David Jefferson Jones (June 30, 1880 – March 30, 1972), nicknamed "Kangaroo", was an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. He played fifteen seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers / St. Louis Browns,

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

, and

Pittsburgh Rebels The Pittsburgh Rebels were a baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1913 to 1915. The team was a member of the short-lived Federal League. The team was originally called the Pittsburgh Stogies after an earlier Pittsburgh team that ...

. Jones played with some of the early legends of the game, including

Ty Cobb Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder. He was born in rural Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the las ...

Sam Crawford Samuel Earl Crawford (April 18, 1880 – June 15, 1968), nicknamed "Wahoo Sam", was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Crawford batted and threw left-handed, stood tall and weighed . Born in Wahoo, Nebraska, he had a s ...

Frank Chance Frank Leroy Chance (September 9, 1877 – September 15, 1924) was an American professional baseball player. A first baseman, Chance played in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs (initially named the "Orphans") and New York Yankees from 18 ...

Mordecai Brown Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown (October 19, 1876 – February 14, 1948), nicknamed Three Finger Brown or Miner, was an American Major League Baseball pitcher and manager during the first two decades of the 20th century (known as the "dead-ball er ...

Hugh Duffy Hugh Duffy (November 26, 1866 – October 19, 1954) was an American outfielder and manager in Major League Baseball. He was a player or player-manager for the Chicago White Stockings, Chicago Pirates, Boston Reds, Boston Beaneaters, Milwaukee ...

and

Jesse Burkett Jesse Cail Burkett (December 4, 1868 – May 27, 1953), nicknamed "Crab", was an American professional baseball left fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1890 to 1905 for the New York Giants, Cleveland Spiders, St. Louis Perfe ...

. Also, he played part of one year with the Chicago White Sox, where several of his teammates would later be implicated in the 1919

Black Sox scandal The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball game-fixing scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate led ...

. Jones was immortalized in the classic 1966 baseball book ''

The Glory of Their Times ''The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It'' is a 1966 book, edited by Lawrence Ritter, telling the stories of early 20th century baseball. It is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest books ...

'' by Lawrence Ritter. Davy Jones was mostly a platoon rather than a full-time player who was decent with the bat and swift on his feet. He played in the major leagues from to , compiling a .270 career

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

with 1,020 hits.

Early years and non-baseball career

Born in

Cambria, Wisconsin Cambria is a village in Columbia County, Wisconsin, Columbia County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 767 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is part of the Madison, Wisconsin, Madison Madison, Wisconsin metropolitan area, ...

, as David Jefferson, he later changed his last name to Jones. He attended

Dixon College Dixon College or Dixon Business College was a private college in Dixon, Illinois, USA. It operated together with Northern Illinois Normal School, a teacher training institution, from 1881 until some time after 1914. Northern Illinois Normal Scho ...

Dixon, Illinois Dixon is a city and the county seat of Lee County, Illinois, United States. The population was 15,733 as of the 2010 census, down from 15,941 in 2000. The city is named after founder John Dixon, who operated a rope ferry service across the R ...

, on a track and baseball scholarship, and graduated with a degree in law, but instead accepted a contract to play for the Rockford Club in

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...

. In 1910, during his playing days, he purchased a drug store in Detroit with his brother, whose education in pharmacy he had paid for, and after retiring from baseball he himself qualified as a pharmacist at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. Jones was 21 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 15, 1901, with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Detroit Tigers

Jones spent much of his career playing outfield with the Detroit Tigers, alongside Hall of Fame outfielders, Ty Cobb and Wahoo Sam Crawford. With Cobb and Crawford solidly entrenched in the outfield, Jones was forced to battle for the 3rd outfield spot with

Matty McIntyre Matthew Martin "Matty" McIntyre (June 12, 1880 – April 2, 1920) was an outfielder in Major League Baseball who played ten seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics (1901), Detroit Tigers (1904–10), and Chicago White Sox (1911–12). Born in St ...

each year from 1906 to 1910. As a speedy leadoff man, he was a reliable run scorer with Cobb and Crawford following him in the lineup. Jones's speed also made him a fine outfielder, with tremendous range. In 1907, he made 282 putouts and had a range factor of 2.45, 58 points higher than the average outfielder of his day. Jones had his best season in . That year, he had a .357 on-base percentage (the best in the American League). He also scored 101 runs, second in the American League behind his teammate

. Jones was also among the AL leaders in 1907 in bases on balls (60) and stolen bases (30). The Tigers advanced to the first of three consecutive World Series in 1907, and Jones batted .353 with a .476 on-base percentage in a losing effort to the Chicago Cubs. In his three World Series for the Tigers, Jones played in 18 games, had a .357 on-base percentage, scored 8 runs, and had a home run in the 1909 Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Germany Schaefer incident

Jones is also known for recounting a famous story in ''

'' about the early ballplayer/comedian

Germany Schaefer Herman A. "Germany" Schaefer (February 4, 1876 – May 16, 1919) was a second baseman, first baseman and third baseman in Major League Baseball who played 15 seasons with the Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, Newark Pepper, New ...

. According to Jones, Schaefer was the only player who ever stole first base in a ballgame. The incident evidently took place on September 4, 1908, during a Detroit game versus Cleveland. With Davy Jones on third and Schaefer at first, the double steal was on. But as Schaefer slid into second base safe, the Cleveland catcher held onto the ball. In order to set up the double-steal again, Schaefer took off screaming for first on the next pitch and dove in headfirst in without a play. This stunned the players, fans and umpires, but it was perfectly legal. On the next pitch, the double steal worked. In the same interview, Jones also mentions how, as the lead off batter for the

, he was the first hitter to face the great pitcher

Walter Johnson Walter Perry Johnson (November 6, 1887 – December 10, 1946), nicknamed "Barney" and "The Big Train", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year baseball career in Major League Baseball as a right-ha ...

Post-retirement

At the age of 38, having retired from baseball and running a successful pharmacy in Detroit, Jones was inserted into one game by an old friend who was managing the ball club,

Hughie Jennings Hugh Ambrose Jennings (April 2, 1869 – February 1, 1928) was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager from 1891 to 1925. Jennings was a leader, both as a batter and as a shortstop, with the Baltimore Orioles teams that won Nat ...

. Jones attended the final game of the season as a spectator, and since the contest had no bearing on the pennant race, he and a coach were used in the game. The baseball used in that game is in the

National Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

collection and is inscribed: "Last ball used in game at Navin Field in last game of season, 1918, caught by Davy Jones. Hit by Jack Collins of the Chicago White Sox. Season ending on Labor Day on account of War." The circumstances of the play in which the ball was involved went unrecognized in the official statistical record for more than 85 years.

References

External links