing?!' and he says, 'I was just trying to wake you up, buddy,' but really, he was just trying to get me back."

Jacque? "Guilty," he said.

They didn't have much in common other than baseball and forced proximity. Jones was the California kid who starred for the Olympic team, Hunter the football player from Pine Bluff High in Arkansas.

Jones was city, Hunter country. Jones was experienced, Hunter raw. Jones had to quit playing football because of his size; Hunter's made him a prime recruit.

Hunter had to learn to hit, so Jones helped him. Jones needed work on his throwing; he went to Hunter.

"He'd tell me stories about California, and me, the country boy, I couldn't believe it," Hunter said.

About all they had in common was their position. Both played center field.

"It seemed like they were making us compete with each other," Hunter said. "But if they had moved me to left field, then I would have tried to become a great left fielder."

Said Jones: "We knew we could play together."

And so they have, for 10 years, evolving from wide-eyed kids to team leaders.

"We're the board," Hunter said. "When we were coming up, guys like Matt Lawton took care of us, and now we're here for these guys."

Next year, you figure Jason Kubel or Michael Restovich will be playing in right, and Jones finally will depart.

But we've been wrong before about that. "I might not be here long, but that doesn't mean I can't be a good teammate to these guys," Jones said. "Torii and I, while we're here, we're going to take care of these guys the way people took care of us."

Whether this lasts until September, October or beyond.