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Stuart “Slim” Jones had one of the best seasons for a pitcher in the Negro Leagues, but arm trouble and a battle with the bottle cut his career short.
“Stuart (Slim) Jones, a towering lefthander with a blazing fastball, had a short, but impressive, career in bigtime baseball.”
Author Robert Peterson in Only the Ball Was White
In 1934, pitching for the Philadelphia Stars, Slim Jones was dominant. He went 21-7, giving up 2.23 runs/game with 112 strikeouts. He started the East-West All Star Game that season. His match-ups with Satchel Paige were legendary. In their first game, Jones’s Stars won 10-5. Josh Gibson hit a home run out of the stadium off Jones.
In September he faced off against Paige at Yankee Stadium in front of 35,000 fans. He had a perfect game going into the 7th inning, leading 1-0. Oscar Charleston broke up the perfect game, and Jones gave up an unearned run. The game was called after 9 innings due to darkness, tied at 1-1. It is known as “The Greatest Negro League Game Ever.” (Satchel Paige won a rematch one week later, 3-1.)
The Philadelphia Stars won the championship that year. (The Pittsburgh Crawfords had the best overall record that season, but did not win either half-season title and did not play in the championship.) Jones won the seventh and decisive game with a complete game, 5-hit shutout by the score of 2-0. Jones also doubled in a run in the game.
Arm trouble plagued Slim Jones after that season, and his career record was only 14-19 outside that magical 1934 season. He held out to protest his 1935 salary, but managed only a 5-10 record that season. He went through alcohol and cash quickly. Jones asked the Philadelphia Stars for an advance in the winter of 1938, but the owner could not afford it. One night Jones sold his coat to buy a bottle of whiskey, and contracted pneumonia. He died at the age of 25.