Odell Jones (born January 13, 1953 in

Tulare, California Tulare ( ) is a city in Tulare County, California. The population was 68,875 at the 2020 census. It is located in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, eight miles south of Visalia and sixty miles north of Bakersfield. The city is named for th ...

) is a former

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

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), ...

who played for the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

, Texas Rangers,

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

and

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

, in parts of nine seasons spanning 1975–1988. Listed at , , he batted and threw right handed.

Career

Journeyman career

Overall, Jones' professional baseball career spanned 21 seasons. He was originally signed by the Pirates in , although he did not make his professional debut until the following season with the Niagara Falls Pirates. He made his major league debut for the NL East division-winning Pirates, appearing in two September games. He was traded along with

Mario Mendoza Mario Mendoza Aizpuru (born December 26, 1950) is a Mexican former professional baseball infielder. Mendoza, a lifetime .215 hitter, is best known for being the source of the name for the threshold for batting ineptitude, the "Mendoza Line", m ...

and Rafael Vásquez from the

Pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

to the Mariners for

Enrique Romo Enrique Romo Navarro (born July 15, 1947) is a Mexican former professional baseball relief pitcher who played for the Seattle Mariners (1977–78) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1979–82). Romo batted and threw right-handed. He was born in Santa Rosal ...

, Tom McMillan and Rick Jones at the

Winter Meetings Representatives of all 30 Major League Baseball teams and their 120 Minor League Baseball affiliates convene for four days each December in the Winter Meetings to discuss league business and conduct off-season trades and transactions. Attendees in ...

on December 5, 1978. The Pirates then traded for him a year later. After that, he drifted through several organizations, never going more than two seasons without spending time in the minor leagues.

Saves Leader

Jones led the third place 1983 Texas Rangers in saves with 10.

An unlikely near no-hitter

One of Jones' most memorable games came on May 28, 1988, with the Milwaukee Brewers. Jones, who had not started a major league game since 1981, started against the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

in place of the injured

Teddy Higuera Teodoro Higuera Valenzuela (born November 9, 1957) is a Mexican former professional baseball pitcher. He played for nine years (– and –) for the Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball (MLB). Early career Higuera was named the rookie of th ...

. In Higuera's previous start, he had lasted just one inning, and Jones pitched 5 innings in relief, giving up just 2 hits and one run. Surprisingly, Jones came within two outs of a

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

before giving up a single to

Ron Washington Ronald Louis Washington (born April 29, 1952) is an American former professional baseball shortstop. He played Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, and Houston Astros. W ...

and being pulled for closer

Dan Plesac Daniel Thomas Plesac (born February 4, 1962) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher with an 18-year career from 1986 to 2003. He played for the Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Arizona Diamondbacks, a ...

. The game, which took place in

Cleveland Municipal Stadium Cleveland Stadium, commonly known as Municipal Stadium, Lakefront Stadium or Cleveland Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was one of the early multi-purpose stadiums, built to accommodate both baseball an ...

, was the best of his career. Jones, who had been pitching in the minor leagues with the

Syracuse Chiefs Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

the previous year, never pitched a complete-game

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

, and in fact never gave up fewer than five hits in any of his four career complete games. "I kind of looked up at the board tonight and thought, 'What am I doing? What in the world am I doing?' This is by far my best game ever," Jones told reporters after the game. "After about the fifth or sixth inning, I was really bearing down, trying to get it. After the hit, it really hit me hard, I was totally exhausted. I was overextending myself, using everything I had to get the ball up there. I was too tired to get nervous." In his next start, Jones lasted just 4 innings, giving up 4 runs and 5 hits.Retrosheet box score for June 2, 1988
/ref> He never made another major league start after that, and in 1989 he returned to the minor leagues with the Brewers' top farm club, the

Denver Bears Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

. That winter, Jones joined the

Senior Professional Baseball Association The Senior Professional Baseball Association, referred to commonly as the ''Senior League'', was a winter baseball league based in Florida for players age 35 and over, with a minimum age of 32 for catchers. The league began play in 1989 and had ei ...

, where he pitched for the

West Palm Beach Tropics The West Palm Beach Tropics were one of the eight original franchises that began play in the Senior Professional Baseball Association in 1989. The club hired Dick Williams as manager and fielded a lineup that included slugger Dave Kingman and R ...

and

Fort Myers Sun Sox The Fort Myers Sun Sox were one of the eight original franchises that began play in the Senior Professional Baseball Association in 1989. The club was managed by Pat Dobson, while Joe Coleman, Dyar Miller, Jerry Terrell and Tony Torchia served as ...

during that league's two seasons. After spending 1991 out of organized baseball, Jones tried one last comeback in with the

Edmonton Trappers The Edmonton Trappers were a minor league baseball team in Edmonton, Alberta. They were a part of the Triple-A level in the Pacific Coast League, ending with the 2004 season. Their home games were played at Telus Field in downtown Edmonton. The ...

, pitching in five games, while ending his career in the Mexican League at the end of the year.

Career overview

In nine major league seasons, Jones had a 24–35 win–loss record, with a 4.42

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

. He appeared in 201 games, with 549⅓

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one innin ...

. He started 45 games, in which he had four

complete games In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...

. As a

reliever In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weather ...

, he

finished Finished may refer to: * ''Finished'' (novel), a 1917 novel by H. Rider Haggard * ''Finished'' (film), a 1923 British silent romance film * "Finished" (short story), a science fiction short story by L. Sprague de Camp See also *Finishing (disa ...

91 games, including 13 saves.

Notes

Sources

, o
Retrosheet
o
Venezuelan Winter League
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Odell 1953 births Living people Acereros de Monclova players African-American baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Canada American expatriate baseball players in Mexico Águilas Cibaeñas players American expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic Baltimore Orioles players Baseball players from California Charleston Charlies players Charleston Pirates players Columbus Clippers players Denver Zephyrs players Edmonton Trappers players Fort Myers Sun Sox players Industriales de Monterrey players Major League Baseball pitchers Mexican League baseball pitchers Milwaukee Brewers players Niagara Falls Pirates players Olmecas de Tabasco players People from Tulare, California Pittsburgh Pirates players Portland Beavers players Rochester Red Wings players Salem Pirates players Seattle Mariners players Syracuse Chiefs players Texas Rangers players Tiburones de La Guaira players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Thetford Mines Pirates players West Palm Beach Tropics players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople Compton High School alumni