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Gil Hodges
Hodges in 1960.
First baseman
Born: (1924-04-04)April 4, 1924 Princeton, Indiana
Died: April 2, 1972(1972-04-02) (aged 47) West Palm Beach, Florida
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
October 3, 1943 for the Brooklyn Dodgers
Last MLB appearance
May 5, 1963 for the New York Mets
Career statistics
Batting average	.273
Home runs	370
Runs batted in	1,274
Teams
As player Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers (1943, 1947–1961) New York Mets (1962–1963) As manager Washington Senators (1963–1967) New York Mets (1968–1971)
Career highlights and awards
8× All-Star selection (1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957) 3× World Series champion (1955, 1959, 1969) 3× Gold Glove Award winner (1957, 1958, 1959) 1959 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award Hit 4 home runs in one game on August 31, 1950 New York Mets #14 retired

Gilbert Ray Hodges (April 4, 1924 – April 2, 1972) was an American Major League Baseball first baseman and manager. During an 18-year baseball career, he played in 1943 and from 1947–63, spending most of his career with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. He was the major leagues' outstanding first baseman in the 1950s, with teammate Duke Snider being the only player to have more home runs or runs batted in during the decade. For a time, his 370 career home runs were a National League (NL) record for right-handed hitters, and briefly ranked tenth in major league history; he held the NL record for career grand slams from 1957 to 1974. He anchored the infield on six pennant winners, and remains one of the most beloved and admired players in team history.^{[citation needed]} A sterling defensive player, he won the first three Gold Glove Awards and led the NL in double plays four times and in putouts, assists and fielding percentage three times each. He ranked second in NL history with 1,281 assists and 1,614 double plays when his career ended, and was also among the league's career leaders in games (6th, 1,908) and total chances (10th, 16,751) at first base. He managed the New York Mets to the 1969 World Series title, one of the greatest upsets in Series history,^{[citation needed]} before his death in 1972.

Early years[link]

Hodges was born in Princeton, Indiana, the son of coal miner Charlie and his wife Irene; the family moved to nearby Petersburg when Gil was seven. Hodges was a star four-sport athlete at Petersburg High School, earning a combined seven varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball, and track. He declined a 1941 contract offer from the Detroit Tigers and instead attended Saint Joseph's College with the hope of eventually becoming a collegiate coach. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, and appeared in one game for the team as a third baseman that year. He entered the Marine Corps during World War II after having participated in its ROTC program at Saint Joseph's, serving as an anti-aircraft gunner in the battles of Tinian and Okinawa and receiving a Bronze Star and a commendation for courage under fire for his actions.

MLB career[link]

Brooklyn Dodgers[link]

After his 1946 military discharge he returned to Brooklyn and saw play as a catcher in 1947, joining the team's already solid nucleus of Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese and Carl Furillo; but the emergence of Roy Campanella made it evident that Hodges had little future behind the plate, and he was shifted by manager Leo Durocher to first base, where his play came to be regarded as exemplary. Hodges' only appearance in the 1947 World Series against the New York Yankees was as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Rex Barney in Game 7; he struck out. As a 1948 rookie, he batted .249 with 11 home runs and 70 RBI.

On June 25, 1949, he hit for the cycle. He led the NL in putouts (1336), double plays (142) and fielding average (.995) that season, and tied Hack Wilson's 1932 club record for right-handed hitters with 23 homers. His 115 RBI were fourth in the NL, and he made his first of seven consecutive All-Star teams. Facing the Yankees again in the 1949 Series, he batted only .235 but did drive in the sole run in Brooklyn's only victory, a 1-0 triumph in Game 2. In Game 5 he hit a 3-run homer with two out in the seventh to pull the Dodgers within 10-6, but struck out to end the game and the Series. On August 31, 1950 against the Boston Braves, he joined Lou Gehrig as just the second player since 1900 to hit four home runs in a game without the benefit of extra innings; he hit them against four different pitchers, with the first coming off Warren Spahn. He also got 17 total bases in the game, tied for third in major league history. That year he also led the league in fielding (.994) and set an NL record with 159 double plays, breaking Frank McCormick's mark of 153 with the 1939 Cincinnati Reds; he broke his own record in 1951 with 171, a record which stood until Donn Clendenon had 182 for the 1966 Pittsburgh Pirates. He finished 1950 third in the league in both homers (32) and RBI (113), and came in eighth in the MVP voting. In 1951 he became the first Dodger to hit 40 home runs, breaking Babe Herman's 1930 mark of 35; Campanella hit 41 in 1953, but Hodges would recapture the record with 42 in 1954 before Snider eclipsed him again with 43 in 1956. His last home run of 1951 came on October 2 against the New York Giants, as the Dodgers tied the 3-game NL playoff series at a game each with a 10-0 win; New York would take the pennant the next day on Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World". Hodges also led the NL with 126 assists in 1951, and was second in HRs, third in runs (118) and total bases (307), fifth in slugging average (.527), and sixth in RBI (103).

Hodges attempting to make a play at Ebbets Field.

Hodges was an eight-time All-Star, from 1949–55 and in 1957. With his last home run of 1952, he tied Dolph Camilli's Dodger career record of 139, and he passed him in 1953; Snider would move ahead of him in 1956. He again led the NL with 116 assists in 1952, and was third in the league in home runs (32) and fourth in RBI (102) and slugging (.500). A great fan favorite in Brooklyn, he was perhaps the only Dodger regular never booed at their home park, Ebbets Field. Fans were very supportive even when Hodges suffered through one of the most famous slumps in baseball history, going hitless in the last nine games of 1952; during the 1952 World Series against the Yankees, he finished the Series 0-21 at the plate as Brooklyn lost in seven games. When his slump continued into the following spring, fans reacted with countless letters and good-luck gifts, and one Brooklyn priest – Father Herbert Redmond of St. Francis Roman Catholic Church – told his flock: "It's far too hot for a homily. Keep the Commandments and say a prayer for Gil Hodges."^[1] Hodges began hitting again soon afterward, and rarely struggled again in the World Series.

Hodges was involved in a blown call in the 1952 World Series. In the fifth game, Johnny Sain, batting for the Yankees in the 10th inning, grounded out—so said first base umpire Art Passarella. The photograph of the play, however, shows Sain stepping on first base while Hodges, also with a foot on the bag, reaches for the ball, which is about a foot away from his glove. Still, Passarella called Sain out. Baseball commissioner Ford Frick, an ex-newspaperman himself, refused to defend Passarella.

He ended 1953 with a .302 batting average, though only fifth in the NL in RBI (122) and sixth in home runs (31). Against the Yankees in the 1953 Series, Hodges hit an impressive .364; he had three hits including a homer in the 9-5 Game 1 loss, but the Dodgers again lost in six games. Under new manager Walter Alston in 1954 he enjoyed one of his best campaigns, setting the team home run record, hitting a career-high .304 and again leading the NL in putouts (1381) and assists (132). He was second in the league to Ted Kluszewski in home runs and RBI (130), fifth in total bases (335) and sixth in slugging (.579) and runs (106), and placed tenth in the MVP vote.

The Boys of Summer[link]

The 1955 season saw his regular-season production drop off to a .289 average, 27 HRs and 102 RBI, but the year ended with a most satisfying conclusion. Facing the Yankees in the World Series for the fifth time, he was 1-for-12 in the first three games before coming around. In Game 4 he hit a 2-run homer in the fourth inning to put Brooklyn ahead 4-3, and later had an RBI single as they held off the Yankees 8-5; he scored the first run in the 5-3 win in Game 5. In Game 7 he drove in Campanella with two out in the fourth for a 1-0 lead, and added a sacrifice fly to score Reese with one out in the sixth. Johnny Podres scattered eight New York hits, and when Reese threw Elston Howard's grounder to Hodges for the final out, Brooklyn had a 2-0 win and the first World Series title in franchise history.

Hodges in 1949.

In 1956 he had 32 home runs and 87 RBI as Brooklyn won the pennant again, and once more met the Yankees in the World Series. In the third inning of Game 1 he hit a 3-run homer to put Brooklyn ahead 5-2, and they went on to a 6-3 win; he had three hits and four RBI in Game 2's 13-8 slugfest, scoring to give the Dodgers a 7-6 lead in the third and doubling in two runs each in the fourth and fifth innings for an 11-7 lead. In Game 5 he struck out, flied to center and lined to third base in Yankee Don Larsen's perfect game, and Brooklyn went on to lose in seven games.

In 1957 Hodges set the NL record for career grand slams, breaking the mark of 12 shared by Rogers Hornsby and Ralph Kiner; his final total of 14 was tied by Hank Aaron and Willie McCovey in 1972, and broken by Aaron in 1974. He had another excellent season, finishing seventh in the NL with a .299 batting average and fifth with 98 RBI, and leading the league with 1317 putouts. He was also among the NL's top ten players in HRs (27), hits (173), runs (94), triples (7), slugging (.511) and total bases (296); in late September he drove in the last Dodger run ever at Ebbets Field, and also the last run in Brooklyn history. He was named to his last All-Star team, and placed seventh in the MVP balloting.

Los Angeles Dodgers[link]

After the Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles, on April 23, 1958 he became the seventh player to hit 300 home runs in the NL, connecting off Dick Drott of the Chicago Cubs. That year he also tied a post-1900 record by leading the league in double plays (134) for the fourth time, equaling McCormick and Kluszewski; Clendenon eventually broke the record in 1968. But he had only 22 HRs and 64 RBI as the Dodgers finished in seventh place in their first season in California. Also in 1958, he broke Camilli's NL record of 923 career strikeouts.

Things turned around in 1959 as the Dodgers captured another NL title, with Hodges contributing 25 HRs and 80 RBI and hitting .276, coming in seventh in the league with a .513 slugging mark; he also led the NL with a .992 fielding average. He batted .391 in the 1959 World Series against the Chicago White Sox (his first against a non-Yankee team), with his solo home run in the eighth inning of Game 4 giving the Dodgers a 5-4 win, as they triumphed in six games for another Series championship. In 1960 he broke Kiner's NL record for right-handed hitters of 351 career home runs, and appeared on the TV program Home Run Derby. In his last season with the Dodgers in 1961, he became the team's career RBI leader with 1254, passing Zack Wheat; Snider moved ahead of him the following year. Hodges received the first three Gold Glove Awards ever presented from 1957 to 1959; his career fielding average of .992 is outstanding.

Return to New York[link]

After being chosen in the expansion draft, Hodges was one of the original 1962 Mets; despite knee problems he was persuaded to continue his playing career in New York, and he hit the first home run in franchise history. By the end of the year, in which he played only 54 games, he ranked tenth in major league history with 370 HRs – second to only Jimmie Foxx among right-handed hitters.

Managerial career[link]

After 11 games with the Mets in 1963, during which he batted .227 with no homers and was plagued by injuries, he was traded to the Washington Senators in late May for outfielder Jimmy Piersall so that he could replace Mickey Vernon as Washington's manager. Hodges immediately announced his retirement from playing in order to clearly focus on his new position. The Giants' Willie Mays had passed him weeks earlier on April 19 to become the NL's home run leader among right-handed hitters; Hodges' last game had been on May 5 in a doubleheader hosting the Giants (who had moved to San Francisco in 1958).

Hodges managed the Senators through 1967, and although they improved in each season they never achieved a winning record. One of the most notable incidents in his career occurred in the summer of 1965, when pitcher Ryne Duren – reaching the end of his career and sinking into alcoholism – walked onto a bridge with intentions of suicide; his manager talked him away from the edge. In 1968 Hodges was brought back to manage the perennially woeful Mets, and while the team only posted a 73-89 record it was nonetheless the best mark in their seven-year existence. In 1969, he led the "Miracle Mets" to the World Series championship, defeating the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles; after losing Game 1, they came back for four straight victories, including two by 2-1 scores. Finishing higher than ninth place for the first time, the Mets became not only the first expansion team to win the Series, but also the first team ever to win the Series after finishing at least 15 games under .500 the previous year. Hodges was named The Sporting News' Manager of the Year. Hodges skillfully platooned his players and utilized everyone in the dugout, keeping everyone fresh.^{[citation needed]}

In the third inning of the second game of a July 30 doubleheader against the Houston Astros, after scoring 11 runs in the ninth inning of the first game, the Astros were in the midst of a ten-run third inning, hitting a number of line drives to left field. When the Mets' star left fielder Cleon 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 walked him back to the dugout. It was a resounding message to the whole team. For the rest of that season, Jones never failed to hustle. Kiner has since retold that story dozens of times during Mets broadcasts, both as a tribute to Hodges, and as an illustration of his quiet but disciplined character.^{[citation needed]}

Death[link]

After identical third-place seasons of 83-79 in 1970 and 1971, Gil Hodges died suddenly of a heart attack in West Palm Beach, Florida, after playing golf with other members of the Mets coaching staff on April 2, 1972, two days shy of his 48th birthday.^[2] He had suffered a previous heart attack during a September 1968 game.^[3] He was survived by his wife, the former Joan Lombardi, whom he had married on December 26, 1948, and his son and three daughters. Yogi Berra was named to succeed him as manager. His funeral Mass was said at his home parish of Our Lady Help of Christians in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. Hodges is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The Mets retired his #14 uniform and wore a black armband on the left sleeves of their uniform jerseys during the 1972 season in honor of Hodges.

Accomplishments[link]

Hodges at Ebbets Field in about 1953.

Hodges batted .273 in his career with a .487 slugging average, 1921 hits, 1274 RBI, 1105 runs, 295 doubles and 63 stolen bases in 2071 games. His 361 home runs with the Dodgers remain second in team history to Snider's 389. His 1614 career double plays placed him behind only Charlie Grimm (1733) in NL history, and were a major league record for a right-handed first baseman until Chris Chambliss surpassed him in 1984. His 1281 career assists ranked second in league history to Fred Tenney's 1363, and trailed only Ed Konetchy's 1292 among all right-handed first basemen. Snider broke his NL record of 1137 career strikeouts in 1964. His 1001 RBI during the 1950s led all National League hitters.

Hodges was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1982.

He received New York City's highest civilian honor, the Bronze Medallion in 1969. In 1978, the Marine Parkway Bridge, connecting the Marine Park area of Brooklyn with the Rockaways in Queens, was renamed the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Bridge in his memory. Other Brooklyn locations named for him are a park on Carroll Street, a Little League field on MacDonald Avenue in Brooklyn, a section of Avenue L and P.S. 193. In addition, part of Bedford Ave. in Brooklyn is named Gil Hodges Way. A Brooklyn bowling alley, Gil Hodges Lanes, is also named after him. In Indiana, the high school baseball stadium in his birthplace of Princeton, Indiana, and a bridge spanning the East Fork of the White River in northern Pike County, Indiana on State Road 57 bear his name. In 2007, Hodges was inducted into the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame.^[4]

Hall of Fame consideration[link]

Gil Hodges's number 14 was retired by the New York Mets in 1973.

There has been controversy over the fact that Gil Hodges has not been elected to membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame.^{[citation needed]} He was considered to be one of the finest players of the 1950s,^{[citation needed]}and graduated to managerial success with the Mets. But critics of his candidacy point out that despite his offensive prowess, he never led the NL in any offensive category such as home runs, RBI, or slugging average, and never came close to winning an MVP award.^{[citation needed]} The latter fact may have been partially due to his having many of his best seasons (1950–51, 1954, 1957) in years when the Dodgers did not win the pennant.^{[citation needed]} In addition, his career batting average of .273 was likely frowned on by many Hall of Fame voters in his early years of eligibility; at the time of his death, only five players had ever been elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America with batting averages below .300 – all of them catchers or shortstops, and only one (Rabbit Maranville) who had an average lower than Hodges' or who had not won an MVP award. By the time his initial eligibility expired in 1983, the BBWAA had elected only two more players with averages below .274 – third basemen Eddie Mathews (.271), who hit over 500 HRs, leading the NL twice, and Brooks Robinson (.267), who won an MVP award and set numerous defensive records.

Nonetheless, Hodges was the prototype of the modern slugging first baseman, and while the post-1961 expansion era has resulted in numerous players surpassing his home run and RBI totals, he remains the only one of the 21 players who had 300 or more home runs by the time of his retirement who has not yet been elected (all but Chuck Klein and Johnny Mize were elected by the BBWAA). Some observers have also suggested that his premature passing in 1972 removed him from public consciousness, whereas other ballplayers – including numerous Dodger greats – were in the public eye for years afterward, receiving the exposure which assist in their election. He did, however, collect 3010 votes cast by the BBWAA during his initial eligibility period from 1969 to 1983 – a record for an unselected player. (Jim Rice had surpassed that total in 2007, but was eventually voted into the Hall in January 2009.) Hodges has been regularly considered for selection by the Hall of Fame's Veterans Committee since 1987, falling one vote short of election in 1993, when no candidates were selected.

In the years since Hodges' retirement, however, the Hall of Fame has refused admittance to many players with similar or even superior records.^{[citation needed]} Frank Howard, for example, hit 382 home runs from 1958 to 1973, with a .273 batting average, a .352 on base percentage, and a .499 slugging percentage, compared to Hodges' .273 batting average, .359 on base percentage, and .487 slugging percentage. In addition, the 1960s were a far less offensively-oriented era than the 1950s in which Hodges starred.^{[citation needed]} Howard never received serious Hall of Fame consideration.^{[citation needed]} In November 2011, Gil Hodges was placed onto the Golden Era Veterans Committee list for consideration into the Hall of Fame. The voting will take place by a 16 member committee on December 4–5 in Dallas, Texas.^[5]

A 52 ft.x16ft. mural was recently dedicated in Petersburg, Indiana, Gil's hometown. The mural was painted by artist Randy Hedden and includes three pictures of Gil— as a Brooklyn Dodger, as manager of the Mets, and at-bat in Ebbets Field. The purpose of the mural is to "raise awareness of Hodges' absence from the Baseball Hall of Fame." It is located at the intersection of Hwys 61 & 57 in Petersburg. [1]

See also[link]

	World War II portal
	United States Marine Corps portal

• List of lifetime home run leaders through history
• List of top 300 Major League Baseball home run hitters
• List of NL Gold Glove Winners at First Base
• Lou Gehrig Memorial Award
• List of Major League Baseball retired numbers
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI
• Hitting for the cycle
• Batters with four home runs in one game

References[link]

Books[link]

• Roger Kahn, "The Boys of Summer" (1972)
• Milton J. Shapiro. The Gil Hodges Story (1960).
• Gil Hodges and Frank Slocum. The Game Of Baseball (1969).
• Marino Amaruso. Gil Hodges: The Quiet Man (1991).
• Tom Oliphant. "Praying for Gil Hodges : A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family's Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers" (2005) ISBN 0-312-31761-1.

External links[link]

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or The Ultimate Mets Database
• Gil Hodges managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
• Official website
• Baseball Hall of Fame: Hodges Powered Great Dodgers Teams of Yore
• 2007 Hall of Fame candidate profile via the Internet Archive
• SABR biography
• Marine Parkway Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge page
• The Wall Street Journal: "A Man for All Seasons"
• Who Was Gil Hodges and Why Isn't He a Hall of Famer?
• Ebbets-Field.com
• Dugout Memories
• The SPORT Gallery Classic photo of Gil Hodges and the Boys of Summer
• Gil Hodges at Find a Grave

Cleon Joseph Jones (born August 4, 1942 in Plateau, a section of Mobile, Alabama^[1]) is a former Major League Baseball left fielder. Jones played most of his career for the New York Mets and in 1969 caught the final out of the "Miracle Mets" World Series Championship over the Baltimore Orioles.^[2]

Minor leagues[link]

Jones played football and baseball at Mobile County Training School in Mobile, Alabama, and Alabama A&M University. With the Bulldogs, Jones scored 26 touchdowns in nine games. Jones signed with the New York Mets as an amateur free agent in 1963. After batting over .300 for both the Carolina League Raleigh Mets and New York-Penn League Auburn Mets, Jones received a September call-up to the major league club without having played double or triple A ball. He got two hits in 15 at-bats for a .133 batting average during his stint with the New York Mets.

After spending all of 1964 with the triple A Buffalo Bisons, Jones made the Mets out of Spring training and was in the 1965 season opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers.^[3] Jones was demoted to Buffalo on May 2 with a .156 batting average. He again received a call up to New York that September, and hit his first major league home run on September 22 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.^[4] He finished the season with a .149 batting average.

New York Mets[link]

Jones was awarded the starting center fielder job in 1966, and batted .275 with eight home runs, 57 runs batted in and sixteen stolen bases to finish tied for fourth in National League Rookie of the Year balloting. His batting average dipped to .246 in 1967, and he ended up sharing playing time in center field with Larry Stahl. Following the season, the Mets acquired Jones' childhood friend Tommie Agee from the Chicago White Sox. Jones was moved to left field with the former Gold Glove-winner Agee playing center field.

Jones began the 1968 season platooning with Art Shamsky in left. He was batting .205 on May 18, when he went three for four with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored to lift the Mets to a 5–2 victory over the Atlanta Braves.^[5] From there, Jones began to hit; perhaps the finest game of his career occurred on July 16 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, when Jones went four for six with three RBIs and a run scored, and played all three outfield positions.^[6] He ended the season with a .297 batting average, which was sixth best in the National League.

Amazin' Mets[link]

Jones was batting .341 with ten home runs and 56 RBIs in the first half of 1969 earning the starting left field job for the All-Star Game. He went two for four with two runs scored in the NL's 9–3 victory.^[7] He hit a home run in the first game after the break,^[8] and emerged as the hitting star of the surprising Mets, with a team-leading batting average well above .330.^[9] The Amazin's found themselves in second place, five games back of the Chicago Cubs in the newly aligned National League East when the Houston Astros came to Shea Stadium for a July 30 double header.

July 30, 1969[link]

After losing the first game 16–3,^[10] the Mets were down 7–0 in the third inning of the second game when Johnny Edwards hit a double to Jones in left field to make the score 8–0. Mets manager Gil Hodges emerged from the dugout, walked past Nolan Ryan on the mound, and walked all the way out to left field. A few minutes later, Hodges walked back to the dugout, with Jones a few paces behind him, and replaced Jones in left with Ron Swoboda.^[11] Newspapers at the time said Jones suffered a leg injury and he was not in the Mets lineup for several games^[12] after July 30. Later accounts say that Jones was removed for failure to hustle,^[13] and Hodges decided to do so publicly to show that he would not tolerate lack of effort on his team, even from its star player.^[14]

On August 22, 2009 following ceremonies honoring the 40th anniversary of the "Miracle Mets" Jones discussed the incident during SportsNet New York's telecast of that night's game. Jones said Hodges asked him why he did not look good going after a fly ball on the previous play. According to Jones he pointed down to the water filled turf. Hodges then said that something must be wrong with Jones's ankle and pulled him for that reason. Jones explained that Hodges was his favorite manager, and that he would never publicly embarrass a player. According to Jones both parties never revealed the contents of the conversation. Jones believes that the fear instilled in other players by the incident was the turning point in the season.^[15]

World Series Champions[link]

The Mets won 39 of their last 50 games, and finished the 1969 season with 100 wins against 62 losses, eight games over the second place Cubs. Jones ended the season with a .340 batting average, which was third in the league behind Pete Rose and Roberto Clemente, and was second on the team in home runs, RBIs and runs scored, behind Tommie Agee in all three categories.

Jones batted a stellar .429 in the Mets' three game sweep of the Atlanta Braves in the 1969 National League Championship Series. In game two of the series, Jones went three for five with a home run, two runs scored and three RBIs in the Mets' 11–6 victory.^[16]

The Mets were heavy underdogs in the 1969 World Series but took a 3–1 series lead. The Orioles were ahead 3–0 in Game five when Jones led off the sixth inning. Dave McNally struck Jones in the foot with a pitch, however, home plate umpire Lou DiMuro ruled that the ball missed Jones. Gil Hodges emerged from the dugout to argue, and showed DiMuro the shoe-polish smudged ball. DiMuro reversed his call, and awarded Jones first base. The following batter, Donn Clendenon, hit a two-run home run to pull the Mets within a run of Baltimore.

Following an Al Weis solo home run in the seventh to tie the game, Jones led off the eighth inning with a double, and scored on Ron Swoboda's double two batters later. With the Mets leading 5–3 in the ninth inning, Orioles second baseman Davey Johnson lifted a lazy fly ball which Jones caught to win the World Series.^[17]

1973 World Series[link]

Early in the 1970 season, Jones suffered through the worst slump in his career that saw his batting average reach .167 on May 26. His average improved to .251 by the time he began a then-club record 23-game hitting streak on August 25. For the season, he wound up hitting .277. In 1971, Jones was again a .300 hitter, as he was seventh in the league with a .319 batting average.

In 1972, Jones platooned with John Milner in left field. He played twenty games at first base, but not very well, and endured one of his worst seasons. The following season, Milner was shifted to first with Jones once again in left field.

In the 1973 season opener, Jones had his first career two home run game against the Philadelphia Phillies.^[18] He had his second on September 19, against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of a crucial three game series at Shea for first place.^[19] The following day, Jones started one of the most memorable plays in Mets history, what has become known as the "Ball on the Wall Play". In the top of the thirteenth inning, with Richie Zisk on first, Dave Augustine belted what appeared to be a home run over the left field wall. Jones turned to play the ball off the wall and the ball hit the top of the wall and went right into Jones' glove on the fly. He turned and threw to relay man Wayne Garrett, who threw home to catcher Ron Hodges to nail Zisk at the plate. Following this miracle play, the Mets won the game in the bottom half of the inning to move within half a game of the first place Pirates.^[20]

The Mets won the Eastern Division title on the last day of the season with a paltry .508 winning percentage, and went on to upset the mighty "Big Red Machine" in the 1973 National League Championship Series. Jones went three for five with two RBIs and a run scored in the series clincher.^[21]

The Mets lost in seven games to the Oakland Athletics in the 1973 World Series. For his part, Jones batted .286 with a home run in game two, and scored one of the four runs the Mets scored in the twelfth inning of their game two victory.^[22]

Arrest and apology[link]

Jones suffered a knee injury, and was out on extended spring training when the 1975 season started. At 5:00 a.m. on May 4, Jones was arrested for indecent exposure in St. Petersburg, Florida. Police officers found him asleep in a van with 21-year old Sharon Ann Sabol, who was charged with possession of marijuana. Jones said he did not know Miss Sabol, but was giving her a ride home in a friend's borrowed van, which ran out of gas, and that he had fallen asleep fully clothed, except for his shoes.^[23][24] Though the charges were later dropped, chairman of the New York Mets M. Donald Grant fined Jones $2,000, four times as much as a Met had ever been assessed before, and forced him to publicly apologize during a press conference held in New York. Jones apologized with his wife Angela, his high school sweetheart, by his side.^[25] He and Angela have been married for nearly 50 years.

Retirement[link]

Jones rejoined the Mets on May 27. He was batting .240, mostly as a pinch hitter, when he was released by the Mets on July 18 after an altercation with manager Yogi Berra. He was picked up by the Chicago White Sox in 1976. He was released thirteen games into the season with a .200 batting average, and retired afterwards.

Jones earned a reputation as an outfielder with one of the strongest arms in the National League. For his career, he had 64 outfield assists, including ten in 1966 and 1970.

New York Mets Hall of Fame[link]

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,^[26] and a member of the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame.

He appeared as himself in a 1999 episode of Everybody Loves Raymond along with several other members of the 1969 Mets.^[27] 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.

References[link]