CLEON JOSEPH JONES
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.[citation needed] He also played baseball for the Grambling State Tigers of Grambling State University.[3]
Jones signed with the New York Mets as an amateur free agent in 1962.[4] After batting over .300 for both the Carolina League Raleigh Mets and New York–Penn League Auburn Mets in 1963, 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. 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.[6] He finished the season with a .149 batting average.
New York Mets
Jones was awarded the starting center fielder job in 1966, and batted .275 with eight home runs, 57 runs batted in (RBIs) and 16 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.[7] From there, Jones began to hit; perhaps the finest game of his career occurred on July 16 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia, when Jones went four for six with three RBIs and a run scored, and played all three outfield positions. He ended the season with a .297 batting average, which was sixth best in the National League.
Amazin' Mets
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. He hit a home run in the first game after the break, and emerged as the hitting star of the surprising Mets, with a team-leading batting average of .340. The Amazins 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.