Cleo Joel James (born August 31, 1940) is an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

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 ...

. He played in

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), ...

(MLB) with the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

in 1968 and for the Chicago Cubs between 1970 and 1973. A baseball and football star at

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

Junior College (now

Riverside City College Riverside City College (RCC) is a public community college in Riverside, California. The college is part of the Riverside Community College District, as well as the larger California Community Colleges System. History RCC first opened in 1916 at ...

), James decided on professional baseball. After playing briefly with the Dodgers in 1968, he returned to the minor leagues and made the Pacific Coast League All-Star team in 1969, and finished third in the league in batting average. The Cubs acquired him in December 1969 draft through the Rule 5 draft, which allows major league teams to draft players from other organizations' minor league teams. In the

1970 Chicago Cubs season The 1970 Chicago Cubs season was the 99th season of the Chicago Cubs franchise, the 95th in the National League and the 55th at Wrigley Field. The Cubs finished second in the National League East with a record of 84–78 by five games, which was ...

, James played in 100 games as a rookie. Early in the season, he frequently was used as a defensive replacement in center field in late innings. By June he was the Cubs' starting centerfielder, but lost his position when the team acquired

Joe Pepitone Joseph Anthony Pepitone (born October 9, 1940) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman and outfielder who played the bulk of his career for the New York Yankees. He also played several seasons with the Chicago Cubs and had short stints wi ...

in July. On Sept. 3, James started in left field in place of Billy Williams, ending Williams' then

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

record 1,117 consecutive games played streak.

External links

, o
RetrosheetVenezuelan Professional Baseball League statistics
1940 births Living people African-American baseball players Águilas del Zulia players Albuquerque Dodgers players American expatriate baseball players in Mexico Arizona Instructional League Dodgers players Baseball players from Mississippi Cardenales de Lara players Chicago Cubs players Leones del Caracas players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Llaneros de Acarigua players Los Angeles Dodgers players Major League Baseball outfielders Pericos de Puebla players Santa Barbara Rancheros players St. Petersburg Saints players Salem Dodgers players Spokane Indians players Sportspeople from Clarksdale, Mississippi Tacoma Cubs players Wichita Aeros players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{US-baseball-outfielder-1940s-stub