Fielder Jones

Manager
  • Card series: Diamond Heads '15
  • City: St. Louis
  • Team: Terriers
  • League: Federal League

Fielder Allison Jones (1871-1934) made his name in baseball’s history books by eking just enough results from minimal production to win the White Sox their first Series title in 1906. That club has forever been known as the “Hitless Wonders,” a squad of light-hitting scrappers who, under Jones’ able direction, were able to best the powerful Cubs. The ’06 Series was noteworthy as the first cross-town matchup and the only one to pair the Chicago franchises. It was also one of the greatest upsets, with the Cubs’ bats held in check by Ed Walsh and other Sox hurlers. In taking the final two contests, Jones’ crew stepped out of character and rapped 26 hits. Overall, though, his boys lived up to their “hitless” reputation, managing only a .198 average for the series. Jones was one of the most adept managers of his era in teaching “inside baseball” or “small-ball” whereby his charges frequently plated runs without the benefit of hits in the inning. Jones was a blue-blood, tracing his heritage to Scotland’s Robert Bruce on one side and a Mayflower landing on the other. He had university training that perhaps predicted the cerebral approach Fielder always brought to the game. He had come out of rural Pennsylvania to play for Brooklyn where he helped the team to pennants in 1899 and 1900. Moving to Chicago only continued his winning ways, gaining another gonfalon in 1901, the new American League entry’s first. As a player, Fielder had made a fine record, leading the Superbas in 1900 and hitting .285 overall.

  • Jones moved from Chicago to St Louis when the Federal League and the Terriers beckoned him back to the majors in 1914 and he remained with the Browns through the 1918 season
  • Though the White Sox were a poor hitting team in ’06, they had come a long way under Jones’ leadership. A writer of the day lauded him as having introduced “speed, psychology and daring into the game.”

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