Bobby Jones

Bobby Jones certainly meets the qualities of a baseball lifer. He spent much of his time on the playing field and in dugouts for more than 40 years after playing in Little League, crossing the country frequently during that odyssey. Jones’s dedication to the game eventually led to his appointment to the front office of an independent professional team in the fall of 2022.

Robert Mitchell Jones was born on April 11, 1972, in Orange, New Jersey. His family moved to Rutherford, a few miles north of Orange, in 1981. Bobby played Little League baseball for the Park Exxon team between 1982 and 1984. He became the fourth graduate of that Little League program to reach major-league baseball; he was preceded by Bill Hands, Brant Alyea, and Pat Pacillo.1 Young Jones became a regular pitcher in 1983. As a 12-year-old in 1984, Bobby had a 4-5 record with an earned-run average of 2.82 and an opposing batting average of .216.2

At Rutherford High School, Jones was All-Bergen County in baseball, football, and basketball for three straight years.3 He was inducted into the Rutherford High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 1990.

From high school Jones moved to Chipola College, a junior college in Marianna, Florida that has sent two dozen players to the major leagues. Its alumni include such players as Russell Martin, José Bautista, and Patrick Corbin; many others – including veteran manager Buck Showalter – were drafted but never reached the majors as players.4 

On June 3, 1991, Jones was picked in the 44th round by the Milwaukee Brewers in major league baseball’s free-agent draft. He didn’t sign until May 13, 1992, and he was assigned to Helena (Montana) in the Pioneer League, the first of his 18 teams in pro baseball. He started 13 games there, compiling a record of 5-4 with a 4.36 ERA. In 1993 Jones moved up from rookie ball to Class A with Beloit (Wisconsin) of the Midwest League, for whom he went 10-10 with a 4.11 ERA. It was on to high Class A in 1994, as he joined Stockton in the California League. Jones slumped to 6-12 with a 4.21 earned-run average with the Ports. But he averaged a strikeout per inning that season (147 in 147⅔ innings).

Jones had been in the minor leagues for three seasons at that point and still hadn’t moved past Class A. The Colorado Rockies took him in the Rule 5 draft on December 5, 1994. The Rockies had just finished their first year in the National League as an expansion team, and they took a chance that Jones could turn into a prospect.

Jones moved up to Double-A baseball in 1995 for the Rockies’ organization, playing for New Haven (Connecticut) in the Eastern League. As a starter and closer for the Ravens, Jones was 5-2 with a 2.58 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 73⅓ innings. That was good for a midseason promotion to Colorado Springs in Triple A, but Jones struggled a bit at the higher level. He was used mostly as a starter, and finished 1-2 with a 7.30 ERA.

The lefty’s role changed in 1996. Jones pitched in 57 games for Colorado Springs, none of them a start, and posted a 2-8 record with a 4.97 ERA. In 1997 the Rockies apparently changed their minds again about Jones; he had 21 starts for Colorado Springs, going 7-11 with a 5.14 ERA.

In 1997 Jones was called up to the major leagues for the first time. He debuted in a contest in Shea Stadium against the New York Mets, his favorite team as a child, on May 18. Jones did reasonably well.5 He worked 5⅓ innings and gave up two runs on four hits with seven walks and three strikeouts. Jones left with the Rockies trailing 2-1. In his first major-league at-bat, Jones lined a single in the third inning off Dave Mlicki. Colorado took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh, but the bullpen allowed eight runs in the eighth. New York picked up a 10-4 victory.

Jones’s next start was on May 23 at home against Houston. He wasn’t quite as sharp, allowing six runs on 11 hits in 6⅔ innings. But the Rockies’ offense provided some help. They had an 8-6 lead when Jones exited, and Colorado hung on for an 8-7 win, Jones’s first major-league victory. On May 29 Jones started against the Florida Marlins. He had a no-decision in a 6-5 win in which he gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings. Jones’s last appearance in a Rockies uniform for the year came on June 3 in St. Louis. After the Cardinals roughed him up for six runs on eight hits in 1⅓ innings, sending him to his first loss in the majors after a 15-4 St. Louis romp, and he was assigned to the minors.

Jones’s brief stay in the majors in 1997 turned out to be a good warm-up for the following season. He made the Opening Day roster for the Rockies and stayed the entire season.

Jones started the season in the bullpen, and he struggled in the first half of April. But something clicked in the next couple of weeks, as the left-hander allowed four hits and one run in 9⅔ innings. “I didn’t care what the situation was, I was going to keep plugging,” Jones said of his struggles in his previous season. “I knew I could pitch at this level. I had days when I was outstanding, and I had days when I just played terrible. But I knew on those days when I was outstanding that I was better than a lot of guys in the minor leagues. That’s why I felt like I could make it to the big leagues. It was just a matter of determination.’”6

Jones was moved to the starting rotation on May 24, and he threw seven innings of two-hit ball in beating Cincinnati. Jones’s only complete game in the majors came on June 21, an 11-6 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Denver. He was something of a spot starter for most of the rest of the season, which was cut short by a knee injury suffered while fielding a bunt in a September 14 game against the Dodgers. The pitcher first hurt his knee while playing high-school football.7

Jones had 20 starts in 35 games, with a record of 7-8. He probably learned a lesson about pitching in the thin air of Coors Field, as he compiled a 5.22 ERA – average in that environment.

It was more of the same in 1999. Jones again started the season in the bullpen and threw in relief for the first month. He had his first start of the season on May 11 at Coors Field against the Mets, and his story took an unusual turn. The opposing pitcher was also named Bobby Jones. (For convenience, the “other” player will be called Bobby J. Jones here.) It was the first time in the twentieth century that two pitchers with the same first and last names started against each other. “There are not a lot of similarities outside of our name,” Bobby M. Jones told the New York Times. “He’s 6-4 and I’m 6-foot. He’s white and I’m black. He’s right-handed and I’m left-handed.”8

The Rockies won, 8-5, and Bobby M. Jones earned the win, allowing two runs in five innings including a strikeout of the Mets’ Jones. “I’ll tell you the funniest thing that happened,” Rockies coach Rich Donnelly said. “I was coaching third, and our Bobby Jones was hitting. We needed him to hit the ball hard somewhere to score a run. So I said, ‘Come on, Bobby.’ And the other Bobby Jones looked right at me. Then I heard the Mets in their dugout yelling, ‘Come on, Bobby. Go get ’em.’ And our Bobby Jones looked in their dugout. So their guy looked at me. Our guy looked at them. Perfect.”9

Bobby M. Jones stayed in the Colorado rotation through the end of August, rarely going past six innings. He finished the year back in the bullpen, and his playing time was limited in September because he suffered from a pinkeye infection.10 For the season he was 6-10 with a 6.33 ERA. Jones also had three starts back in Triple-A ball, going 2-1 for Colorado Springs.

Left-handed pitchers are often in demand from other teams, and the Mets may have noticed that Jones did well when pitching in New York. They completed a deal with the Rockies on January 14, 2000, acquiring Jones and pitcher Lariel González from the Rockies for pitcher Masato Yoshii.

That meant that two players with the same name were on the Mets’ roster. The duo already had been receiving each other’s mail quite a bit, and that problem would only get worse. The New York organization had gone through this once before in its history. The 1962 Mets had two right-handed pitchers named Bob Miller – a Bob Miller who went 1-12, and a Bob Miller who was 2-2. They were even roommates on the road. 

Bobby M. Jones spent most of the 2000 season with Norfolk (Virginia), the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in the International League. He had a 10-8 record, starting 21 games with an ERA of 4.32. The Mets called him up to the majors a couple of times. In his first game in a New York uniform, he closed out a 7-1 win with a scoreless inning against Milwaukee on June 6. At one point, Bobby M. Jones was sent to the minors so the Mets could activate, yes, Bobby J. Jones. The left-handed Jones pitched in relief of the right-handed Jones three times during the season.11

Jones was recalled in early September and made eight appearances out of the bullpen the rest of the season. He finished 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA in 11 games. He ended the year with three straight scoreless appearances covering five innings. However, Jones had to watch the team win a couple of playoff series to reach the World Series, as he was not on the postseason roster. The New York Yankees defeated their crosstown rivals in five games to win the Series.

Arm troubles bothered Jones in 2001, starting with tendinitis during spring training. He spent most of the season on the disabled list, and saw very little action for three different teams in the minors one appearance with Norfolk, two with Double-A Binghamton, and four with Class-A St. Lucie.12 He bounced back a bit a year later, appearing in 13 games (six starts) in Norfolk. Jones also pitched in 12 games for the Mets with no decisions and a 5.29 ERA.

Jones’s time with New York came to a halt at the trading deadline on July 31, 2002, when he was shipped with Jason Bay and minor-league pitcher Josh Reynolds to the San Diego Padres for pitchers Jason Middlebrook and Steve Reed. The deal reunited baseball’s two pitchers named Bobby Jones, as Bobby J. Jones had joined the Padres in the previous winter as a free agent. They started in back-to-back games, Bobby J. Jones on August 10 and Bobby M. Jones on the 11th.13 Bobby M. Jones pitched in four games for the Padres, starting two, and had a 0-0 record with a 6.52 ERA. San Diego gave up on him after a month, releasing him on September 3.

On January 21, 2003, Jones signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves. He appeared in 37 games with Richmond of the Triple-A International League (1-3 record, 3.12 ERA) before the Braves released him on July 3. Six days later, the Kansas City Royals signed Jones and assigned him to Omaha, where he was 1-2 with a 3.65 ERA in 20 games. Jones was granted free agency on October 15, 2003.

Jones was 31 years old at that point, and may have been wondering if his major-league career was over. But the Boston Red Sox threw him a lifeline by signing him on November 12. Jones beat the odds in spring training and was on the team’s roster at the start of the season. “This one takes the cake,” he said about returning to the majors. “This one is way more special. After what happened the last one and a half years, this one is much sweeter.”14

Jones’s first action for the Red Sox came on April 7, when he threw two innings in a 10-3 win in Baltimore. A day later Jones wasn’t as lucky, suffering a loss when he walked four batters in the bottom of the 13th inning in a 3-2 loss to the Orioles. The game ended when Jones missed the strike zone on a 3-and-2 pitch to Larry Bigbie. The evening became even worse for Jones and the Red Sox when mechanical problems grounded their plane for several hours; the sleepless group arrived in downtown Boston at 7:30 A.M. – less than eight hours before the home opener in Fenway Park.15

Finally on April 11, Jones gave up walks to the only two batters he faced – throwing only eight pitches in the process – in the 11th inning of a game against the Blue Jays. But Boston got out of the jam, and then won the game. It was no way to celebrate Jones’s 32nd birthday, and those eight pitches were his final tosses in major-league baseball.

The Red Sox knew something was wrong at that point, and designated Jones for assignment on April 14. He decided to report to Triple-A Pawtucket. “When you walk that many guys in a row, it just gets disheartening,” Boston manager Terry Francona said. “He needs to go back and get straightened out.”16

Hampered by shoulder and elbow problems, Jones did not appear in any games for Pawtucket. Boston released him on October 8. Later that month, the Red Sox went on to win the World Series. Like all of the other players who were on the Boston roster that season, Jones received a championship ring from the team.

Jones wasn’t quite done with baseball. He returned to New Jersey and pitched for the Newark Bears of the independent Atlantic League in 2005. Jones pitched 16 innings in five games for the Bears (0-0, 6.75 ERA), and that was enough to convince the Chicago White Sox to purchase his contract. He appeared in 16 games with Charlotte, Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate, and he had an ERA of 8.39. He was released on October 15.

On February 17, 2006, the Detroit Tigers gave Jones one more chance by signing him. With Erie (Pennsylvania) in the Double-A Eastern League, Jones pitched in 28 games with 12 starts, going 3-4 with an ERA of 3.92. The veteran was selected for the roster of the Eastern League All-Star Game in July. That season was it for Jones’s career, if one doesn’t count a one-inning appearance with Rockland of the Canadian-American Association in 2013. Jones’s major-league dossier: 99 games in six seasons, 14-21/5.77.

After retiring from playing, Jones turned to other ways to stay involved in baseball. He had a baseball academy in Montville, New Jersey, and later worked for Champions Way Sports Academy.17 Jones also worked as a pitching coach at Don Bosco Prep and Montclair High School, and spent time as a pitching coach with the Rockland Boulders of the Can-Am League (now the New York Boulders of the Frontier League).

In 2016 Jones was named the manager of the Sussex County Miners in the Canadian-American Association. “I’m a baseball rat,” he said when he was hired. “I’m very, very excited for spring training.”18 Jones guided a last-place team to a league championship in his third season on the job (2018). He and the Miners moved to the Frontier League in 2020, and Jones remained their manager through the 2022 season. For 2023 he was hired as the vice president and chief business officer of the New Jersey Jackals, a rival of the Miners in the Frontier League.

The timing of the new job worked out well for Jones, as the Jackals were moving their home games to Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey. That ballpark hosted Negro League baseball in the 1930s and 1940s. “Moving to Hinchliffe Stadium is a new beginning for this team and I want to do everything I can to make it a winning team, and that will take people who want to win as much as I do,” Jones said.19

The 2023 season marked the first time in decades that Jones wasn’t sitting in a dugout during games. “I don’t know if I’m going to miss it or not,” he said before the season. “I might be too busy learning what I’ve got to learn and being involved in all the other aspects of running a team to miss it.”20

Jones’s son, Breyln, tried to follow in his father’s footsteps. He also went to Rutherford High School, where he pitched. Breyln was selected in the 29th round of the amateur draft in 2019 by the Los Angeles Dodgers, and signed for a reported $125,000.21 He pitched in seven games for the Dodgers’ team in the Arizona Complex League in 2022, and was released. Bobby and his wife, Michelle, also had a daughter, Brianna.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 “The Bobby Jones File,” https://www.charliesballparks.com/rll/jones.htm.

2 “Player Statistics: Bobby Jones,” Rutherford Little League, https://www.charliesballparks.com/rll/roster/Jones-Bobby-1984.htm.

3 New York Mets 2000 Media Guide.

4 “Indians in Major League Baseball,” Chipola Athletics, https://www.chipolaathletics.com/landing/index.

5 “The Bobby Jones File.”

6 John Henderson, “Jones Battling Through,” Denver Post, April 28, 1998,  https://extras.denverpost.com/rock/grox0428c.htm. 

7 Tracy Ringolsby, “Jones Out for the Season, but Won’t Need Surgery,” Rocky Mountain News (Denver), September 16, 1998.

8 Andrew Mearns, “There Was Once a Pitching Matchup Featuring Bobby Jones vs. Bobby Jones,” MLB.com, May 11, 2017, https://www.mlb.com/cut4/on-this-day-in-1999-a-pitching-matchup-was-bobby-jones-vs-bobby-jones-c228115800.

9 Mearns.

10 New York Mets 2001 Media Guide.

11 New York Mets 2001 Media Guide.

12 “Camp Reports National League,” Chicago Tribune, March 20, 2001: 3.

13 Mearns.

14 David Heuschkel, “Jones gets last spot in bullpen,” Hartford Courant, April 4, 2004. https://www.courant.com/2004/04/04/jones-gets-last-spot-in-bullpen/.

15 Terry Francona and Dan Shaughnessy, Francona: The Red Sox Years (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), 84.

16 David Borges, “Sox Set to Ship Jones Out,” Middletown (Connecticut) Press, April 16, 2004, https://www.middletownpress.com/news/article/Sox-set-to-ship-Jones-out-11915512.php.

17 “2000 N.L. Champion Mets Pitcher …” http://www.centerfieldmaz.com/2020/04/2000-nl-champion-mets-pitcher-left.html.

18 Don Laible, “Bobby Jones ‘Manager in Waiting,’” Utica (New York) Observer-Dispatch, April 10, 2016, https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/columns/2016/04/10/bobby-jones-manager-in-waiting/31993318007/.

19 Carl Barbati, “Bobby Jones Joins New Jersey as Vice President and Chief Business Officer,” Frontierleague.com; November 1, 2022, https://www.frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/releases/20221101nw5mc1.

20 “Bobby Jones Joins New Jersey as Vice President and Chief Business Officer.”

21 Jennifer Ersalesi, “MLB Draft and RHS Graduate Breyln,” This is Rutherford.com, June 25, 2019, https://www.thisisrutherford.com/post/mlb-draft-and-rhs-graduate-breyln-jones.