The tragic career of Mike Jones

What could have been?

The story of Mike Jones remains, behind Steve Busby and Yordano Ventura, one of the greatest “what ifs” in Royals history. Jones was the Royals’ first-round draft pick, number 21 overall, in the 1977 draft out of Pittsford (NY) high school. The 1977 draft was something else. Harold Baines was the number one pick, followed by Bill Gullickson and Paul Molitor. Other first-round selections of note were Terry Kennedy, Richard Dotson, Wally Backman, Bob Welch, and Dave Henderson. That’s a pretty decent collection of talent in one round.

A terrific high school athlete, Jones had a lot going for him, being a left-handed pitcher plus he was a big man, standing 6’6 and 215 pounds. He had a nice smooth motion, and though not known as a fireballer, he could bring the heat when he needed to.

After signing, he split the remainder of the 1977 season as a 17-year-old at the Royals Sarasota rookie team, before moving across the state to their Daytona Class A team. He showed great promise when he moved up to High A Ft. Myers for the 1978 season, going 13-9 over 25 starts.

At age 19, for the 1979 season, he advanced to AA Jacksonville, making 26 starts. Though his record was only 9-13, he threw 167 innings with a 4.10 ERA. He repeated Jacksonville in 1980, making 24 more starts, albeit with much better results: a 13-6 record over 158 innings of work. This earned him a late-season callup to the big-league club, which was on their way to their first World Series appearance.

He made his major league debut at age 20 in a September 6 game at Cleveland, pitching three innings of relief and only allowing one hit. Jones struck out Rick Manning in the bottom of the eight for his first major league punchout.

Jones started the 1981 season in Omaha, where he made 11 starts before being summoned back to Kansas City. In a strange twist, Jones was one of those players who had more success at the Major League level than in the minors. He was a revelation for the remainder of the 1981 season, making 11 starts in 12 appearances while posting a 6-3 record with a sparkling 3.21 ERA. He recorded his first major league victory on August 14 with a win over future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven in a game at Cleveland.

Manager Dick Howser thought enough of Jones’ ability to give him the start in Game Two of the 1981 playoff series against Oakland. Even though the Royals lost that game by a score of 2-to-1, Jones was fantastic, going eight innings and only allowing two runs. Unfortunately, Oakland starter Steve McCatty was even better, holding the Royals to just six hits. The game went into the eighth inning tied at one, before Dwayne Murphy nicked Jones for a leadoff single. Murphy then scored the deciding run on a one out double off the bat of Tony Armas. The Royals couldn’t answer in the eight or ninth and that was that.

Those results led many inside and outside of the organization to believe that the Royals had found another high-quality young starter. In those days, the Royals were known for finding and developing homegrown pitchers. Even though he only appeared in 12 games, the Baseball Writers of America awarded Jones a fourth-place finish in the league Rookie of the Year voting.

Everything changed in the early morning hours of December 21st, when Jones crashed his car into a tree in his hometown. He suffered a severe injury to his neck, a dislocation between the C4 and C5 vertebrae, which required surgery to repair. A passenger in the car, Chris Warden, was treated for minor injuries and released. Jones said he hit a patch of ice which caused him to lose control. His car was demolished, and Jones was charged with being driving while impaired.

Royals team physician Dr. Paul Meyer said that “Jones was lucky to be alive. He’s a tough kid and I have complete confidence that he’ll be able to come back. It usually takes anywhere from six months to a year to recover fully from injuries like this, but I’d say based on what I’ve been told that it is highly probable that he will miss the season or most of it”.

Understand, the accident happened in the days before cars were outfitted with airbags and even before most people routinely wore seat belts. Today, there is a very good chance that someone would walk away from an accident like this with just bumps and bruises. Either way, it drastically changed the course of Jones’ career and the fortunes of the Royals.

Jones did indeed miss all the 1982 season. He was outfitted with a back brace for three months prior to starting rehab. He began his comeback during the 1983 season, back where he started, in Class A Fort Myers. He made 18 starts that summer, throwing 116 innings with a very respectable 3.26 ERA.

Jones started the 1984 season at Omaha before getting the call to Kansas City in mid-June. Just making it back to the big leagues was a triumph of will and determination. The Royals eased him into action, giving him four relief appearances before making his first start on July 2, once again in Cleveland, which seemed to be the place of milestones for Jones. First appearance, first strikeout, first win – all in Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jones made 23 appearances for the Royals that summer, with eight starts, giving fans and Royals brass hope that he could rebound to 1981 form.

He made the team out of spring training in 1985, making 33 appearances primarily out of the bullpen. By this time the Royals had a new wave of young pitchers, and good ones, guys like Bret Saberhagen, Danny Jackson, Mark Gubicza, Charlie Leibrandt, and Bud Black.

Jones made his last appearance at the major league level on October 6 against Oakland. He got the start, and went two innings, giving up four runs on just three hits. Jones didn’t make an appearance in either the ALCS or the World Series but did collect a World Series ring, a culmination of his recovery.

Though Jones was just 25, his time in Kansas City was done as the team released him in March of 1986. Jones spent the next five seasons in the minor league systems of the Braves, Reds, Expos, and Orioles before calling it a career at the age of 30.

In retirement, Jones worked as the head baseball coach of the Episcopal School of Jacksonville (FL) where he coached future Royal Billy Butler in his freshman season.

I often think about Jones and what might have been. There go I (and many of us) but for the grace of God. There is no lesson here, no moral to the story, just a semi-tragic tale of a talented young career altered and a testament to Jones’ courage and determination to make a comeback.