The waiting is the hardest part

Or, maybe not. Adam Jones (WI '04) continues to hit the heck out of the baseball as he waits for his return to the big leagues and deals with reports about when that is going to happen.

Jones waits for Mariners to call

Adam Jones didn’t know exactly what to say, because the comment caught him completely off guard.

As Jones was preparing himself for pregame batting practice at Wednesday’s Triple-A All-Star Game in Albuquerque, N.M., a reporter walked up and offered him congratulations for being called up by the Mariners.

“I said, ‘What are you talking about? Who told you that?’ ” Jones said. "And he said, ‘Oh, you haven’t heard; maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.’ ”

Then again, maybe no one should have said anything because Jones wasn’t going anywhere, despite Internet and newspaper reports Wednesday saying Jones would be starting in right field for the Mariners on Thursday against the Detroit Tigers.

Instead, he was 35 miles away at Cheney Stadium, playing center field in the Rainiers’ 2-1 victory over the Fresno Grizzlies. As of now, Jones is still very much part of the Rainiers, at least for the near future.

“Yeah, I heard about all that stuff,” Jones said before the game Thursday. “But I haven’t had anything personally said to me about going up. I’m here in the lineup tonight, so that’s all I can go on.”

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It’s not as though Jones hasn’t heard the talk before. And he knows it’s pointless to fret.

“It’s not a distraction,” Jones said. “That’s one of the furthest things from my mind. As soon as I start thinking about Seattle, I’m looking past my team right here.”