Sam Jones
The big-league career of Sam Jones didn’t start off very well. After just two years in the minor leagues, he was called up to Cleveland and made one start in 1914. The next year, he pitched primarily as a reliever, throwing in 48 games, finishing with a 4-9 record. He was sent to Boston with Fred Thomas (and $55,000) after the 1916 season for Hall of Fame outfielder Tris Speaker. But Boston was not exactly teeming with opportunities for a youngster, either, and in ’16 and ’17, Jones made a scant 21 appearances, started one game and put together an 0-2 record.
Jones pitched so little that, when it came time to hand out contracts in the winter of 1918, the Red Sox did not even contact him. The team just assumed he had been taken by the army’s draft. According to The Sporting News, “The team was at Hot Springs when owner Harry Frazee 
Sam Jones, pitching for the Yankees in 1922. (Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.) received a message from Sam which expressed itself thusly: ‘Forgotten me altogether? Not worth a contract of any sort? If I am through, let me in on it.’”
But the Red Sox, like all teams, were short on material because of the war, and Jones finally got a chance. At first, it was the tonsillitis suffered by pitcher Babe Ruth that opened the door for Jones. On May 23, Jones made his starting debut for the season, and lost to Cleveland in a well-pitched game, 1-0. Six days later, he made a start against the great Walter Johnson and the Senators, and won, 3-0. This was a tremendous blessing. As Reds manager Christy Mathewson wrote, “If the other big-league managers are having the same trouble I am, and I guess most of them are in the same boat, they must go to bed at night praying for some young hurler to rise up over night as a Moses to lead them out of their difficulty.”
That Moses, for the Red Sox, was Jones. After Ruth returned, then, the Red Sox were left with a surplus of pitching. That allowed Ruth to focus more on hitting than pitching, at least until lefty starter Dutch Leonard jumped the team to join a shipyard outfit. Either way, manager Ed Barrow gained confidence in Jones, who cemented his place in the rotation.
By the end of 1918, Jones was 16-5, leading the American League in winning percentage. He made one World Series start, losing Game 5. Despite the late start to his career, Jones would prove to be a reliable, though unspectacular starter for many years. He pitched for 22 seasons, until he was 42, and had a career mark of 229-217.
