boys of summer Davy Jones

David Jefferson "Davy" Jones (June 30, 1880 – March 30, 1972), nicknamed "Kangaroo", was an outfielder in Major League Baseball. He played fifteen seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Browns, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, and Pittsburgh Rebels. Jones played with some of the early legends of the game, including Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, Frank Chance, and Three Finger Brown. Also, he played for one year with the Chicago White Sox where several of his teammates would later be implicated in the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Additionally, Jones was immortalized in the book The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter.

Born in Cambria, Wisconsin, Davy Jones was mostly a platoon rather than a full-time player who was decent with the bat and swift on his feet. He played in the major leagues from 1901 to 1918, compiling a .270 career batting average with over 1,000 hits.

Jones spent much of his career playing outfield with the Detroit Tigers, along side Hall of Fame outfielders, Ty Cobb and Wahoo Sam Crawford. With Cobb and Crawford solidly entrenched in the outfield, Jones was forced to battle for the 3rd outfield spot with Matty McIntyre each year from 1906-1910.

As a speedy leadoff man, he was a reilable run scorer with Cobb and Crawford following him in the lineup. Jones' speed also made him a fine outfielder, with tremendous range. In 1907, he made 282 putouts and had a range factore of 2.45, 58 points higher than the average outfielder of his day.

Jones had his best season in 1907. That year, he had a .357 on base percenetage (the best in the American League). He also scored 101 runs, second in the American League behind his teammate Sam Crawford. Jones was also amont the AL leaders in 1907 in bases on balls (60) and stolen bases (8). The Tigers advanced to the first of three consecutive World Series in 1907, and Jones batted .353 with a .476 on base percentage in a losing effort to the Chicago Cubs.

In his three World Series for the Tigers, Jones played in 18 games, had a .357 on base percentage, scored 8 runs, and had a home run in the 1909 Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Batting Statistics
Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG
1901 Milwaukee 14 52 12 9 0 0 3 5 11 x .173
1902 Stl/Chi 79 292 45 85 13 4 0 17 44 x .291
1903 Chicago 130 497 64 140 18 3 1 15 53 x .282
1904 Chicago 98 336 44 82 11 5 3 14 41 x .244
1906 Detroit 84 323 41 84 12 2 0 21 41 x .260
1907 Detroit 126 491 101 134 10 6 0 30 60 x .273
1908 Detroit 56 121 17 25 2 1 0 11 13 x .207
1909 Detroit 69 204 44 57 2 2 0 12 28 x .279
1910 Detroit 113 377 77 100 6 6 0 25 51 x .265
1911 Detroit 98 341 78 93 10 0 0 25 41 x .273
1912 Detroit 99 316 54 93 5 2 0 16 38 x .294
1913 Chicago 12 21 2 6 0 0 0 1 9 0 .286
1914 Pittsburgh 97 352 58 96 9 8 2 15 42 16 .273
1915 Pittsburgh 14 49 6 16 0 1 0 1 6 0 .327
1918 Detroit 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000

Career statistics
Batting average  .270
Hits  1020
Home Runs  9
Runs batted in  289