A Good Setup
By Diana Royal Staff Writer

It keeps getting better for Jonathan Broxton.

The 23-year-old's dream came true when he made his Major League Baseball debut in July 2005, and now the MLB has recognized the Los Angeles Dodgers' pitcher as one of the best "setup men" for the 2007 season.

Broxton has been nominated for MLB.com's annual "This Year in Baseball Awards," ranking among nine other standout pitchers in the entire league who face the same job of helping to save a close game.

"A setup man is just as important as a closer," Broxton explained, adding that they come in for a save situation, which is three runs or less, and must hold the game where it is so that the closer can come in to finish.

Fans can vote for their favorite players until Dec. 5, and much of Burke County has already been surfing the net to support the Waynesboro native.

This season, Broxton is credited with 32 holds, which earned him a fifth place ranking, and he's also ranked second among fulltime relievers with a whopping 99 strikeouts. With 83 appearances in the Majors, he's tied for third.

Being in the spotlight, however, has done anything but go to his head.

His wife, Elizabeth, says she is constantly amazed by him. "He is eager to give back to his community," she says, "but he wants to do so anonymously. He wants absolutely no credit and sees himself as just a normal guy who is lucky enough to be doing something he really loves - playing ball ... I am so proud of his ability to stay focused as he works toward meeting his goals and performing to the best of his abilities."

Those abilities are what have gotten Broxton this far, but he still humbly recalls stepping onto the field in his first appearance.

"It was exciting," he remembers. "It was what I had worked for as a child growing up. It felt like there were 100,000 people right on top of me. It was loud, the lights were bright, and the stadium was high and huge."

Broxton, who's not one to talk much about himself, says he gets funny faces from people he doesn't know. "They stare and wonder if it's me but are too afraid to come up and ask," he says with a laugh. "Before I was playing professional ball, I was just a normal person to everyone. Now, people think of me as some star, but I'm just Jonathan Broxton from Waynesboro, Georgia, and I love to hunt, fish and play golf."
*Broxton tied for third the Majors with 83 appearances this season.

*He is ranked fifth in holds and second among full-time relievers for strikeouts.

HOW TO VOTE:

Log on to www.mlb.com, scroll to the right and click on This Year in Baseball Awards. (There's a "VOTE" button.) Then choose "Setup" from the list of awards, click on Broxton and vote as many times as you'd like. You may also vote via the L.A. Dodgers' website at www.dodgers.com.