Talk:Cleon Jones

Trivia tag
Gil Hodges' long walk out to left field, to remove Cleon Jones from the game, is an immortal moment, not just in New York Mets history, but in modern baseball history. The person who hanged that "trivia" tag must be a Yankees fan. 68.237.85.190 (talk) 00:19, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Cleon Jones Not To Be Confused with Nippy Jones
The article on Cleon Jones attributes the famous "shoe polish" incident to him, and having occurred during the 1969 World Series against the Orioles. In fact, it also happened to Nippy Jones of the Milwaukee Braves in game 4 of the 1957 World Series vs. the Yankees who was awarded first base when the home plate umpire reversed his decision (no "hit by pitch" call) after noting there was shoe polish on the ball.

See the Wikipedia article on Nippy Jones (a less famous player than Cleon Jones) for corroboration.

71.178.205.95 (talk) 16:39, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

It happened to Cleon Jones in the 69 World Series. I was 2 years old then, so I have no memory, but have heard about it. http://www.nypost.com/seven/09232008/sports/mets/amazin_shea_memories_130300.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.52.13.104 (talk) 15:25, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Actually, there were two shoe polish incidents: One happened to Nippy Jones in 1957, and one happened to Cleon Jones in 1969, both times during the World Series. After Gil Hodges showed Lou Dimuro the shoe polish on the ball, Jones was awarded first base. The next batter, Donn Clendenon, Series MVP, hit a homerun. Later, Mets pitcher Jerry Koosman revealed that he was the player who fielded the ball after it entered the dugout. That's when Gil Hodges asked him to rub the ball on his shoe. That, apparently, was the mark that allowed Jones to reach base safely. Lastly, this incident was featured prominently in the film "Frequency." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.198.114.129 (talk) 03:34, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Cleon Jones 1975 arrest and apology
Jones was arrested in 1975. Professional athletes brushes with the law are relevant so far as their wikipedia entry. As long as they are sourced. I put the sourcing in when I edited this post last May and did so again in today's edit. § —Preceding unsigned comment added by WilliamJE (talk • contribs) 22:53, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

User 65.213.23.29 added the phrase "In a rare display of an athlete taking responsibility for his actions..." For one, he was caught naked in the van by the cops. I don't think he had much of a choice there. Plus, he was forced into the press conference by Grant, and by most accounts, unnecessarily. It is pretty widely considered one of the dark moments in Mets history, and I've listed sources in the article to back that claim.--Johnny Spasm (talk) 11:06, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

The point, however, isn't about whether Mr Jones had a choice in his apology. The fact is, Mr Jones publicly apologized for doing something wrong. That is the noteworthiness of the story: the fact that he said he was sorry in a public forum is not only admirable in retrospect, it is an exceedingly rare event. This is in sharp contrast to every other athlete in the modern era who was accused of a crime, from Pete Rose to Kobe Bryant to OJ Simpson to Plaxico Burress to Bret Myers to Jason Kidd to Lawrence Taylor to Michael Phelps to Michael Vick, etc, etc (the list is long and the crimes are heinous in many cases). After the incident, Mr Jones stated in Jet magazine that he was, in fact, fully clothed inside the van: the only articles of clothing he removed were his shoes. Second, Miss Sabol was not a teenager, she was 21 years old. Third, after the vehicle ran out of gas, Mr Jones fell asleep awaiting help. Fourth, the charges against Mr Jones were ultimately dropped by police. Lastly, might I suggest that while sourcing one's contributions to Wikipedia is admirable and responsible, the inclusion of factual errors, poor grammar, and race bias derived from non-published "sources" (BaseballLibrary.com does not qualify as a credible source) within one's contributions that serve to slander a decent man's legacy are irresponsible and frankly, worthy of a similar public apology. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.198.114.129 (talk) 03:29, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Does teh woman's name really have to be mentioned in the article? I would think of her as a civilian and undeserving of having a very old negative story about herself retold here. Mikevegas40 (talk) 00:04, 28 April 2012 (UTC)

In the bios of many other professional athletes, many with long lists of criminal activity, there are no subheads using the word "Arrest." For example, former Met Lenny Dykstra's Wiki biography, which is twice as long as Mr Jones biography, and details several arrests for actual crimes committed, uses the word "Incidents." Based on that precedent, I revised Mr Jones' biography accordingly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.127.215.6 (talk) 13:36, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

July 30th
I grew up watching the Mets and was 8 years old in 1969. My family moved to Florida in 1976, after which my Mets viewing dropped considerably.

I'm familiar with the game where Hodges pulled Cleon Jones. Newspapers at the time said Jones suffered a leg injury. Indeed, Jones missed games in August and September because of a hamstring pull and that may have been why he didn't win the batting title in 69/. The first mention I could find that Jones may have been removed for not hustling, was dated August 18 1969. I think the truth lies somewhere in between, and that this story like many involving sports has gotten embellished with the passage of time.

What I did with the particular section, was point out that Jones did suffer a leg injury, missed time because of it, and what the real story was, and what was reported at the time, may not have been the same. I got news citations for all of this and edited them into the article.William 17:17, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Actual date of birth
Mr Cleon Joseph Jones celebrated his eightieth birthday on June 24th, 2022. He was born in Platteau, Alabama on June 24th, 1942. His deceased brother was born on August 4th, a few years earlier. Yet, nearly every time Cleon’s biographical information was printed, the publisher made an error, and used his brother’s birthdate, instead of Cleon’s. The long-standing error was never corrected because Mr Jones never noticed it for many years. He was, after all, playing baseball, not reading about himself. We all wish Mr Jones many more happy and healthy years, and we’ll continue to celebrate his actual birthday, on June 24th, not August 4th. 2603:6010:4147:3400:78B4:6E2:49DE:B7DC (talk) 12:20, 1 July 2022 (UTC)


 * https://www.wkrg.com/sports/new-york-mets-legend-turns-80/ 2603:6010:4147:3400:547D:3FCC:84E5:5416 (talk) 17:38, 2 July 2022 (UTC)