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A 5th-round pick by San Diego in 1972, Randy Jones went on to become one of the most beloved players in Padres history. He made his debut in ’73 and lost a league-leading 22 games in ’74 before hitting his stride.

The next two seasons, Jones was spectacular. Lacking a true major league fastball Jones relied on an assortment of junk, most often his sinker. In 1975 he won 20 games with a league-leading 2.24 ERA. An All Star for the first time, Jones retired Hal McRae, George Scott, and Rod Carew in order in the 9th to earn the save. He was named Comeback Player of the Year and finished second to Tom Seaver in Cy Young balloting.

San Diego fell in love with their hometown hero.

The following season Jones got out of the gate quickly, winning 16 games by the All Star Break. Each time the 6’0″, 180-pounder took the mound for a home game, attendance spiked.

Padres manager John McNamara told Sports Illustrated in 1976, “It happens every time. They cheer him even before he throws a ball…It’s the way he comes across. He’s a humble person, the underdog making good. People can relate to him. He’s not that big in stature and he is not overpowering on the mound. Randy’s the common man’s pitcher.”

Jones’ ’76 campaign was a dream. He won 22 games in 40 starts, throwing 25 complete games, and pitched 315 1/3 innings – all still-standing franchise marks.

The All Star starter in ’76, Jones pitched three scoreless to earn the win. He holds the distinction of getting a save and a win in consecutive All Star appearances.

Jones finished the nation’s bicentennial year as the NL’s Cy Young Award winner.

In addition to his single-season Padres marks in wins, starts, complete games, and innings pitched, Jones holds the San Diego record for losses in a season (22 in ’74) and shares the top spot for shutouts in a year (6 in ’75). He is also the first Padres pitcher to steal a base. Only three times in team history has a hurler topped the 20-win mark. Jones did it in back-to-back years in ’75 and ’76. Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry has the other 20-win season in his Cy Young campaign of 1978.

On May 9, 1997 the Padres retired Jones’ uniform number 35. Two years later he was selected in the inaugural year for the San Diego Padres Hall of Fame. Today Jones remains one of the most popular players in team history.

In the collection is this government postcard signed by Randy Jones in 1980.

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After a pair of dream seasons in ’75 and ’76, Randy Jones was a serviceable starter for his final six big league seasons. Despite a losing record in 1978, he kept a low 2.88 ERA. In ’79 he posted a double-digit win total for the last time. The following year was his last with San Diego.

Hampered by pain in his ribcage, Jones slipped to 5-13. In the offseason, the Padres shipped him to the New York Mets. His two seasons in the Big Apple featured an 8-18 record and a 4.69 ERA.

Jones retired after the ’82 season with 100 wins, 73 complete games, and 19 shutouts. With 123 losses, he remains the only starting pitcher to win the Cy Young and finish his career with a losing record.

Shown here is the back of the government postcard signed by Jones. Notice the postmark of September 3, 1980 in San Diego. Twelve days earlier Jones made his final start in a Padres uniform in a 6-2 loss to the Montreal Expos.

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For a 37-day period in 1976, Randy Jones put together a remarkable string of command and control. After walking Steve Ontiveros in the 8th inning on May 17, Jones reeled off 68 consecutive frames without walking a single batter.

When he struck out Darrell Evans in the 7th inning of a tie game on June 22nd, Jones tied Christy Mathewson’s 1913 NL mark of pinpoint control. In the bottom half of the inning, Jones singled and came around to score the winning run.

When Jones’ 3-2 sinker to Giants catcher Marc Hill fell out of the strike zone in the 8th, the streak ended. The Padres hurler stood side-by-side with Matty until Hall of Famer Greg Maddux surpassed the mark in 2001.

In the collection is this lineup card that hung in the Braves dugout during Atlanta’s contest vs. the Houston Astros on August 7, 2001. The game brought Braves starter Greg Maddux into a conversation that included Jones, the mythical Cy Young, a man from Cooperstown’s inaugural class of 1936 in Christy Mathewson, and Hall of Fame hurlers Red Faber and Jack Morris.

Maddux came into the game with 64 1/3 consecutive innings without a walk, just 3 2/3 innings short of the National League record set by Mathewson in 1913 and equaled by Jones in 1976.

In the fourth inning, Maddux passed the two men and made the record his own. The first-ballot Hall of Fame selection extended mark to 72 1/3 innings before issuing an intentionally pass in his next start to Arizona’s Steve Finley to stop the streak.

Today Maddux still holds the Senior Circuit’s mark for consecutive innings without a walk.

By picking up the win in this game, Maddux became the second pitcher in Major League Baseball history to win 15 or more games in at 14 straight seasons, trailing only Cy Young who won at least 15+ for fifteen straight years from 1891-1905.

In each of his next three seasons Maddux continued his winning ways. His 17 consecutive seasons with 15 or more wins is the MLB record. In terms of non-consecutive 15-win seasons, Maddux and Young top the list with 18.

By 2001, Maddux was climbing the career wins leaderboard, passing Hall of Fame pitchers along the way. This game was his 255th victory to push him past White Sox great Red Faber, a 1964 inductee and Cooperstown class of 2018’s Jack Morris.

For aficionados of America’s National Pastime, this Sunday afternoon game of August 7, 2001 highlighted baseball’s timeline, spanning the 1800’s of Cy Young’s career, the Deaball Era of the teens with the great Christy Mathewson, into the 20’s and 30’s when Faber pitched, up through Jack Morris’ heyday of the 1970’s and 80’s and onto the next millennium to the career of Greg Maddux.