1970 TOPPS THE CLEON JONES STORY (BOOKLET No. 19)
If you liked the little cartoon they’d have on the back of cards, you’ll love this insert. This 24-booklet set had some of the top stars and some guys they had enough information on to fill up six inside pages of details. Jay Johnstone, Walt Williams and Al Ferrara must have wondered what they were doing alongside Willie Mays, Ernie Banks and Pete Rose.
When we open up the booklet, we find out these factoids about Cleon Jones, told in comic book style with color drawings:
He excelled in both baseball and football
His high school teammate was Tommie Agee
Their football team was beaten only once in three years
Jones set a school record by scoring 26 touchdowns in a 9-game season
He had a football scholarship to Alabama A&M
He played there two years and attracted pro football attention
But he chose baseball instead
He made his pro debut in 1963, played for two teams and batted .360 and .305
He became a regular for the Mets in 1966
In 1968 he came into his own, batting .297
That’s the year Agee came to the Mets
The last panel is my favorite. The header says, “In 1969 he led the World Champs with a .340 average.” Then there’s the graphic which shows a batter wearing a gold crown with a majestic cartoon follow through. There’s a catcher pictured, and he says, “That breaks the club record. Congratulations Cleon!”
Such earnestness and such joy. It makes you wonder if anyone could mass produce and sell anything like this today.
Loved Cleon. His threw LH and batted RH — just like me.
One of the great Topps Met inserts.
Always remember him catching the last out of the 69 World Series (fly ball by Davey Johnson) and taking a knee.
Davey never got over losing that WS, especially to a team he did not consider good enough to beat his beloved O’s.
y’know, when doug parker was handling the duties for ” mets card of the week ”, it would sometimes take me days to figure out who the mystery met really was.
this one was little to no challenge at all, as i figured it out in less than an hour. the guy in the pic is cleon jones. i almost went with doug flynn, but then i remembered he never attended alabama a & m.
you can send the T206 Honus Wagner card to my address that you have on file. and please avoid getting a dirty fingerprint on it like doug did with the Mantle rookie one….
I’ve got a Wagner reprint around somewhere. If I find it, I’ll send it your way!