Sunday, November 29, 2009

#43 - Cleon Jones

Card fact: There are two players with the last name of Jones in this set. This is the first. A free pet rock to those who can guess the other player. And by free I mean, go to the park and get one yourself.

What I thought about this card then: A friend of mine had this card. He was one of those kids that you find in New York state who had to own everything that featured a Yankee or Met logo on it. He was an only child.

What I think about this card now: Jones is a former Cardboard Appreciation subject. As I mentioned in that post, Jones seems to feature a harder edge on his cards as his career goes along. This is one of the cards I was thinking of when I wrote that post.

Other than that, Jones is going to have a hard time running the bases on that field behind him, where a dash to third base is all uphill. Also, the fans will have to tilt their head to the right to read the scoreboard.

Other stuff: Mets cards were so cool when I was a kid. I'm not sure why I didn't end up being a Mets fan, because I really liked '70s Mets cards.

Back fact: You can see the decline in Jones' stats after he hit .340 in 1969. He had a strong season in '71 and then some struggles. The 1975 season actually was a very difficult one for him. He was arrested and then released by the Mets. This is Jones' final card featured during his career.

Other blog stuff: Approaching 400 cards scanned. Woo-hoo!

5 comments:

Play at the Plate said...

Looks like you could have used Mr. Jones for your "sweating" at work post.

Eggrocket said...

Funny ... I remember this card but don't remember anything at all about this guy. I never would have dreamed he hit .340 in 1969.

Johngy said...

This would be Cleon's last card. Since he finished with the White Sox in 1976, is there any possibility of a White Sox Card That Never Was?

Matt said...

Randy!

Charlie said...

Circa 1981, I bought an (allegedly) unopened 75T wax pack at a card show. This was, by far, the best card I pulled from it.