'Everybody loved Bobby': Remembering Jenks 1 year after his passing

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CHICAGO -- The number 45, in honor of Bobby Jenks, no longer sits on Ozinga Field in Crestwood, Ill., where the Windy City Thunderbolts play baseball within the Frontier League.

But those who have been there recently say the silhouette of that number remains visible.

That scenario seems fitting in that Jenks, the Babe Ruthian figure who closed out the 2005 World Series sweep for the White Sox and managed the Thunderbolts in 2024, is gone. But the man who wore this jersey will not soon be forgotten.

Jenks lost his battle against State 4 adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer, on July 4, 2025.

“I miss him every day, especially every day I go out on the field,” Toby Hall, one of Jenks’ closest friends, told MLB.com during a Friday phone interview. “Just his little smirks, his little things he would say, and I find myself saying some of the stuff he would say. Then just going back to Windy City these last three days, that one really hit home.”

“Everybody loved Bobby,” said Greg Walker, who was the hitting coach during Jenks’ White Sox tenure from 2005-10. “He wasn’t scared of anything. He could handle the moment. Just a big, fun guy. He’s a great teammate. But it was tough at the reunion. You could tell how much he was loved at the reunion. The team was legitimately so sad as a group. We all loved him.”

Jenks spoke to me on Feb. 15, 2025, from a hospital bed in Portugal, sounding like an individual who had been through a hellish health battle. But that sharp personality, often hilarious but always straightforward, was ever present even through the fatigue.

There was talk concerning the irony of Jenks getting so sick after cleaning up the demons plaguing him in the past. He also talked about how “no normal person would have survived” the things he was doing in his 20s and 30s.

Optimism reigned for Jenks. But the father of six lost his battle at age 44.

Somewhat overlooked in this sad story was Jenks’ strong ability as a manager and his devotion to baseball. He was set to come back to run the Thunderbolts in '25, but Hall, who coached under Jenks with the Grand Junction Rockies during a '22 Pioneer League Championship, took over given Jenks’ illness.

Hall grew quite emotional talking about his colleague and friend during the '05 championship reunion at Rate Field. The emotion was under the surface Friday, with a hint of anger due to Jenks no longer being around.

“He had the fire. He had some Lou Piniella in him,” Hall said. “But I see that stuff in myself too, just me being a catcher for all those years. It’s catchers and closers have similar mentalities when it comes to what they have to do every day. You start coaching kids and it’s like, this is how it has been done.

“We lived together out there [in Colorado], so after a game, we would stay up to 2 in the morning just talking about the team and life and we would go over stories and it was every night. Even when we were on the road, we would sit down together. He loved baseball and he loved his family. ... So, yeah, it’s just tough.”

Eleni Tzitzivacos, Jenks’ wife at the time of his death and the mother of his youngest two children, put up inspirational and moving but still heartbreaking posts on Instagram for their first Father’s Day without him and on his March 14 birthday.

“You were more than an incredible father,” Eleni wrote. “You were our safe place, our laughter, our protector, our biggest cheerleader, and the heart of our family.

“There are no words big enough for how much we miss you,” she added.

It’s a feeling still running across those who knew Jenks.

“Bobby was larger than life physically, and personality-wise,” Walker said. “He just was built to be a closer. He had the stuff to be a closer and the mentality to do it. Everybody is sad to think about the fact that he’s gone.”

“It sucks,” said Hall, echoing a sentiment he’s uttered during interviews over the past year on this sad topic.

As the manager of the Florence Y’alls, Hall will take his team back to Ozinga Field for a weekend set from July 24-26. On July 25, the Thunderbolts will be hosting Fight Cancer Superhero Night with an expected scoreboard tribute to Jenks.

“You talk about somebody in the weight room, he would leg press Volkswagen bugs,” said Hall of Jenks and his 100 mph fastball. “There wasn’t enough weight in there. He was always working. A lot of people talked about off-the-field stuff. It didn’t matter. When it came down for them to call 45 in, he was ready to go.”