From Silver Sox Manager to World Series Champion - Gary Jones Reflects on his Time in Reno
The Biggest Little City has a rich baseball culture that predates the Aces. The Reno Silver Sox began play in the 1940s and played affiliated baseball on and off into the early 1990s - mostly in the California League. The club was once a minor league team for the New
The Biggest Little City has a rich baseball culture that predates the Aces.
The Reno Silver Sox began play in the 1940s and played affiliated baseball on and off into the early 1990s - mostly in the California League.
The club was once a minor league team for the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres, and Oakland Athletics.
Notable alumni include Major League Hall of Famers Roberto Alomar (1986), Bobby Cox (1960), and Dennis Eckersley (1972-1973), 1945 NL Most Valuable Player Phil Cavarretta (1966-1967 as Manager) and All-Stars
The final affiliated season for the Silver Sox came in 1992 playing in the California League under the Oakland Athletics, where Gary Jones managed the team.
For the now current Manager of Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs, it was Jones' second stop as a manager in his young coaching career after spending 1991 at the helm of the Madison Huskies of the Midwest League - also an Oakland affiliate. Jones had played the game himself from 1982-1989 appearing in 889 career minor league games in the Chicago Cubs' organization.
While a blip on the map for a person with close to 30 years of managing and coaching experience with five different Major League organizations, Jones was thankful for his time in Reno.
"It just was an intricate part of my development as a baseball teacher," Jones said. "That time with the Oakland organization was all part of my development as a manager, a coach, and an instructor. At the time we had good people in the organization who had a lot of experience. Guys like Keith Lippman, Ron Plaza, Karl Kuehl, Harvey Dorfman - the names keep going."
Jones has some vivid memories both as a player and coach while competing at the late Moana Stadium.
"The wind in the park always blew out to right-center field, cause of the wind it always seemed like the infield was pretty hard - wind would blow off the infield dirt, and the clubhouse was a two-part clubhouse where the coaches' office was upstairs," Jones said. "I had a lot of history with Reno, because I played in Lodi in 1984, we were in the California League, and we used to travel to Reno to play the San Diego Padres' affiliate."
"You had to drive by the casinos most days to get to the ballpark. Of course, the most challenging part was trying to keep tabs on the guys as far as spending every dime they had at the casinos," Jones added followed by a laugh.
However, one day stood out to him more than others.
"Oakland had two teams in that league at that time, Modesto and Reno, and one of the unknown facts about that team was we played Modesto in Reno one series we got into a brawl with our own organization," Jones said.
In 1992, Jones managed the club to a 65-71 record. However, it wasn't the wins and losses he remembers most about Reno - but the relationships he had with his team.
"My pitching coach was Scott Budner - we had a good time and I still consider him a good friend. Just pulling up the roster looking at some of these names it just brought memories of those guys and watching them play it was a lot of fun. Players like, Mike Neill, Jim Waggoner, Rafael Mercado, Enoch Simmons, Izzy Molina, Tony DeFrancesco - now the first base coach for the New York Mets, just great memories of going out and playing baseball."
Jones has gone on to build an impressive managing and coaching resume since his time in the Biggest Little City. 2020 is Jones' 29th season managing or coaching in affiliated baseball.
Including his time with the Madison Muskies and Reno Silver Sox, Jones has 16 years of minor league managerial experience for teams such as the Huntsville Stars, Edmonton Trappers, Pawtucket Red Sox, Fort Wayne Wizards, and Mobile Bay Bears.
He's won Minor League Manager of the Year honors five separate times, first in 1991 in Madison, then for Double-A Huntsville in 1994, back-to-back awards for Triple-A Edmonton in 1996 and 1997, and most recently for Triple-A Lehigh Valley in 2018.
At the big-league level, the Henderson, Texas native served as the first base coach for the Oakland Athletics in 1998, he was minor league field coordinator for the Boston Red Sox in 2002, a roving infield instructor for the San Diego Padres from 2007-2013, and most notable was the third base coach for the Chicago Cubs from 2014 - 2017; including the 2016 World Series team.
"Quite honestly it was a great year, but it had been building for a couple of years. In 2014 we won more games that people had anticipated us winning and in 2015 they brought Joe Maddon in and we got to the Championship Series. And in 2016 it just kept on going and guys played well all year," Jones said.
"In '16, things got rolling - it was just a good group of guys, we had a good mixture of young guys versus guys with experience. Guys like Addison Russell, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez and some older guys like David Ross, Dexter Fowler, and Jason Heyward. We also had a killer pitching staff with guys like Jon Lester, John Lackey, Kyle Hendricks, and we ended up getting Chapman in a trade - it was just a good mixture and good vibe in the clubhouse," he added.
The city of Reno is known as a place of vision and opportunity, and for Reno Silver Sox Manager turned World Series Champion, Gary Jones certainly took advantage of his time here.
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