Ruppert Jones Knows the Full Score
Lots of zeroes in the Hall of Fame column
1988 Score Ruppert Jones (#333) - Card of the Day
As you’ve probably heard by now, the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025 is set! Here are the men who will be honored at the induction ceremony in Cooperstown this summer, along with how they were elected:
Dick Allen - elected by the Classic Baseball Era Committee
Dave Parker - elected by the Classic Baseball Era Committee
Ichiro Suzuki - elected via the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot
CC Sabathia - elected via the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot
Billy Wagner - elected via the Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot
For this old Reds fan, it’s especially exciting to think about Cobra on the HOF dais, even though there’s still plenty of debate around his election. Come late July, WAR and scandal and decline and comparisons will take a backseat to beautiful boyhood memories.
But as much as I’m looking forward to seeing Parker get his day, there’s still some unfinished Hall of Fame business for us here in these parts of the interwebs.
Specifically, did you know that a player can log his ten years (or more) in the bigs, and even pick up some honors like All-Star selection and Gold Gloves and MVP and still not even be included on the Hall of Fame ballot?
I must have known that somewhere along the line. I mean, it’s right there in the BBWAA election rules for the whole world to read: two of the six-member screening committee have to nominate a first-year eligible player before his name can make it to the ballot.
Otherwise, his whole career was for naught as far as a Cooperstown plaque is concerned.
Don’t believe me? Ask Carlos Gomez.
It was Gomez’s absence from the ballot this year, even though he last played in 2019, that sent me rummaging through this particular ball bag. He just didn’t make the cut to even be considered by HOF voters — despite two All-Star berths, a Gold Glove in centerfield, 145 home runs, and 24.4 WAR (Baseball Reference version) in a 13-year career.
Color me surprised.
As it turns out, though, Gomez isn’t the only player of his ilk to meet the same fate.
In fact, the most comparable batter to Gomez in baseball history, according to Baseball Reference’s Similarity Scores, was Ruppert Jones. And, wouldn’t you know it? Jones also never appeared on a Hall of Fame ballot.
Like most players of my youth, Jones was a guy I first discovered while poring over my baseball cards sometime in 1983 or after. He wasn’t a star by any outward measures that I could come up with — no teams were fawning over him, he didn’t appear on All-Star cards, he didn’t lead his league in anything.
But when I got down to the nitty gritty of scouring Jones’ stats on the back of his card, as I did for every player who passed through my chubby little fingers, I began to wonder what I was missing.
I mean, Jones had hit 21 homers (and stole 33 bases!) for the lowly Mariners in 1979 and 24 way back in their inaugural season, 1977. Those were heady numbers for any Seattle swinger back in those days, and it was enough for me to pull Jones’ cards and slide them into my “check later” box.
You know, right beside Jason Thompson, Steve Kemp, Mitchell Page, and Al Cowens. One or all of those dudes were destined to come back around and hit big numbers again, right? Bigger numbers, even? And when they did, I’d have their cards at the ready, all set to move over into the “star” box.
And Jones did indeed give it a go.
After a not-so-great summer with the Padres in 1983 — my first year of collecting — he signed a free agent deal with the Tigers in 1984, just as the historic juggernaut was lifting off. Jones was a part-timer for Sparky Anderson’s crew, but he managed to hit .284 with 12 home runs in 79 games for Detroit, and he helped them win a ring that October.
Another trip to free agency followed, and Jones landed with the Angels. In his first two seasons with California, he played in 251 games and hit 38 homers with 116 RBI, albeit with an anemic batting average (.231 and .229). He was the Angels’ primary right fielder in 1986 when they missed out on the World Series by the width of Dave Henderson’s bat, and he played in all but Game 2 of that ALCS.
In 1987, Jones played part time in left field, backing up Jack Howell and yielding right to young Devon White. Jones managed to lift his average to .245 that summer and deposit another eight balls in the stands, but he found no major league offers in free agency that fall.
He split 1988 between Triple-A Oklahoma City (Rangers) and Japan’s Hanshin Tigers. All the while, collectors were unwittingly pulling what would end up being his career-capper baseball cards from packs of 1988 Fleer and 1988 Score.
That Score card (above) gave us one last glimpse of Jones in the California sunshine, and one more reason to “check later” all these years later. Who knew it would be Carlos Gomez who would send us scrambling to find our Ruppert Jones cards?
Billy Wagner joining the HOF is a travesty, but joining with the likes of Dick Allen, who didn't live to see his day, is flat out sacreligious