On Baseball | With 1,000 games, Mesa has hung in

It has been a season of milestones in baseball.

Craig Biggio reached 3,000 hits. Sammy Sosa clouted his 600th home run, and Ken Griffey Jr. is approaching the mark.

Frank Thomas joined the 500-homer club, and Alex Rodriguez will soon pass initiation, too. Roger Clemens won his 350th game. Tom Glavine needs one more for 300.

On Thursday, another player reached a significant milestone. Unlike the aforementioned seven, Jose Mesa does not have a Hall of Fame resume. But he will always have those 1,000 pitching appearances.

"I'm proud of it," said Mesa, in his second stint with the Phillies. "It's a dream come true. A blessing."

Mesa will soon pass Goose Gossage (1,002) for 10th on the all-time list of games for a pitcher.

The Dominican Republic has been hugely important in baseball's growth ever since Ozzie Virgil Sr. became the first native of that baseball-mad country to play in the majors in 1956.

The island nation has produced Sosa, Juan Marichal, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero, Albert Pujols and dozens of other big-league stars.

Mesa, still insisting he's only 41, has his place among his country's greats.

No Dominican pitcher has appeared in more games. No Dominican has more saves than his 320, including a club-record 111 with the Phillies.

Well-conditioned and durable - he runs 40 minutes every day and plays long-toss at close to 300 feet - Mesa is in his 19th big-league season. Not bad for a guy who had never played an organized game before the Toronto Blue Jays got a look at his strong right arm and signed him for $3,000 in 1981.

Mesa remembers being signed by legendary Blue Jays scout Epy Guerrero. He remembers meeting Blue Jays general manager Pat Gillick shortly after signing.

"I was 15 going on 16," he said.

Not even old enough to legally drive. We use the word "legally" because they sometimes bend the rules in the Dominican.

"Drive?" Mesa said with a laugh. "I was driving a donkey in the Dominican at that time."

Mesa remembers traveling to Florida with other young Dominican players in May 1982 to begin his pro career. He remembers the first English he learned. Take it easy. That was soon followed by More. More.

"That's what we said in restaurants because we were hungry," he said.

Mesa recalls going to Instructional League with the Jays in 1983 and how coach Hector Torres liked to translate Latin players' names. That's how he got his famous moniker, Joe Table.

"I love it," Mesa said, chuckling.

You might have noticed that Mesa is in a pretty good mood talking about his past. It wasn't always this way, though. During his first go-round in Philadelphia, from 2001 through 2003, he often appeared angry. He was an open electrical socket and reporters who approached him first checked their life-insurance policies.

The Mesa that has come back is more at peace.

"I'm relaxed now," he said.

Mesa's angry-man stare of days gone by fueled a reputation that he wasn't a nice guy. There were also a couple of off-field incidents in Cleveland during the 1990s, a sexual-assault charge on which he was acquitted and a gun charge that was dropped after he completed a supervised program.

"They are in the past," Mesa said of his off-field problems. "You have to learn and go forward."

And of those angry-man days? Mesa says he never was mad.

"People see me from far away and say this guy is bad," he said. "Get around me, and you'll see that I love to laugh and joke. But when you cross the line, you've got to be mean. The hitter is not going up there laughing."

Mesa is so laid back these days that he is even able to laugh off those who doubt his age. It doesn't happen much any more, but Latin players who broke in during the 1980s and before could easily falsify age records. Some baseball people believe Mesa is 45 or older.

"I'm 41," he said. "I signed when I was 15. People think I'm older because I have a stepson who's 29. I have no problem with it. It's fun to joke about."

Folks who know Mesa well say he is generous with young players. He never forgot how Dominican-born Blue Jays great George Bell helped him with equipment and kind words when he was a young minor-leaguer. During his first stint with the Phillies, Mesa used to take the organization's Latino minor-leaguers to dinner every spring.

"I learned that from George," he said. "He was great with young players. He'd give you shoes and gloves. He was one of the nicest guys I ever met in the game."

In Mesa's 19th season in the majors, he is finally showing people that he is a nice guy. Maybe he has mellowed. Maybe he is the latest example of the old baseball adage: "They learn to say hello when it's time to say good-bye."

Mesa is not sure if he will say good-bye to baseball after this season. If there is interest, he would like to pitch one more season. If not?

"It's been a good career," he said. "I have no complaints."