The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1929-01-14


Why do they call "Sad Sam"
Jones, Washington's leading
right-handed hurler, sad?
Is it because he is morose
or detected or downcast or dis
couraged?
No!
"Sad Sam" comes by his
moniker because he is phil
osopher. He thinks consider
ably, but he never thinks aloud,
as the saying is. He was
never known to thrust his phil
osophies of life on others.
Samuel Pond Jones, to give
him the name his parents
applied to him 81 years ago, is
addicted to the solitude of his
own company and while he does
not particularly avoid human
contact, he has an established
penchant for seeking the quiet
spots of nature and communing
with himself.
He is not moper nor a sour
head nor a pessimist nor yet a
recluse. But he just has a
calm and contemplative outlook
on things which marks him as
anything but a rowdy, a
roisterer or a hilarious cuss.
"Sad Sam" has the name of
being the earliest riser in the
major leagues. Among such
risers as Rogers Hornsby, Tom
Zachary and Fred Marberry,
"Sad Sam" is an early bird.
There is a story that some
of the newspaper men return
ing to their hotel in st. Louis
quite early one morning noticed
a figure seated in a rocking
chair in the courtyard, just
about the time the sun was get
ting above the horizon.
That figure was Sam Jones.
He was up to greet the sunrise
and to watch the flowers I'M
fold and the birds awaken.
Consulting their watches, they
noted the hour was SAT. Had
it been some ball players
famous to the game, they might
have suspected that Jones too,
was on his way home and had
paused for strength to get up
stairs, but such surmise could
never be applied to Washing
toms second most effective
pitcher.
1t is difficult to learn from
Jones the myriad thoughts
which have passed through his
contemplative viewpoint in his
nearly two-score wears, but it
is a cinch that if there were
any real morbidity to his make
up, he could never have out
lived some of the discouraging
events of which he has been
the center.
For Jones has had ups and
downs in baseball in about
equal doses. Only a year ago
he was considered on his way
out of the game, a slipping
sliding veteran. Washington
grabbed him and under the
local colors he finished out the
season as the leagues leading
right-hander. Both the Yankees
and Browns had given him up
as through when Clark Griffith
decided there was still many a
game in that ageing right arm.
Had "Sad Sam" really been
as moody as the name he has
carried through baseball would
imply, he wouldn't have been
able to overcome the stamp of
uselessness put on him by his
two owners previous to coming
here and it is fair to assume
that this philosopher just philo-
sophized along the lines that a
pitcher is never down until he
is out.
His big league career had
started back in 1915 with the
Cleveland club. He had good
years and lean years at Cleve-
land and Boston and was at
his peak about 1921 when he
won % victories for the Red
Sox and was sold to New York
by Harry Frazee, Boston's
famous ivory merchant.
-. His most satisfactory year
was proSably 1923. He won 81
victories and lost only 8 games.
One of his victories was a
pitching masterpiece-a no-hit-
no-run game.
Then Jones started to hit the
toboggan. His arm gave him
trouble. Higgins held on to
him until the end of the 1925
season. Then Sad Sam was
sold to St. Louis.
Jones was a regular pitcher
for the Browns in 1927. He
won eight games. But he lost
IA and when the Browns de-
cided to release him, it looked
like curtains for the Jones
career.
Washington stepped in and
saved Sam from drifting to the
minors or entirely out of base
ball. Griff took a flier and as
it turned out, collected well on