Jones was the first player in Major League history to club two homers in the same inning, doing so on June 10, 1880 when his Boston Red Stockings club pummeled the Buffalo Bison 19-3, with both homers coming off of aptly named Tom Poorman.
A popular player in his time, he led the National League in home runs and RBI’s in 1879 with 9 and 62 respectively, and would lead the Cincinnati Red Stockings of the American Association with 80 ribbies three years later after missing the 1881 & 1882 seasons when he was black-listed for playing with independent teams.
Between his 1st season as a pro player in 1875 and his final season in 1888, he finished with 56 homers and a very respectable .298 batting average in just under 900 games, collecting 1114 hits in 3738 at-bats.
An interesting aside in Jones’ story was the fact that his death was a mystery for just over 100 years until SABR members in 2012, finally found out that he died in New York City’s Bellevue Hospital on June 6th, 1911 after some illness.
