Being Cleon Jones

[Willets Point]

A picture says a thousand words:

[Guest cooby]

Cleon with that way cool scar on his face! Made me think maybe he was in a switchblade fight!

[Willets Point]

Some of those words: "Are those six Orioles fans out there? They don't look too excited."

[Guest Edgy DC]

Don't you forget about Cle'.

[Guest cleonjones11]

Amen

[Frayed Knot]

Willets Point wrote: Some of those words: "Are those six Orioles fans out there? They don't look too excited."

I doubt it. Remember those were temporary seats at that time (the current picnic area/stands had not yet been erected) and, IIRC, those temp seats were reserved for returning and disabled vets. A closer look shows some of those front-row types aren't sitting in indifference but rather are in wheelchairs.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

cooby wrote: Cleon with that way cool scar on his face! Made me think maybe he was in a switchblade fight!

cooby obviously goes for the bad boys.

[Willets Point]

Yea, I caught the wheel chairs of the three men on the left on further inspection. Still, no smiles or arms in the air or any outward sign of joy that the Mets just won the World Series. Pictures lie though

[Guest Edgy DC]

Other shots of that and the Agee catch suggest that there were a disporportionate number of black patrons out there, almost seeming like segregated seating. I imagine that also might be linked to them being returning vets. Thanks for letting me know that.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Milledge is the new Cleon.

I remember when he first came up he was touted as a solution to the CF problem. He was speedy, he could play the outfield, why not CF? His fielding must have done something to discourage that because, although CF was an open position (there were several such on the 1960s Mets) he ceased playing CF pretty damned quick. (I'll have to check this memory with UMDB.) Seems to me he ended up playing the easiest OF position pretty early on, suggesting some limitations to his fielding which were obviously not speed-related.

OE: According to UMDB, Cleon actually was the regular CFer until Agee arrived. I'd thought he been moved out for Billy Cowan, Don Bosch and a cast of thousands, but I guess that experiment didn't get as far as I'd thought. UMDB memories also state that Cleon got his scar sailing through a car's windshield as a teenager--anyone else remember reading this?

[Frayed Knot]

I don't have any specific memories of him being a disaster in CF although there were several anecdotes in that 'Tales from the Mets Dugout' book which said he was. One mentioned that a few front-office types were touting that he be moved there for the post-Agee era but manager Yogi knew better from remembering earlier stints and never took the suggestion seriously.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Interesting. Did you notice that in the first post in this thread the ball looks like a decimal point? 3.71

[soupcan]

="Bret Sabermetric"]Interesting. Did you notice that in the first post in this thread the ball looks like a decimal point? 3.71

A quick look at baseballreference.com reveals that Jerry Koosman's era in 1985 while with the Phillies was 3.71!

Eerie.

[RealityChuck]

Jones still needs to get a major apology by the Mets for the humiliation inflicted upon him by M. Donald Grant.

(And, no, this has nothing to do with anything he did on the field.)

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Unfortunately M. Donald Grant is dead at the present time.

That little incident, however, did help propel me past, and eventually unseat, the reigning CPF Song Parody champion.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think that if Cleon hasn't come to terms with that situation, it's on him.