Randy Jones could spin a story almost as well as he could spin a baseball.
And few pitchers could spin a baseball quite like Randy. His sinker was a legendary weapon. As it approached the plate at the mid-80s to low 90s, it would drop as if it had rolled off a table.
“Too much is made of velocity,” Randy said during one of our last chats. “Velocity was my enemy. The harder I threw, the harder I got hit. I found a sweet spot with my pitches.
“Pete Rose paid me the highest compliment when he told me one day: ‘Jones, you don’t throw hard enough to get the damn ball to the catcher on the fly.’ That was also the day, he came up and tried to hit left-handed against me. He pounded the ball into the ground and was shaking his head as he turned for the dugout. Made my day.”
Rose’s lifetime average against Randy Jones: .176.
And Jones made the day and many memories for Padres fans in those early years when there wasn’t much to celebrate.
When Jones pitched during his back-to-back record-setting seasons of 1975 and 1976, Padres’ attendance would jump, often doubling. No other player in franchise history could match this phenomenon.
One of Randy’s favorite stories focused on such a game.
“Fireworks days were the biggest draws for the Padres back then,” Jones recalled. “In 1976, Buzzie Bavasi wanted to double down and asked me to move one of my starts back a day so I could pitch on a fireworks promotion. Buzzie also moved the start up an hour to maximize the crowd. And it was the biggest crowd of the season.
“But I finished the game in under two hours. We were done and it was still light out. The fans had to sit there without concessions or anything happening for almost an hour before it got dark enough for the fireworks.
“After the game, Buzzie stormed into the clubhouse and screamed: ‘Randy, you’re never going to pitch again on a fireworks night.’”
Baseball Player Association director Marvin Miller, left, is greeted by San Diego Padres players rep Randy Jones following a joint meeting of the Padres and Oakland A’s, Thursday, March 27, 1980 in Scottsdale. At right is Oakland A’s players rep Dave Heaverlo. Both teams voted unanimously to support a strike. (AP Photo)
Padres’ fans did love Jones — not only when he pitched but for almost five decades after he departed the Padres. After he retired as a player, Jones became an ambassador for the Padres. He made countless appearances over the years — both in person and on radio and TV.
Personally, I loved him. I knew Jones for 50 years as a player and a friend. For four years, Randy and I shared a spot across from Jesse Agler on the pregame “Padres Social Hour.” Some of my favorite times were spent listening to Randy’s stories and homespun observations.
‘The original Mr. Padre’ and ‘cornerstone’ of franchise, Randy Jones dies at 75
Randy was a one-of-a-kind. He loved all things Padres and their fans. And he could joke about himself.
“Willie Stargell once hit a home run so hard off me that it flattened one side of the bat,” Jones once joked. “But I got him the next two times. The outfield wall knocked the ball down.”
Actually, the Hall of Famer hit only .255 against Jones with two homers. Jones struck Stargell out 13 times.
“Hitters tried to do too much against me,” Jones once observed. “They’d see that ball coming up there at about 85 and their eyes would light up. Then they hit a three-hopper to short.”
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer greets former Padre Randy Jones in front of his new mural at the stadium. (Charlie Neuman, The San Diego Unio-Tribune)
No pitcher in Padres history had back-to-back seasons like Jones had in 1975-76. He should have won back-to-back Cy Young Awards. But he was edged out by Tom Seaver in 1975 before becoming the first Padre to win the Cy Young in 1976.
He once talked about his fondest memories from those seasons.
“Sometime during the second half of 1975, more fans started coming out when I pitched,” he said. “That meant a lot to me. I remember when (catcher) Fred Kendall and I would be walking in from the bullpen before the game and fans would stand up and applaud as we went by. They loved Fred.”
Friends remember Padres legend: ‘It was impossible not to smile when Randy Jones was around’
Jones certainly did. He credits Kendall with much of his success and the quickness of his games.
“Fred and I worked out a system where I would signal him what I was throwing and go straight to my windup. He was always ready. But I used the one pitch most of the time, so there weren’t that many signals.”
FILE – San Diego Padres pitcher Randy Jones poses for a photo on March 1976. (AP Photo/WF, File)
That pitch was the sinker, which was devastating in its simplicity.
“My breakthrough moment came during spring training in 1975,” Jones once discussed. “I was getting by. But pitching coach Tom Morgan showed me how to take some velocity off the pitch and make the sink sharper. He also worked on getting me to trust myself.
“I started attacking with less. Who knew?”
And who knew the phenomenon that Randy Jones would become?
Union-Tribune contributor Bill Center has covered sports for this newspaper since 1967. He began covering the Padres in 1995. Email him at wcenter27@gmail.com.