60th anniversary of Sad
Sam’s happy day
60 years ago today Monongah’s Sam
"Toothpick" Jones became the first African-American to throw a
no-hitter in the major league baseball.
He was born Daniel Pore Franklin in Stewartsville,
Ohio to John Franklin (who left the family by 1930) and Athelstine Jones, but
moved to Grant Town when he was a youngster and lived in Monongah during his
playing days where he built a ranch-style 6-room home for his wife and two sons.
Athelstine later married coal loader Amos Wilson.
Sam led the
National League in strikeouts AND walks in 1955, 1956 and 1958, so few batters
would dig in on him.
In 1959 he was the
National League's Pitcher of the year.
In 1955 he was the
first African-American to pitch a no-hitter, striking out Pittsburgh Pirates Dick
Groat, Roberto Clemente and Frank Thomas on 11 pitches after walking the bases
loaded in the ninth inning for a 4-0 Cubs victory.
He pitched for the
Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers and
Baltimore Orioles. The “Sad Sam” label was applied because of his similarity to
the 1914-34 American League pitcher who had it first.
Samuel Jones was
born in Stewartsville -- not Monongah as erroneously reported many times
-- and was the son of a Monongah coal miner who became a parapalegic after
a cave-in when Sam was 13 years old.
After Sam's dad
died, he lived with his mother in Grant Town's The Bottom and played football
and basketball at Fairmont's Dunbar High, the school for Marion County
African-Americans during segregation days.
Sam married his
sweetheart, Mary Beans, whom he had known from high school, in 1950.
The Monongah couple
had two sons, Sam "Nick" Jr., born in 1952, and Michael, born in
1954.
Sam worked for Tony
Sauro's drycleaners in Monongah. Sam also opened the first car-wash in
Monongah, thanks to an investment by Sauro.
Cleveland Indians
Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller, in the 1951 Indians spring training camp,
taught Sam to not tip off his pitches. Sam was sticking up his thumb when he
was going to throw a curveball. Feller told him about it, and the thumb stayed
the same for all pitches after that.
Sam died Nov. 5, 1971 from neck cancer first diagnosed in 1962, at the age of 45. He is buried in Fairmont's Woodlawn Cemetery under a headstone that reads: "Sad Sam 1925-1971."
To
see the slide show of Sam’s historic no-hitter, click on
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