Tag: Cincinnati Reds

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Jones, Charley

Primary Position: Left Field
Birthplace: Alamance County

First, Middle Names: Benjamin Wesley Rippay         Nicknames: Baby, Knight of the Limitless Linen

Date of Birth:  April 30, 1852       Date and Place of Death: June 6, 1911, New York
Burial: Lutheran All Faiths Cemetery, Queens, NY

High School: Undetermined
College: Did Not Attend

Bats: R             Throws: R        Height and Weight: 5-11, 202
Debut Year: 1875        Final Year: 1888          Years Played: 12
Teams and Years: Keokuk Westerns, 1875; Hartford Dark Blues, 1875; Cincinnati Reds, 1876-77; Chicago White Stockings, 1877; Cincinnati Reds, 1878; Boston Red Stockings, 1879-80; Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1883-87; New York Metropolitans, 1887; Kansas City Cowboys, 1888

Career Summary
G           AB       H          R          RBI       HR       BA.      OBP.    SLG.     WAR
895    3741   1115    733      553      56       .298    .345    .444     26.3

Awards/Honors: NC Sports Hall of Fame, 1992; Boys of Summer Top 100

Charley Jones, as baseball historians insist, is likely the first North Carolinian to play in what’s now the major leagues. He was in the vanguard of professional athletes who, in the 1870s, began to transform a game played by amateurs, mostly in Eastern cities, into a national sport that would reach into every crossroad hamlet and schoolyard playground in America.

Despite what his plaque says at the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame or what previous biographers have written, much of Jones’ life before baseball remains a mystery. We don’t even know with certainty who is parents were or where in the state he was born. Frankly, much of what has been written about his early life is wrong.

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Jones, Sherman

Primary Position: Relief pitcher
Birthplace: Winton

First, Middle Names: Sherman Jarvis            Nickname: Roadblock
Date of Birth:  Feb. 10, 1935  Date and Place of Death: Feb. 21, 2007, Kansas City (KS)
Burial: Leavenworth National Cemetery, Leavenworth, KS

High School: C.S. Brown High School, Winton
College: Did Not Attend

Bats: L             Throws: R        Height and Weight: 6-4, 205
Debut Year: 1960       Final Year: 1962          Years Played: 3
Teams and Years: San Francisco Giants, 1960; Cincinnati Reds, 1961; New York Mets, 1962

 Career Summary
G         W        L          Sv        ERA     IP         SO       WAR
48       2        6          4          4.73     110.1   53        -0.2

Sherman Jones always said his proudest achievement on a baseball field was his short, but flawless, performance during a World Series game, but what Jones did after baseball was far more important than anything he accomplished on a pitching mound. For, this son of a sharecropper from Hertford County was one of only a handful of African-Americans elected at the time to the Kansas legislature. He became a respected state senator, a leader among black politicians in the state and a stalwart defender of progressive causes.

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Whisenant, Pete

Primary Positions: Centerfield, leftfield
Birthplace: Asheville

First, Middle Names: Thomas Peter
Date of Birth:  Dec. 14, 1929  Date and Place of Death: March 22, 1996, Port Charlotte, FL
Burial: Cremated

High School: Paw Creek High School, Paw Creek, NC
College: Did Not Attend

Bats: R             Throws: R        Height and Weight: 6-2, 190
Debut Year: 1952       Final Year: 1961          Years Played: 8
Teams and Years: Boston Braves, 1952; St. Louis Cardinals, 1955; Chicago Cubs, 1956; Cincinnati Redlegs, 1957-60; Cleveland Indians, 1960; Washington Senators, 1960; Minnesota  Twins, 1961; Cincinnati Reds, 1961

Career Summary
G         AB       H         R          RBI      HR       BA.      OBP.    SLG.     WAR
465   988    221     140     134      37       .224     .284     .399     1.6

 An intense competitor, Pete Whisenant was thought to be just a few steps from stardom when he signed his first professional contract as one of North Carolina’s most-prized prep players. It was not to be, however. After an eight-year career on seven big-league clubs, Whisenant retired as a reserve outfielder with a .224 career batting average.

He had short careers as a major-league coach and minor-league manager after his playing days and longer ones as the director of a popular baseball camp and as a businessman who owned vending machines and sold baseball memorabilia. That last endeavor led to a partnership with Pete Rose, the game’s all-time hits leaders, that didn’t end that well.

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Barnes, Junie

Primary Position: Relief pitcher
Birthplace: Linwood

First, Middle Names: Junie Shoaf      Nickname: Lefty
Date of Birth:  Dec. 1, 1911    Date and Place of Death: Dec. 31, 1963, Jacksonville, NC
Burial: Barnes Family Cemetery, Churchland, NC

High School: Churchland High School, Churchland, NC
College: Wake Forest University, Wake Forest, NC

Bats: L             Throws: L        Height and Weight: 5-11, 170
Debut Year: 1934       Final Year: 1934          Years Played: 1
Team and Year: Cincinnati Reds, 1934

Career Summary
G         W        L          Sv        ERA     IP         SO       WAR
2          0          0          0          0.00     0.1       0          0.0

Though he was a collegiate star who set strike-out records in the minor leagues, Junie Barnes had only the most-fleeting of moments in the majors. He pitched to just two batters in two games. He walked the first and retired the other. That one-third of an inning is the shortest tenure in the majors of any North Carolina pitcher.

Barnes apparently had better luck preaching the Word than pitching a curve because he spent most of his life after baseball as a Baptist minister.

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Young, Pep

Position: Second base
Birthplace: Jamestown

First, Middle Names: Lemuel Floyd  Nicknames: Pep, Whitey
Date of Birth:  Aug. 29, 1907  Date and Place of Death: Jan. 14, 1962, Jamestown           
Burial: Guilford Memorial Park, Greensboro, NC

High School: Jamestown High School, Jamestown   
College: Did not attend


Bats: R             Throws: R        Height and Weight: 5-9, 162
Debut Year: 1933       Final Year: 1945          Years Played: 10
Teams and Years: Pittsburgh Pirates, 1933-40; Cincinnati Reds, 1941; St. Louis Browns, 1945

Career Summary
G         AB        H         R           RBI      HR       BA.      OBP.    SLG.     WAR
730   2466   645   274     347     32       .262     .308     .380     6.0

Awards/Honors: NC Sports Hall of Fame, 2000; Boys of Summer Top 100

For most of baseball’s history, players like Pep Young were the epitome of middle infielders. No one expected them to hit balls out of the park or drive in many runs. They had to field their positions with aplomb, expertly turn the double play and hit just well enough and at the right times. During his four years as a Pittsburgh Pirates’ starter, Young was considered the best defensive second baseman in the National League, while hitting a respectable .260. He teamed with Hall-of-Fame shortstop Arky Vaughan to give the Pirates the best double-play combination in the league.

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