Whatever Happened to Charley Jones?

Charley Jones was one of the stars in the early days of the major leagues. He was the career leader in home runs at the end of the 1877 season and he continued to be the career leader through 1884. In addition, Charley was a colorful character who managed to get his name in the newspapers. Yet his date and place of death are unknown. The late baseball historian, Lee Allen, spent a great deal of time researching biographical information on players. Charley Jones was one of his special projects. However, he drew a blank on Charley’s death data.

The SABR Biographical Research Committee prides itself on digging up (pardon the expression) death data on obscure players, but it also has drawn a blank on Jones. The Committee lists a Mystery of the Month in each of its reports and from time to time the reports include a Top 20 Most Wanted List. Jones was the mystery player in the March 1991, report. He was number 18 on the Most Wanted List in May 1992, and he moved up to number three on the March 1994 report.

Charley was born Benjamin Wesley Rippay on April 30, 1850 on a farm in Alamance County, North Carolina. He was the third of six children of Abel, a farmer, and Delilah. Several publications have spelled the family name Rippy and several have used an April 3 date of birth.

In the early 1860s, possibly after the death of his parents, Charley moved to either Princeton, Indiana, or Cincinnati to live with Reuben Jones, who was either his uncle or his grandfather. Charley took his relative’s surname and became Charles Wesley Jones. Biographical Committee chairman Bill Carle had a great comment on the name change: “In order to make future baseball researchers’ lives more complicated, Rippay decided to change his name to Jones. Why couldn’t his uncle have a name like Abbaticchio?”

Jones began his baseball career with a club in Evansville, Indiana in the early 1870s. He made several unsuccessful attempts to hook on with National Association clubs. One source credits him with playing for Association clubs in Baltimore in 1873 and 1874. However, Charles Weaver, a member of SABR’s Biographical Committee, has recently determined that this was a different Jones. Finally, he joined the Association club in Keokuk in 1875. The club folded in June. Charley then received a one game tryout with the Hartford club in late June in a game at St. Louis.

Jones joined the Cincinnati club in the newly formed National League in 1876. He made his mark early. In the seventh inning of a game on May 2, he hit the second home run in league history. (Ross Barnes hit one in the fifth inning of the same game to win the honor of hitting the first homer.) Jones had a decent year, hitting .286, and he was runner-up in home runs with four.

Jones returned to Cincinnati in 1877. After a poor start, the club ran into financial trouble and it was announced that it would disband. William Hulbert, president of the Chicago club, sent an agent to Cincinnati to sign Jones and teammate Jimmy Hallinan. Jones then played in two games for Chicago. In the meantime, a new group with financial backing took over the Cincinnati club. The league ordered Jones to return to Cincinnati, and Chicago reluctantly returned him. Charley wound up having a pretty good year. He hit .313, was runner up in triples with 10, third in homers with two and fourth in RBIs with 38.

Cincinnati moved up in the standings in 1878 to finish second. Jones had another good year, hitting .310, second in home runs, fourth in RBIs, and tied for second in triples.

Jones went to Boston in 1879 where he had a career year. He led the league in runs with 85, home runs with nine and RBIs with 62, while batting .315. On June 10 the following year against Buffalo, Charley hit two home runs in the eighth inning — the first time that this feat had ever been accomplished.

Late in that 1880 season, Jones got involved in a salary dispute with Boston club president Arthur Soden. Though he was batting .300, the club claimed that his play had been unsatisfactory and that his conduct was unacceptable. He refused to pay Jones his August salary. When he protested, he was suspended, fined $100 for poor play and insubordination, and finally expelled from the league. Although there was some indication that Jones’s fondness for alcohol was a contributing factor in his feud with the front office, he was not the only player involved in a salary dispute with the Boston club that year.

Jones never played in the National League again. He made several appeals to the league, but highhanded officials refused to hear them. In 1881, he sued the Boston Base Ball Association in the Common Pleas Court of Cleveland. He asked for $378 on his 1880 salary. He obtained a favorable judgment and collected by levying on Boston’s share of gate receipts at Cleveland during the 1881 season.

In the meantime, Jones operated a laundry in Cincinnati and played with the outlaw Portsmouth, Ohio, club. In November 1881, he signed with Cincinnati of the newly organized American Association. However, the new league decided to honor the National League blacklist and Jones was never asked to report to the Cincinnati club. He sued Cincinnati for his 1882 salary, but lost in a bitter trial in which his alleged alcohol problem was an issue. He continued to play for the Portsmouth club.

In 1883, the National League voted to reinstate most of its blacklisted players, including Jones. He then joined the Cincinnati American Association club. He hit .294 and was runner-up in homers with ten. In 1884, he hit .314 and was runner-up in runs with 117.

Jones was still in Cincinnati in 1885 and 1886, hitting .322 and .270 respectively. There is an interesting story about Charley from sometime after the 1885 season. He began running around with a woman from Newport, Kentucky, named Ollie Smith. One day, Ollie and Charley were sitting in a Cincinnati saloon when they spied Charley’s wife walking up and down in front of the place. The pair boldly walked outside and tried to board a streetcar. Mrs. Jones spotted them and screamed, “Catch him! Hold that man and woman!” She caught up with them and threw the contents of a package into their faces. The weapon was cayenne pepper and it scored a bullseye in Charley’s eyes, temporarily blinding him. That strange injury practically ended his career. He played a while longer, but it was all downhill. Maybe this story had a happy ending. Charley and Ollie were secretly married on July 1, 1886, in Cincinnati. Charley used his birth name of Rippay and Ollie used her maiden name of Horton. However, it didn’t take long for the word to get out. They had a son, born in 1887. Charley also had at least one daughter.

Jones opened the 1887 season with Cincinnati, but was sold to the New York Mets on July 9 for about $1,100. This was the highest price paid for an outfielder up to that time. It was reported in the newspapers that Cincinnati’s puppy mascot did not go to New York in the deal. It seems that Charley had been the puppy’s favorite player ever since the day that Charley filled him up with beer. Jones’s first game with his new team was at Cincinnati and the fans cheered for him every time he came to bat.

New York let Jones go after 1887. He hooked on with Kansas City for 1888, but played in his last game on April 26 before being released. Manager Dave Rowe said Charley was bothered by a foot injury from the previous season. Jones then negotiated with Jersey City of the Central League, but the deal fell through. He never did play in the minor leagues.

Jones was one of the most colorful players in an era that had plenty of them. In spite of his fondness for John Barleycorn, he had a reputation as a gamer. He was very popular with the fans, especially in Cincinnati. When he came to bat, the cry from the stands was, “Home run, Jones.” Children followed him in the streets and shouted his name. The Cincinnati Enquirer, as well as other newspapers, always gave him a good press. He was something of a dandy and his extensive wardrobe led to such colorful nicknames as The Knight of the Limitless Linen. A Cincinnati clothing store gave him all the new suits he needed as an advertising gimmick. Charley often said that he hated baseball, but played it in the summer so that he could hunt and fish in the winter in his native North Carolina. He was considered a great outdoorsman. He had a mania for collecting guns and he had an arsenal of weapons dating back to the Civil War.

After his playing career ended, Jones returned to Portsmouth, where he served with the Ohio State Militia and later as sheriff of Portsmouth County. He moved to New York City sometime in the 1890s and became an inspector of elections. He returned to baseball briefly in 1896 as an umpire in the Atlantic Association.

In 1906, well-known sportswriter Tim Murnane bumped into Jones at a bicycle race in New York City. Murnane said that Jones was connected with Billy Muldoon’s “sanitary farm” in upstate New York and had been given the week off to help with the bike race.

On August 28, 1909 Sporting Life ran the following article, datelined August 20: “Friends of Charley Jones, who was famous as the left fielder of the old Bostons and Cincinnati Reds, and one of the greatest batsmen in his day, have arranged a benefit for him to be held at South Beach, Staten Island, on Tuesday, August 31. Jones is an invalid and in need of assistance. William Muldoon, the former wrestler, is chairman of the committee in charge of arrangements.”

No further mention of the benefit, the illness, or Charley Jones’s eventual death has ever turned up, despite the best efforts of SABR’s Biographical Research Committee and others. Perhaps a reader of this story will be able to answer the question: Whatever happened to Charley Jones?