Wednesday, February 24, 2021

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1979 ODELL JONES

Today's blog post has a "not so missing" 1979 card for former pitcher Odell Jones, who appeared in only three games for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1978 after seeing significant playing time the year prior:

  

Coming off a 1977 season which saw him appear in 34 games, with 15 of them starts, for the Pirates, Jones was limited to only three games in 1978, going 2-0 with a 2.00 earned run average over nine innings.

In 1979 he would find himself a member of the Seattle Mariners, where he appeared in 25 games, starting 19, and posting a record of 3-11 with an ERA of 6.07 over 118.2 innings pitched.
After a year in the Minors in 1980 he was back in Pittsburgh in 1981, before spending another year in the Minors in 1982, coming back to the Big Leagues with two years with the Texas Rangers in 1983 and 1984.
1985 would have him back in the Minors, only to see him scrape his way back in 1986, now with the Baltimore Orioles before, you guessed it, another year in the Minors in 1987 before coming back in 1988 for what was his last year in the Majors, pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers and going an impressive 5-0 over 28 appearances.
Sadly, he would spend 1989 and 1992 in the Minors yet again, with the in-between years seemingly out of pro-ball, and retire soon after the 1992 season

All told, Odell finished his nine-year Major League career with a record of 24-35 over 201 appearances, posting an ERA of 4.42 over 549.1 innings of work, with four complete games and 13 saves along the way.