Randy Jones was a local guy . . . local to Orange County. He was born in Fullerton, went to high school in Brea, then pitched at Chapman College in Orange.
As a pro, he was a good player on a terrible team. The San Diego Padres, in their first six years of existence (1969–1974), never won more than 63 games and finished each season in last place in the six-team NL West. They were just barely a major league team.
Jones had two really good seasons for the Padres. In 1975, Jones was 20–12 and led the National League with a 2.24 ERA. He had 18 complete games in 36 starts, back when complete games were an actual thing, and became the first 20-game winner in Padres history. Jones was second in wins and WAR (wins above replacement) (7.5) among pitchers, only behind the great Tom Seaver (22 wins and 7.8 WAR). Seaver finished first in the Cy Young Award voting, with 15 first place votes to Jones’s seven.
His best season was in 1976, when he went 22–14 with a 2.74 ERA. (San Diego won just 73 games that season.) Jones became the first Padre to win the Cy Young Award. From May 17 to June 22, he pitched 68 consecutive innings without allowing a base on balls, tying the 63-year-old NL record set by Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson in 1913.
At the All-Star break in July 1976, Jones’s record was 16–3, a first-half win total that set an NL record that no one has equaled since. He finished the season as the major league leader in wins, complete games (25), games started (40), and innings pitched (315.1).
During his last start of the 1976 season, he injured a nerve in his pitching arm that required surgery, and he was never able to regain his Cy Young form. He was with the Padres through 1980, when he was traded to the Mets, and retired before the 1983 season.
Jones finished his career with a win–loss record of 100–123 (.448) and a 3.42 ERA. He is the only starting pitcher to win a Cy Young Award but retire with a losing record. In 285 starts, he threw 75 complete games, including 19 shutouts.
Some of you may not remember what a doormat the Padres were in their early years. Randy Jones had two great seasons but his legacy is putting the Padres on the map in major league baseball.
RIP Randy Jones
