Jones to be honored
To further honor the greatest manager in Oklahoma's pro baseball history - he has the most wins in both Oklahoma City and Tulsa - let's share some Bobby Jones stories that deserve retelling.
"MADE ME A BETTER PERSON"
Bobby, 60, is one of only three men who have served in Vietnam and played major league baseball. He spent 14 months in Vietnam, from Dec. 2, 1969, to Jan. 31, 1971. He was with the U.S. Army's Americal Division, 196th Infantry Brigade artillery unit, on LZ Siberia, a remote and tiny firebase near Laos.
From May through June in 1970, LZ Siberia was shelled for 45 straight days. Bobby's reward was partial deafness (30 percent left ear, 60 percent right), hearing aids and a Bronze Star.
"I'd say I'm lucky," Jones told me a few years ago. "We were out on a firebase, out in the middle of nowhere, getting hit by rockets and mortars and rifles all the time, and I came back without a scratch. We had a lot of guys get killed and wounded, but I was one of the lucky ones. You can't explain it; it just happened.
"But that experience made me a better person when I came back. I wanted to play in the major leagues more than anything - but if I didn't, I was still alive, I had both arms and legs. As a player, that was the way I tried to look at things. You couldn't tell if I was in an 0-for-50 slump or 25-for-50. It was, 'Yeah, I want to play, but I'm alive.'
"My outlook was completely different. It was, Enjoy it. Look at the moon at night when it's coming up over the outfield wall. So many guys don't even think about stuff like that. See the sunrise when you're getting on the plane. Instead of being mad about getting up so early, see the beauty in the sunrise. There's so much out there.
"So, I don't know. It just changed my way of thinking when I came back, and I think it made me a better person in the long run."
"I LOVE TO DO YARD WORK"
Bobby Jones on some topics outside of baseball:
Television: "I don't really have any favorite TV shows. I like watching the Discovery Channel and stuff like that. I don't really sit down and watch regular TV series. I do like watching "Amazing Race' on Sundays, but other than that, I'm not really much on watching. I'm a channel surfer."
Books: "In spring training I probably read two or three books a month. During the season, not that many, because there's too much stuff going on and I don't have time to read. When I do, I read James Patterson, David Baldacci, Tom Clancy, Nelson DeMille."
Music: "I listen to oldies most of the time, and I like country music. But most of the time it's oldies. I just turn the radio station on that plays golden oldies, Sixties, Seventies, light rock. I used to buy cassettes all the time, but I can't tell you the last time I bought a CD. I've got an I-pod and I've got everything on it from country to Neil Diamond to Linda Rondstadt to Willie Nelson, and I liked Beatles songs."
Movies: "My favorite movies have been 'Sand Pebbles' with Steve McQueen, 'Camelot' and 'Bull Durham' and "Godfather,' stuff like that. My favorite actors are Robert Duvall - I loved him in 'Lonesome Dove' - and Clint Eastwood. Actresses, when I was younger I liked Natalie Wood. Now, I really don't have one."
Pro or college football: "I prefer pro. I'm not much into college football. I'll watch bowl games, but that's about it. I won't watch college games, but I will sit down and watch a pro game. I was a Denver Broncos fan for a long time, when John Elway was playing. Now, I might watch on Monday night, but on Sundays I'm out in the yard. I don't even turn the television on. I'm not a big football fan like I used to be."
Pro or college basketball: "Neither one. I don't care for either one of them. I loved playing basketball in high school, but now I don't even watch it except for the NCAA Tournament and the NBA playoffs. I can't tell you the last time I actually sat down and watched a basketball game on television."
Your job if you hadn't been in baseball: "I would have been in the military. I'd have stayed in the Army after I got drafted if I hadn't been playing ball. In my hometown (Elkton, Md.), a mobile home factory was all they had there, and that's where everybody worked. All my cousins and brothers worked there, and I didn't want to do that, so I probably would have just stayed in the service."
Hobbies: "I like to play golf and I love to do yard work. I go out in the back yard and start walking around pulling weeds. That's really relaxing. I just get my mind off of everything, you know? When I retire, my yard (in Tulsa) will look like (RedHawks groundskeeper) Monte McCoy's baseball field out here. When I hang it up, I'll invite you over so you can see what it looks like."
Vacations: "Debbie and I like going to the Sandals resort in the Bahamas. We've been there a couple of times and we've been to the Sandals resort in Jamaica. We went to Cancun. About every two years we try to vacation somewhere in the winter where we just go lay by the beach or by the pool and kick back and don't do anything, just read. Last year we went to the Bahamas and I think this fall we're going to Yellowstone."
Astronomy: "I'm a big star gazer. I've got a telescope and I like to look at the planets. We used to take it out here after the games were over. I've got a planetarium disc I put on my computer that tells me what's out there and what time. It's pretty cool."
Favorite ballplayer of all time: "Babe Ruth."
Best best baseball movie ever: "Bull Durham."
Your job if not a ballplayer: "A command sergeant major in the military."
First purchase if win lottery: "Two weeks in Hawaii with my wife Debbie."
Best concert seen: "Eagles in Oklahoma City."
Person you'd like to meet: "Abraham Lincoln."
Favorite team growing up: "Baltimore Orioles."
Favorite ballplayer growing up: "Mickey Mantle."
"THEY DON'T NEED TO KNOW STUFF LIKE THAT"
Twenty-five years ago, Bobby Jones couldn't stop shaking.
"I was with the Rangers, in Milwaukee," the RedHawks manager remembered. "For three days I didn't sleep. I was having nightmares and flashbacks.
"One day I was eating with the trainer, Bill Zeigler, and I was shaking so bad that he thought I was on drugs.
"He asked what was wrong with me and I broke down and told him what had happened."
What had happened was Vietnam.
By the summer of '85, in Milwaukee, he had been out of Vietnam for more than 14 years. But if you've been to war you know that 14 years ago is no different than 14 seconds ago.
You never, ever forget.
"Was it worth it?," Bobby said, repeating my question.
"Career-wise, I'd say yes. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Vietnam."
Before surviving Vietnam, Jones said, "I was just going through the motions as a player."
Jones returned to hit 23 home runs and .321 for Anderson (Western Carolina League) in 1971. He played 20 seasons, nine in the major leagues, then retired as a player after the 1987 season. He's been a manager or coach for the last 23 seasons - all in the Texas Rangers organization.
As Vietnam veterans, Bobby and I have talked about those days many times over the years.
"The bad part about Vietnam was . . . well, you know," Jones said. "Seeing the death and all the other stuff that went on over there.
"Guys ask me what it was like, and I say it was bad. But to get into the gory details - how your friends are dying and you're medivac'ing them and the guy's bleeding and he's full of holes and you're trying to carry him in your arms to the chopper pad - they don't need to know that.
"They could never in their lives understand what it was like. After awhile you get numb to it. It's not right, but it happens. And they don't need to know about stuff like that."
"HE LOVES LIFE IN GENERAL"
A lot of baseball people like talking about Bobby Jones, because they like Bobby Jones. A lot.
Catcher Danny Ardoin played pro baseball for 15 years, in eight different organizations. He played three of those seasons with the RedHawks, for manager Bobby Jones.
"Guys love playing for him. They love coming to the park," Ardoin said a few years ago. "He's always upbeat, no matter whether we win or lose. His attitude never changes. I mean, the guy loves baseball, and he loves life in general."
Second baseman Jeff Pickler, now a professional scout for the San Diego Padres, played three of his eight pro seasons for Jones' RedHawks. A few years ago, Pickler remarked that some managers and coaches tell their player that what happens on the field isn't personal; it's a business.
"A lot of them say that, but not every coach or manager believes it. But Bobby does," Pickler said. "Your value to him as a person is not determined by your value to him as a baseball player. He gets so much more out of his players because of that reason, because we realize that he respects us as a man, not just as a player."
Bruce Crabbe, who was Jones' position coach with the RedHawks and also in Tulsa, said: "Jonesy likes to have fun when he manages, and players love to play for him. They'll run through a brick wall for him. He'll lead with an iron hand if necessary, but most of the time it's not necessary because players respect him that much."
"TO SEE HOW THEY TURN OUT IS THE BEST PART"
Robert Oliver Jones isn't all about winning. He's about teaching men how to be good players and great people, and doing it with respect.
"The whole thing is seeing the kids develop," Jones said. "That's the best part about managing in the minor leagues, watching them grow and become good players and good men. To see how they turn out is the best part about it."
The best part of Jones' life began in 1992, when he met Debbie Hogue, a Little Rock, Ark., native who has lived in Tulsa since she was nine years old.
In '92, Bobby was in his second season as the Tulsa Drillers' manager, and Debbie was the ballclub's director of ticket sales.
They were married Nov. 11, 1994, and still make their year-round home in Tulsa.
"I think Bobby makes a heck of an impact on these young guys," Debbie said, "and I think all of that is reflected in the way they talk to him when they leave (for the major leagues) and in how glad they are to see him when they come back."
Jones has been a major league player and a major league coach, but mostly he's been a minor league manager - for 21 of the last 23 years.
"I've been in the minor leagues a long time as a player and manager. It's been an important part of my life," Jones said. "I think personally that you have more fun in the minor leagues, and I wouldn't trade all my years of managing and playing in the minor leagues for anything."
"THEY SAY THAT BECAUSE IT'S THE TRUTH"
Bobby Jones' crowning achievement as Oklahoma City's manager - or at least one of them - came in 2005, after his RedHawks had lost 13 straight games.
At that point, on July 18, the RedHawks were 45-51 and eight games out of first place. They had lost 24 of their last 30 games.
From that low point, the RedHawks went on to win 35 of their final 47 regular season games. They finished with the best record (80-63) in the Pacific Coast League and won the American South division.
"You just gotta stay positive with the players," Bobby Jones said at the time. "When they're down you've gotta tell them to keep their heads up. I haven't done anything different except to just stay positive.
"That's all they needed. They didn't need team meetings. They were busting their butts but they were just losing games, that's all."
How did the RedHawks overcome a 13-game losing streak and win a division title? Bobby Jones.
"I mean, it's true. Guys aren't saying that just because he's our coach or that they think they need to say that," second baseman Ian Kinsler said five years ago. "They say that because it's the truth."
Lee Tunnell, then the RedHawks pitching coach, said: "It starts with Bobby, and he's got a real good outlook on keeping everything in perspective. That's from the perspective of how baseball fits into life and also what our purpose is here.
"Guys get into periods where it takes a little bit of time to get their minds right, and Bobby's great at helping guys do that. But he also has a good idea of when to tighten up a little bit."
Starting pitcher R.A. Dickey said: "Bobby Jones is real easy to play for, and he's got a great mentality. It's the atmosphere we're in."
"THERE ARE A LOT OF ALCOHOLICS"
Bobby Jones said, "People say that, because of the Vietnam thing, I have a way of just blocking things out."
But Jones began blocking out memories long before he went to Vietnam, less than two months after turning 20.
"I don't remember my childhood, except for certain things, from the time I was eight until I was about 12," Jones said.
The reason: He doesn't want to remember what his father, Bob Sr., was like in those days.
"Dad was an alcoholic," Jones said of his late father. "He was never abusive, but he was never home."
Home for the Joneses was the small town of Elkton, Md., near the Delaware state line, between Baltimore and Philadelphia. Bob Jones Sr. was a foreman at a concrete plant.
Friends and family have told Bobby that his father used to hang out with the winos on Water Street. Friends and family would find Bob Sr. and bring him home, where he'd sleep it off. And then he'd be gone again.
"In the whole Jones family, there are a lot of alcoholics," Bobby said a few years ago. "My dad had three brothers that died from it. My brother was an alcoholic who quit drinking 10 or 15 years ago. I have cousins who still have a problem with it. It runs in the family.
"I drink, but I've never had problems with it. My brother would get drunk and they couldn't find him and he'd be passed out somewhere on a back road, truck still running, 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. It was bad.
"They found dad one time holed up in a hotel somewhere, drinking aftershave. He had no money, so he was drinking aftershave.
"I'm lucky, though. I never drank until I was in Denver in '72. I was playing in Triple-A ball before I had my first beer. Even Vietnam, where you got three beers and three sodas a day, I'd save all my beers and trade with somebody and get sodas. I think it had a lot to do with seeing the family the way it was.
"I was about 12 when a preacher came around and started talking to dad," Jones said. "He started going to church and he got real religious. He was the treasurer of the church, a superintendent of the church, a big shot in the church, and then he stopped drinking cold turkey."
"HE'S HAD... AN INCREDIBLE IMPACT ON THEM AS MEN"
John Allgood, the executive director of the RedHawks, has had plenty of post-game chats with Bobby Jones in the manager's office.
"It's never, ever about baseball," Allgood said. "It's always about what's going on in life and what's happening. That's just the kind of guy he is.
"I've run into guys who have gone on to other teams and they talk about their time in Oklahoma City and they always talk about how great the ballpark is, but they also talk about how great it was to play for Bobby."
Allgood's most telling comments involved an area he knows well: business. He has taught a business course at the University of Oklahoma for several years and risen steadily in the Oklahoma City and Bricktown business communities.
"Bobby could manage in any industry, in any field," Allgood said, "because he knows how to connect with his employees and he gets the best out of them. If he was working for Chesapeake or IBM or whatever, he would rise to the top because he's an excellent manager."
And now he'll have his "day" in Oklahoma City, and his plaque will be on display at The Brick forever after.
"He deserves to have his legacy known for many years to come," Allgood said. "What he has done for us is exceptional. To able to manage for as long as he has, it's unheard of in Triple-A baseball to see a guy stay in one place and manage for as long as he has.
"He has influenced numerous, numerous players who have gone on to have highly successful careers, and all of them talk about the time they spent with Bobby. So, he's had an incredible career, and an incredible impact on them as men."