Ruppert Jones Essentials Positions: Outfield Bats: L Throws: L Height: 70 Weight: 170 Born: Saturday, March 12, 1955 in Dallas, TX USA Debut: 8/1/1976 Last Game: 10/4/1987 Full Name: Ruppert Sanderson Jones Notable Events and Chronology for Ruppert Jones Career Biography Nicknamed “Rupe,” he was the first overall pick in the 1976 expansion draft…
Twins rookie Andre David hits a 2-run home run off Jack Morris in his first major league at bat to spark Minnesota to a 5 – 3 win over Detroit before 44,619. It is the only home run David will hit in the big leagues and it stops Morris’s 11-game win streak over the Twins. Detroit wins the nitecap, 7 – 5, as Kirk Gibson starts the scoring with a two-run homer in the 1st and ends it with a two-run homer in the 9th. The Tigers also score in the 2nd on back-to-back homers by Chet Lemon and Ruppert Jones.
After missing two starts, Jack Morris (12-3) stops the Brewers, 7 – 1. Ruppert Jones and Lance Parrish hit homers for the Tigers, who have drawn 165,000 fans for the four-game series with Milwaukee. Detroit now leads the AL East by 8 1/2 games.
In separate deals, the New York Yankees acquire OF Ruppert Jones from the Seattle Mariners and C Rick Cerone and P Tom Underwood from the Toronto Blue Jays, giving up seven players, including popular 1B Chris Chambliss, SS Damaso Garcia, OF Juan Beniquez, and Ps Jim Beattie and Paul Mirabella. Chambliss will be with the Blue Jays a month before they swap him to the Atlanta Braves.
At the Kingdome, the Mariners’ Ruppert Jones hits a foul ball that sticks in the speaker above the first base dugout. But the Athletics amass 11 fair hits to beat the Mariners, 5 – 3. Dwayne Murphy is 3 for 3 with a triple and a homer.
The Tigers top Seattle, 4 – 2, in 16 innings, winning on a home run by Lance Parrish. Steve Foucault, who pitches the last three innings, gets the win. Relief ace John Hiller tosses 6 2/3 shutout innings. The M’s Ruppert Jones ties a major-league record for CF by making 12 putouts.
Indian right-hander Dennis Eckersley’s consecutive no-hit inning streak ends at 22.1 innings, two-third of a frame shy of Cy Young’s major league mark, when Mariner Ruppert Jones goes deep in the bottom of fifth in the Kingdome contest. The centerfielder’s home run will prove to be the only run Cleveland gives up, coasting to an easy 7-1 victory in Seattle.
1977 – Ruppert Jones of the Seattle Mariners hits a home run off Dennis Eckersley in the fifth inning to snap Eckersley’s no-hit string of 22 1/3 innings, just two outs short of the major league record set by Cy Young. The Indians beat Seattle, 7 – 1.
The Mariners and Blue Jays each select thirty players in the expansion draft. Seattle picks Royals’ outfielder Ruppert Jones, and Toronto selects Orioles’ shortstop Bob Bailor as their team’s respective first picks.