Cleon Jones to celebrate 50th anniversary of ‘Miracle Mets’ with charity golf tournament
Fifty years to the day after the final out of the World Series settled into his glove, Cleon Jones will still be chasing around a little white ball.
Only this time, he’ll be on the golf course, and not in the outfield for the New York Mets.
Jones, the Mobile native and starting left fielder for baseball’s “Miracle Mets” of 1969, has organized the Cleon Jones Charity Golf Tournament and Gala, set for Oct. 16 at Heron Lakes Country Club. The event — which is expected to include several other 1969 Mets and features a gala dinner and silent auction the previous night — will benefit improvement programs in the Africatown community, Jones’ home growing up and also since he retired from baseball in the mid-1970s following a 12-year major-league career.
It’s a thrill that we’re able to talk about 1969 and celebrate the 50-year anniversary,” said Jones, who is now 77. “… But we’re also here to uplift a community that’s in dire need of our help, the Africatown community. The tournament is for all the good people that gave me a chance in life.
“I was 13 years old before I had my own glove. I learned to play using other people’s equipment. So, I got to the big leagues because of my community, and because God was good to me. If I hadn’t had neighbors that were there for me, I would never have made it.”
Jones was a force for the Mets in the middle of the batting order in 1969, setting a club record that stood for nearly 30 years with a .340 batting average, and adding in a team-best .422 on-base percentage and .482 slugging percentage. In a pitching-dominated era, he hit 12 home runs and drove in 75 while usually hitting third or fourth in the New York lineup.
That RBI total was one off the team lead posted by the late Tommie Agee, Jones’ childhood friend from Mobile, who hit a club-best 26 homers in 1969. The two joined up with rookie Amos Otis on several occasions — the first of which took place on May 11, 1969, vs. the Houston Astros — to give the Mets an outfield comprised entirely of Mobilians.
