John Jaso's Not 16: He's an All-Timer Now

John Jaso is every bit deserving of a spot on the North Coast all-time baseball team.

No doubt about it. No question. He starred at McKinleyville High School, went onto star at a community college and he reached the big league roster of the Tampa Bay Rays late last summer.

The damndest thing is that Jaso should've been the first guy I thought of as worthy of adding to the list I compiled when I worked up there at the newspaper...because he played for the Humboldt Dukes Junior American Legion coach that Duane Hagans and I started, and coached, in 1998 and 1999.

I had nothing to do with the sweet-swinging left-hand hitter's development into a star, into a big leaguer. But, he was on the team that no one can dispute was my brainchild. And, I did have the foresight to register the American Legion team as the Humboldt Dukes so as to potentially attract players to practices in Eureka — and Jaso did come to the Eureka-based team from McKinleyville. I also used great wisdom and listened to Roger Hawkins when he said, "There are a couple really good 15-year-olds in McKinleyville who could help the Dukes. One's name is John Jaso and..."

So, back to the all-time team, I didn't mention Jaso along with Nick Giacone because, in my mind, John Jaso's just a kid. It's hard to consider him an all-time, all-timer when it seems as though I just coached as a 15-year-old five minutes ago.

Jaso could do everything on a baseball diamond at 15 and, obviously, nothing changed as he grew older. And, clearly, he loved the game and did the things he needed to do to put the game first -- to show he respected the game he played so very well.

There might be one or two others I'd add to the all-time list using the criteria I came up with when the team ran under the newspaper's banner. Or, I might just eliminate the oldtimers I never saw play and do a list of my own -- with my own criteria.