Vernal Leroy Jones of Los Angeles, California. Jones served in the Marine Corps from 1943 to 1946 and attained the rank of corporal.
← Return to the player directory

Nippy Jones

Marine Corps Service

Vernal Leroy “Nippy” Jones joined the United States Marine Corps in September 1943, only months after completing his first professional baseball season. An excellent marksman with an ability to teach, he was promoted to corporal and served as a rifle instructor. He was assigned to the 38th Replacement Battalion, which joined the 5th Marine Division as it prepared for operations in the Pacific.

Jones and his friend Wimpy Quinn were preparing to sail with the division when orders sent them back to Pearl Harbor to play baseball for the Admiralty. Their plane left ten days before the 5th Marine Division landed on Iwo Jima. With news of the terrible casualties reaching Los Angeles before Jones could contact home, his mother and future wife endured weeks of uncertainty before learning that his orders had taken him safely to Hawaii.

At Pearl Harbor, Jones played baseball, football, and basketball on Marine Corps teams that entertained servicemen. His wartime competition included established and future Major Leaguers, among them fellow Marine Ted Williams. Jones was discharged in May 1946 and returned to California with the rank of corporal.

Baseball Career

Jones was born in Los Angeles on June 29, 1925. He played alongside future Major League manager Gene Mauch at Fremont High School and for Sunrise Post 357, which won the 1942 American Legion World Series. Scouts noticed Jones during that tournament, and the St. Louis Cardinals organization signed him early in 1943. At age 17, he batted .304 in 129 games for the Sacramento Solons before entering the Corps.

Within two weeks of his discharge, Jones made his Major League debut for St. Louis on June 9, 1946. He also appeared as a pinch hitter in the 1946 World Series and received the first of his two championship rings when the Cardinals defeated the Boston Red Sox. With Rochester in 1947, he won the International League batting title at .337 while also leading the league in doubles and triples.

Jones became a regular first baseman for St. Louis and produced his best Major League season in 1949, batting .300 with 10 home runs and 81 runs batted in. After later playing for Philadelphia and spending several productive seasons with Sacramento, he returned to the majors with Milwaukee in July 1957 when the Braves needed help replacing the injured Joe Adcock.

His final Major League plate appearance became one of the defining moments of the 1957 World Series. With Milwaukee trailing the Yankees in the tenth inning of Game Four, Tommy Byrne’s pitch struck Jones’s shoe and rolled away. Jones retrieved the ball and showed umpire Augie Donatelli the black shoe-polish mark. Donatelli awarded him first base, Felix Mantilla entered as a pinch runner, and Milwaukee tied the game before Eddie Mathews won it with a two-run homer. The Braves went on to defeat New York in seven games, giving Jones his second World Series championship.

Jones’s Major League career ended on September 29, 1957, after 412 regular-season games, a .267 batting average, 25 home runs, and 209 RBIs. He continued playing in the Pacific Coast League through 1960 and finished 13 minor-league seasons with a .292 average, 1,678 hits, and 119 home runs.

Later Life and Legacy

After baseball, Jones worked in the title-insurance business for 27 years. Following his retirement in 1987, he operated the Happy Hooker fishing guide service on the Sacramento River for several years. At a Milwaukee card show in 1988, he was reunited with the shoe-polished baseball from the 1957 World Series and added his autograph to it.

Jones died of a heart attack at his Sacramento home on October 3, 1995, at age 70. His career joined two distinctive eras of championship baseball: the Cardinals team that won in the first season after his Marine service and the Milwaukee club whose 1957 title turned on one alert pinch hitter retrieving a scuffed baseball near home plate.

Sources and Further Reading

  1. Society for American Baseball Research, Nippy Jones biographical record
  2. Major League Baseball, Nippy Jones career record
  3. Baseball-Reference, Nippy Jones Major League record
  4. Baseball-Reference, Nippy Jones minor-league record
  5. Major League Baseball, 1957 postseason history
  6. Wikipedia, Nippy Jones
  7. Find a Grave, Vernal Leroy Jones memorial