In 1945 his father had to leave town after he beat a man who had grabbed his wife’s hair while waiting for a bus. Rather than stand trial in the South he relocated to Chicago, Illinois.
Cleon’s mother moved him & his brother Tommie Lee to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately she passed away unexpectedly and the two boys were raised by their grandmother back in Mobile.
Cleon was a natural lefthander, but he was losing to many baseballs as a kid when he hit left-handed. He began to bat right handed in order to save baseballs. He grew up a friend of Tommie Agee who would later be his team mate on the 1969 Mets.
Trivia: Mobile, Alabama also produced baseball greats like Hank Aaron, Billy Williams, Satchel Page & Willie McCovey.
In 1963, Cleon was drafted out of Alabama A&M where he starred in both baseball as well as football by the New York Mets. He came up right away to the big league club in September 1963 debuting as a defensive replacement for Duke Carmel on September 14th against Houston at The Polo Grounds.
He certainly wasn’t ready for the big leagues, only going 2-15 in a short six game stay. He spent 1964 in the minors at AAA Buffalo, hitting .278 with 16 HRs & 70 RBIs.
Trivia: Cleon Jones has two Mets Rookie Cards 1965 & 1966.
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In early May he was only batting .156 after 13 games & was sent back down to AAA Buffalo. He hit 15 more HRs there & was brought back up in September. On September 22nd, 1965 Jones hit his first career HR, it came against the Pirates at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.
1966 Rookie Season: By 1966 he arrived in the big leagues for good as the Mets regular center fielder, bating lead off on Opening Day. He started out the season with a HR off Denny LeMaster of the Atlanta Braves on that Opening Day at Shea.
On June 22nd he broke up a scoreless game in St. Louis, when he singled home two runs in the top of the 10th inning off former Mets pitcher Al Jackson in what were the only two runs of the game. He tailed off a bit in the second half but had a strong mid August where he drove in seven runs in an eight game span. In September he helped Bob Shaw to a 1-0 shut out over the Cubs by driving in the only run of the game at Wrigley Field.
Jones finished the year, second on the club to Chuck Hiller in batting, with a solid .275 average. He also led the team in stolen bases, setting a club record (at the time) with 16 steals. He drove in 57 runs with 8 HRs 16 doubles a .318 on base % & four triples, coming in fourth place in the Rookie of the Year voting.
1967: He struggled starting out in 1967, and was only batting .150 by the start of June. Mets Manager Wes Westrum benched him and blasted him in the press. Veteran Ken Boyer encouraged Jones, telling him things would turn around, that he had to hang in there. On June 18th he had a three hit game against the Cubs, and then went on a nine game hit streak (12 of 15) which raised his average up over the .200 mark. He also hit his first HR in almost a month in that stretch.
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Tommie Agee Greets His Childhood Pal Cleon Jones at Home Plate |
Jones hit a two run HR, singled & had a sac fly in the game. In August he had a 13 game streak & hit safely in 16 of 17 games.
He finished the year hitting .246 with 5 HRs 10 doubles 30 RBIs & a horrible .282 on base %. He led the team with five triples & twelve stolen bases (tied with Bud Harrelson). In centerfield he led the league in fielding with a .994% making five assists.
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At first Cleon started out slow, with just 3 HRs & nine RBIs through May, while batting .223. At the time he was platooning in left field with Art Shamsky, but then he got hot. Jones hit six HRs in June including a four RBI day against the Houston Astros on June 20th, helping Tom Seaver each .500 with a 5-5 record.
On June 23rd he hit a three run HR off the Dodgers Bill Singer & drove in another run later on, leading the Mets to a 5-4 win over L.A. As the season went on he hit more, in September he had 13 multiple hit games.
He closed out the year hitting safely in nine of ten games, with five runs driven in during the last week. On September 28th he drowve in two of the Mets three runs in a 3-2 win over the Phillies. He went 1-5 on the last day of the season finishing up with a .297 average falling just below .300 for the season. 1968 was remembered as the Year of The Pitcher & Jones' .297 average was sixth best in the league.
He led the club in most offensive categories that season hits (151) doubles (29) runs scored (63) slugging (.452) & set a new team record of 23 stolen bases (5th in the NL) He also had 14 HRs with 55 RBIs & a .341 on base % second to Jerry Grote (.357). In his first full season playing left field Jones posted a .966% which was second best in the league, making seven assists.

During the month of April he also had a an eleven game hit streak, which included a double header against the Chicago Cubs where he drove in six runs. In the first game he had three hits with a double, driving in three runs although the Mets lost 9-7.
In the second game he provided all the offense with a three run walk off HR off Chicago’s Rich Nye helping Tug McGraw to the combine shut out win with Jim McAndrew.
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By the end of May Jones was batting .410, in the month he also hit five HRs & drove in 18 runs. Some of the pressure came off of Jones as the being the top Mets hitter when Don Clendenon arrived at the June trade deadline. The team now had a true power hitter & RBI man to go along with himself & Tommie Agee.

The next night Tom Seaver pitched his imperfect game, losing a no hitter in the 9th inning as the Mets moved to within 2.5 games of the Cubs. In that game Jone homered off Ted Abernathy in the 7th inning, icing the 4-0 shutout.
1969 All Star Game: By the All Star break Jones was batting .341 battling for the leagues lead in hitting. He made his first All Star game that year, starting in the outfield alongside Henry Aaron & Matty Alou.
The NL won the game 9-3, played in the Nation's Capitol at RFK Stadium. Jones went 2-4 with a pair of singles. In the 2nd inning he singled off Mel Stottlemeyer & scored on Johnny Bench's HR. In the 6th inning, he collected a single off the Orioles Dave McNally. He also reached on an error in another at bat.

Drama: On July 30th, 1969 the Houston Astros pummeled the Mets 16-3 in the first game of a double header. In the second game the Mets again lost, this time 11-5 on a wet rainy field. By the top of the third inning, it was already 7-0 as Nolan Ryan replaced Gary Gentry on the mound for the Mets.
Then Astros catcher Johnny Edwards doubled to left field scoring Doug Rader. Jones who had been nursing an ankle injury, slowly went after the ball and weakly tossed it back to the infield.
Bud Harrelson thought he was coming for him but couldn’t figure what he did wrong. Then Hodges walked past the short stop. He was now heading for Cleon Jones, who also thought Gil was going to Harrelson for something. He now knew the manager was coming to him. The rest of the team held their breath; “I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of this” thought Tom Seaver.
According to Cleon Jones he said Hodges told him “that ankle is bothering you, you better come out, if you’re nursing it like that”. Jones at first said “I told you I can play through it Gil, the grass is just wet”. Hodges said “no you better come out if it’s bothering you” and pulled him from the game.
He walked away with a dejected Cleon Jones a few feet behind him with his head hung low. Hodges just proved to his team that he would not settle for anything else but 100% from his players, no matter what the score is. Keep in mind, at the time Jones was leading the N.L. in hitting. The rest of the players said, if he can remove the league’s batting leader he could remove any of us.
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Throughout the season Jones stayed atop the NL in batting average, alongside Pete Rose, Roberto Clemente, Matty Alou & Willie McCovey, all in the hunt.
As the Mets rolled along so did Jones, in August the team went on a win streak of winning 12 of 13 games, Jones had hits in all but two of those games. In a three game series against the San Francisco Giants at Shea, Jones tore up their staff with seven hits, & two walks in the series.
In September he missed some time with an injury but was ready to go as the Mets won the NL Eastern title & headed to the playoffs.
Jones finished the year third in the league in batting, setting a Met record with a .340 average. The Mets record stood for almost three decades. He had career bests in on base percentage (.422) which was 5th best in the N.L. Also in RBIs (75) runs scored (92) hits (164) and walks (64).
He also hit 12 HRs, stole 16 bases & posted the league’s best fielding % in left field (.991%). He led the team with ten game-winning RBIs & strangely enough was the oldest regular on the team at 26 years old.
1969 Post Season- NLCS: In Game #1 of the 1969 NLCS vs. the Atlanta Braves, he singled in the 8th inning off Phil Niekro to tie the game at 5-5. The Mets went on to a 9-5 win.
In Game #2 at Fulton County Stadium, Jones singled in the 5th inning off Milt Pappas driving in Wayne Garrett. He then homered off Cecil Upshaw in the 7th putting the Mets up 11-6 which was the final. He went 2-4 scoring a run in the final Game #3 at Shea Stadium. Overall in the NLCS, Cleon hit .429 going 6 for 14 with a .467 on base percentage.

The Shoe Polish Play: In the 6th inning of Game #5 at Shea Stadium, the Mets were down 3-0. Oriole’s pitcher Dave McNally threw a hard breaking ball to Jones that bounced off his foot or into the dirt.

The Orioles were up in arms, but manager Earl Weaver had to keep his calm during the argument since he was ejected from Game #4 the day before.
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In the next at bat, Donn Clendenon hit a two-run home run that brought the Mets within a run. As everything else that went the Mets way in the Miracle of the '69 season, so did this, they went on to win the game & the World Series that historic day.
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