Cleon Jones

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Cleon Joseph Jones (born August 4, 1942 in Plateau, Alabama) is a former left fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Mets from 1963 to 1975, and who played for a few weeks with the Chicago White Sox in 1976. He threw left-handed and batted right-handed.

Jones' hitting prowess emerged in 1968, when after being platooned early in the year, he began playing every day, and batted .360 over the last half of the season, raising his average from .223 to .297 at season's end.

His best season was with the "Miracle Mets" of 1969, when he batted .340 (third in the National League), and was selected to play in the All-Star game.

Jones figured in three of the most memorable moments in that magical season, and indeed, in Mets history, and will always be remembered together with Mets manager Gil Hodges.

Two of those moments occurred in Game 5 of the World Series, in which the Mets played the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles. The first came when Jones claimed he was hit on the foot by a pitched ball. Umpire Lou DiMuro disagreed, but after Mets manager Gil Hodges inspected the ball and found shoe polish on it, Jones was awarded first base. The second came when, with two outs in the ninth inning, Davey Johnson of the Orioles hit a fly ball to left field. Jones said to himself, "Come on down, baby. Come on down." Jones' catch ended not only the game, but the World Series, a best of five-game victory for the upstarts from Queens.

But the moment most Mets fans of a certain age consider the most memorable, and the turning point in the team's season, came in the third inning of the second game of a July 30 doubleheader against the Houston Astros. When Jones failed to hustle after a ball hit to the outfield, Hodges removed him from the game. But rather than simply signal from the dugout for Jones to come out, or delegate the job to one of his coaches, Hodges left the dugout and slowly, deliberately, walked all the way out to left field to remove Jones, and walk him back to the bench. For the rest of that season, Jones never failed to hustle.

Early in the 1970 season, Jones suffered through the worst slump in his career, but late in the year had a then-club record 23-game hitting streak, and wound up hitting .277. In 1971, he hit .319.

At the beginning of the 1972 season, Jones and Hodges would be separated by death, when Hodges would die of a massive heart attack following a round of golf on April 2, two days before his 48th birthday.

Jones would be instrumental in the 1973 pennant race. He hit .260, while the Mets won the Eastern Division title on the last day of the season with a paltry .508 winning percentage. The team went on to upset the Cincinnati Reds' mighty "Big Red Machine," en route to a seven-game World Series loss to the Oakland A's.

From 1968-1972, Jones played with childhood friend Tommie Agee, who was the Mets center fielder.

Jones was released by the Mets in the middle of the 1975 season after an altercation with manager Yogi Berra. He played a few weeks the following season with the Chicago White Sox.

Jones was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1991. His .340 average in 1969 remained a team record until John Olerud batted .354 in 1998. Jones remains among the team's all-time leaders in games played, at bats, and hits.

Jones is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, and a member of the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame.

The rap duo High And Mighty mention Jones in their song entitled B-Boy Document '99. The group has shown a tendency to rap about New York sports figures, and are said to be particularly fond of the 1969 Mets.

Cleon Jones is a graduate of Alabama A&M University.

[edit] See also

• Chicago White Sox all-time roster

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference