‘69 Mets hero Cleon Jones is preserving a piece of painful — and crucial — Black history
Subject
Mets; Cleon Jones; Black History
Description
It’s a story 163 years in the making, and the cast includes the ruler of a long-gone West African kingdom called Dahomey, which sold prisoners of war into slavery; the scheming captain of an American slave-smuggling ship named the Clotilda hired by equally evil, greedy and morally bankrupt slaveowners; a volunteer army of heroic police, firefighter and first responders, who came together at Ground Zero in the ashes of the World Trade Center; and the miracle that was the 1969 New York Mets.
For good measure, throw in the name of Cleon Jones, the Mets left fielder, who drifted under a lazy fly ball on an October afternoon, mumbling to himself as he waited, “Come on down. Come on down, baby!” before he squeezed the Baltimore Orioles’ last out in the pocket of his glove and shouted, “It’s over! It’s all over!”
Creator
By Jerry Izenberg | For The Star-Ledger
Source
Publisher
nj.com
File
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