![]() ![]() The Braves, having signed Hank Aaron and pushed him through their system, were one of the teams that didn't back away from signing minorities. Most big league clubs had integrated to some extent and some of the prejudices that had existed were slowly beginning to fade. It had been more than seven years since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the Major Leagues. The climate was much warmer and I burned up that league, hitting over. After that, they sent me to Paris, Illinois. "I didn't play for several weeks because of the back. ![]() ![]() But it was cold as heck and I injured my back. "So I reported to Waycross, which was their headquarters for all the A teams and under. "Come February, though, I started smelling baseball and I told my principal that I was going to honor my contract with the Braves," Jones said. He was discharged from the service near the end of the 1953 season, too late to begin playing, so he accepted a teaching position in Florida. The Braves didn't lose interest and towards the end of his hitch, Jones signed with Milwaukee. He finished college and joined the Air Force, but continued to play. Though Jones wanted to play pro ball, he knew his mother was right. The Dodgers actually approached him with a contract offer at the time but his mother opposed the move, hoping her son would finish school and earn a degree. The Braves, the Dodgers, the Pirates and the Cubs all expressed interest in the flashy young infielder, who was hitting well over. Jones' story actually began five years earlier when he was starring at Florida A&M University. "Overall, it was only one year and, of course, I was the first African American to play in the Georgia-Florida League, so that was pretty positive. "It was a short-lived career ," Jones, 78, said. ![]() Rather than continue to wage a fight he knew he wouldn't win, Jones left Waycross for a teaching job in northern Florida and embarked on a career where he could make an impact in a different way. 182, before the racial tension in southern Georgia forced him to make what would be a life-altering decision. Jones appeared in only six games for Waycross, hitting a meager. So much so that he abandoned one dream in favor of another, but never really wondered what might have been. Jones' experience during the short time he spent in Waycross certainly wasn't positive, but it was lasting. It was during that summer that Jones broke down one of the many remaining racial baseball barriers in the Deep South, becoming the first African American to ever play in the Class D Georgia-Florida League. He's spent much of his adult life as an educator, working with youngsters to make the kind of impact he might not have made if he stayed in Waycross, Georgia in the summer of 1954. Lew Jones has no regrets when looking back at what he's accomplished over the last five decades. Each week, will attempt to fill that gap and explore these historical oddities in our feature, "Cracked Bats." While much has been written about the best teams and top players who have graced the Minors, there remain many stories either untold or largely forgotten. A student of comparative theology, Ayres later produced the religious documentaries "Altars of the East" (1955) and "Altars of the World" (1976), also serving as director of the latter.Minor League Baseball is known for its rich history dating back more than 100 years. He did, however, do notable work as the vice president in "Advise and Consent" (1962) and as a sympathetic resident of the vampire-ridden TV-miniseries town of "Salem's Lot" (1979). His career faded during WWII after he declared himself a conscientious objector, but he received renewed respect when he served bravely in a non-combat medical capacity.Īfter the war Ayres was able to resume his career-and his sometimes typecasting as doctors-in such films as "The Dark Mirror" (1946) and "Johnny Belinda" (1948), for which he received a Best Actor Oscar nomination, though he did little acting in film after the mid-50s. Kildare films at MGM in the late 30s and early 40s. He gave an excellent performance, though, as Katharine Hepburn's drunken brother in George Cukor's "Holiday" (1938) and enjoyed considerable popularity in a series of Dr. Although a very talented and sensitive actor, Ayres found his early stardom fade during the decade as he was cast in either trivial light comedies which suited his gentle manner or in films which called for tough, streetwise characterizations which didn't always suit him. This earnest, boyishly handsome star of the pacifist classic "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930) was extremely prolific during the 1930s, at first primarily at Universal Studios, and then also at Fox and Paramount. ![]()
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