Defensive Stopper

LIMA - It's a cold and dreary night in early April. The sun is about to dip its way out of sight behind the grey clouds.

Former Shawnee baseball coach Chuck LaGrande drives from his home to the Shawnee field at close to 7 p.m. He's returning because he forgot to lock the main gate to the baseball field.

When he arrives, he sees two people on the far diamond.

One is seventh grader Danny Jones. The other is Danny's dad.

Jones is taking balls out of a huge bucket near the plate and firing them down to his dad at second base.

"How many buckets have you done?" LaGrande asks the young Jones.

"About three," Jones replies.

That was LaGrande's first introduction to Jones, who he would later coach in high school.

"He's one of the very, very few kids I coached who had a work ethic beyond belief," LaGrande said.

The junior Jones, a Shawnee High grad, is now in his second year of catching for the Lima Locos, in the Great Lakes Collegiate League. Last year he proved he was one of the top defensive catchers in the league. He threw out close to 50 percent of the runners who tried to steal on him.

This spring at Marietta, he threw out 43 percent of the runners who tried to steal.

"When my arm feels great and I'm at the top of my peak, confidence-wise, I think, ‘Go ahead and steal,'" Jones said. "You always like a challenge.

"Then, there are other times when my arm is hanging down, it's like, ‘Please don't run,''' he said with a laugh.

Jones is also adept at blocking balls. He moves his body side-to-side and uses his chest to gobble up balls in the dirt like each one is a $1,000 winning lottery ticket.

"I've watched him become one of the best defensive catchers we've had," veteran Locos coach Rob Livchak said. "What's more amazing (than his strong, accurate arm) is you can throw a two-strike curveball in the dirt and you know he's going to block that ball. That's more comforting as a pitcher, that if I throw something in the dirt, it's not going back to the backstop."

Jones was born in Lima, but moved to Idaho when he was in kindergarten and played Little League there from the first to sixth grade. His first year he played third, but was moved behind the plate the following year and has been there ever since.

In the sixth grade his family moved back to Lima.

That's when he began inventing catching "games."

"I would go out and put a ball in my glove and simulate I was throwing to second," Jones said. "I would throw about 50 balls to each base and my dad would catch them.

"For blocking the ball, in the summer, I'd throw a tennis ball off the wall in the living room and would go down and block it. Or I would go in the garage. I set up a door at a down angle and I'd bounce the ball of it and block it. I'd wear knee pads in my driveway and garage. I'd find different ways to learn how to do it."

At Shawnee, LaGrande said Jones' work ethic turned him into a defensive standout. Few ran on him. From his sophomore year to his senior year, Jones started every game.

"If Danny had his way, he would play three," LaGrande said. "He was a throwback, a coach's dream."

Jones went to Marietta, where he stepped in and started from Day 1 behind the plate.

As a freshman, he helped Marietta reach the Division III World Series. Marietta went 0-2 for the series, but Jones hit .500 (4-for-8). Overall, he hit .263 with five doubles.

This year he lifted his average to .308 with seven doubles and four home runs. He drove in 21 runs. He was named second team All-Ohio Athletic Conference. He hit 8-for-15 in the OAC tournament and was named to the all-tournament team.

Like his defense, the hitting surge didn't come by accident.

"We have 6 a.m. agilities (drills at Marietta in the winter)," Jones said "I'd go in at 5 o'clock and coach would open it up, drop the cage down and I'd hit for an hour in the gym before we would start the agilities."

But defense will be the ticket for the 5-foot-10 Jones. He throws to second in 1.9-to-2.1 seconds.

"That's dandy," Livchak said. "That'll get him a look if he goes to the try-out camps. I know I would take him on my team."

Jones said, "I love playing for the Locos and I'd love playing at the next level, professionally. I have so much fun playing the game that I think good things will come to you if you're working hard and playing the game. ... It's just been a passion that I've had."

So, run at your own risk against Jones. This is someone who has been throwing balls to second in the dark since the seventh grade.