Willis Jones (birthdate unknown) was an American

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

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 c ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

in the pre-

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

. Easily confused on team rosters with his team mates Abe Jones and Bert Jones, Willis Jones appears on team rosters for the

Chicago Unions The Chicago Unions were a professional, black baseball team that played in the late 19th century, prior to the formation of the Negro leagues. Founding Organized as the Unions in 1887, the club was led by Abe Jones (1887–1889) and by W.S. ...

and Chicago Union Giants from 1895 to 1902. After a few more years in Chicago, in 1907 Jones started playing for the St. Paul Colored Gophers and eventually moved to the nearby

Minneapolis Keystones The Minneapolis Keystones was a small club of black baseball players formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, running from approximately 1908 to 1911. While the Negro National League was not formed until 1920, the Keystones did have many top notch playe ...

. He played with several popular players of the day, including

Home Run Johnson Grant U. "Home Run" Johnson (September 23, 1872 – September 4, 1963) was an American shortstop and second baseman in baseball's Negro leagues. In a career that spanned over 30 years, he played for many of the greatest teams of the deadball era ...

Rube Foster Andrew "Rube" Foster (September 17, 1879 – December 9, 1930) was an American baseball player, manager, and executive in the Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981. Foster, considered by historians to have been per ...

, Mike Moore,

Bill Gatewood William Miller "Big Bill" Gatewood (August 22, 1881 – December 8, 1962) was an American Negro league baseball pitcher and manager for several years before the founding of the first Negro National League, and in its first few seasons. He pitch ...

Dick Wallace Richard Felix Wallace (July 22, 1882 – July 19, 1925) was an American baseball shortstop and manager in the Negro leagues. He played from 1903 to 1924 with several teams, including the Lincoln Giants and the St. Louis Giants. He was Captain ...

and George Hopkins.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Willis Algona Brownies players Chicago Unions players Leland Giants players Minneapolis Keystones players St. Paul Colored Gophers players Negro league baseball managers Year of birth missing Year of death missing