THE 1966 BRAVES: #48 Mack Jones

[rico43]

#48 MACK JONES
Outfielder

What came before: “Mack the Knife.” Mack Jones was an Atlantan before he was a Brave. Born there in 1938, he was only 19 years old and a promising athlete at Morris Brown College when the Braves snatched him up. A lefty hitter with a sweet swing, he was in Triple-A by the age of 21 and soon got his first taste of the majors and proved himself to be, for a time, a true phenom: he had four hits in his first MLB game, two of them coming against Bob Gibson.

But he moved back and forth between the majors and Triple-A until 1965, just missing winning the IL Triple Crown in 1964 when he went .317-39-102.
He finally got a full season in the big leagues in '65, delivering the goods in the form of 31 homers in addition to a .262 average. And for two wonderful seasons, he got to come home to play, even though much of it was spoiled by a shoulder problem.

That 1966 season: He wasn't quite the run producer or the center fielder the Braves were hoping for, but he still connected for 23 homers and 66 RBIs with a .264 average. He struck out a bit too much (85), but this was down from 122 whiffs the season before.

What happened next: A man the fans desperately wanted to succeed – he was a local talk show host and deejay in the off-season – he teased the fan base with a huge spring training in 1967 that included five home runs. But he only managed 17 during the season despite playing in 140 games. His strikeouts spiked upwards again, so the Braves sent the hometown boy to the Reds in one of a series of blockbuster deals in that era: going to Cincy with Jay Ritchie and Jim Beauchamp for slugging first baseman Deron Johnson.
The deal was a wash, as Johnson bombed for the Braves and Jones was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the expansion draft following an injury-plagued '68 season. He was an instant hit in Montreal, with the outfield bleachers in Parc Jarry known as “Jonesville.” But all of his numbers took a downward trend from1969 to 1970 and he was released early in the 1971 season while hitting only .165.
He returned to his hometown, enjoying a number of years as a youth coach in baseball and football. But Mack Jones died of stomach cancer at the age of 65 in 2004.

[50PoundHead]

#48 MACK JONES
Outfielder

What came before: “Mack the Knife.” Mack Jones was an Atlantan before he was a Brave. Born there in 1938, he was only 19 years old and a promising athlete at Morris Brown College when the Braves snatched him up. A lefty hitter with a sweet swing, he was in Triple-A by the age of 21 and soon got his first taste of the majors and proved himself to be, for a time, a true phenom: he had four hits in his first MLB game, two of them coming against Bob Gibson.

But he moved back and forth between the majors and Triple-A until 1965, just missing winning the IL Triple Crown in 1964 when he went .317-39-102.
He finally got a full season in the big leagues in '65, delivering the goods in the form of 31 homers in addition to a .262 average. And for two wonderful seasons, he got to come home to play, even though much of it was spoiled by a shoulder problem.

That 1966 season: He wasn't quite the run producer or the center fielder the Braves were hoping for, but he still connected for 23 homers and 66 RBIs with a .264 average. He struck out a bit too much (85), but this was down from 122 whiffs the season before.

What happened next: A man the fans desperately wanted to succeed – he was a local talk show host and deejay in the off-season – he teased the fan base with a huge spring training in 1967 that included five home runs. But he only managed 17 during the season despite playing in 140 games. His strikeouts spiked upwards again, so the Braves sent the hometown boy to the Reds in one of a series of blockbuster deals in that era: going to Cincy with Jay Ritchie and Jim Beauchamp for slugging first baseman Deron Johnson.
The deal was a wash, as Johnson bombed for the Braves and Jones was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the expansion draft following an injury-plagued '68 season. He was an instant hit in Montreal, with the outfield bleachers in Parc Jarry known as “Jonesville.” But all of his numbers took a downward trend from1969 to 1970 and he was released early in the 1971 season while hitting only .165.
He returned to his hometown, enjoying a number of years as a youth coach in baseball and football. But Mack Jones died of stomach cancer at the age of 65 in 2004.

I saw Mack play when I was a kid. I somehow got to Milwaukee when another family let me tag along and we all went to a Braves' game. I remember that Mack started in CF, but when the Braves had a late lead, they would bring in Ty Cline to play CF and slide Mack over the LF as Rico Carty's defensive replacement.