Chris Jones named manager of the Newark Bears
Published on November 22, 2004 under Atlantic League (AtL)
Newark Bears News Release
NEWARK, NJ, Nov. 22âThe Newark Bears Professional Baseball Club announced today that former major league outfielder Chris Jones has been named as the team's new field manager. Jones will be introduced at a press conference in Newark on Thursday, December 9th, at which time the Bears will also be unveiling the team's new look.
The 39 year old Jones is a familiar name to Bears fans as he spent the 2004 season playing in Newark. Jones appeared in 79 games with the Bears and hit 15 home runs, drove in 69 runs and was tied for 8th in the Atlantic League batting race with a .313 average last season. At the conclusion of the '04 campaign Jones retired as a player after having played 21 seasons in professional baseball.
"Chris showed me tremendous leadership and a strong work ethic last season; and I truly believe that those traits will make him a successful manager here in Newark," said Bears Senior Vice President and General Manager Dean Rivera. "I am very excited that Chris has accepted the challenge of leading the Bears on the field."
Originally a 3rd round selection of the Cincinnati Reds out of Liverpool High School in upstate New York in 1984, Jones played for eleven different organizations in his career. He broke into the major leagues in 1991 with the Reds, batting .292 in 89 at-bats that season. In all Jones played in 548 career major league games, for 8 different big league teams, and batted .252 with 30 home runs and 131 RBI.
Jones spent two seasons playing for the New York Mets in 1995 and 1996. He hit a career-high 8 home runs for the Mets in '95 while batting .280 with 31 runs-batted-in. Jones also played in the majors with the Houston Astros, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee Brewers.
"I am very thankful that the Newark Bears have given me this opportunity to start a whole new career," said Jones. "I jump into this wholeheartedly. It's a different challenge and I look forward to attacking it."
"What got me to the major leagues was not my hitting or fielding," added Jones. "What got me there is that I always hustled, always worked my hardest to succeed; and that's what I am going to demand of my team as manager. You won't be congratulated for hustling because that should be automatic. If you don't hustle, you won't play for me."
Jones becomes the fourth manager in franchise history. He follows Tom O'Malley (1998-2001), Marv Foley (2002) and Bill Madlock (2003-2004).
Further information regarding the December 9th press conference will be forthcoming next week.
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