Ruppert Jones, Mariners’ first All-Star, reflects on career, difficult brain injury

Halfway through the Seattle Mariners’ inaugural season in 1977, Ruppert Jones was named the first All-Star in franchise history.

Jones was 22 at the time. He wasn’t thinking much about history then.

“I looked at it as being rewarded for a job well done in the first half of the season,” Jones, 71, said. “Now that I’m older, I see the history of it. It’s hit me as being important … but at that particular time, I wasn’t concerned with it being history.”

Jones, who played center field, came to Seattle as a young power hitter full of potential. In the three seasons he spent playing in the Kingdome, Jones’ talent was on display. The year after he left Seattle, Jones had an injury that changed the trajectory of his playing career, and ultimately his life. Decades later, Jones said the city will always be special to him.

“In 1980, I got severely hurt, and I was never the same player that I was when I was in Seattle,” Jones said.

“Seattle actually saw the best of me,” he added.

The first of Jones’ 12 major-league seasons was in 1976, when he debuted with the Kansas City Royals. Jones came to Seattle the following year. In 1977, he played in 160 games, batting .263 with 24 home runs and 76 RBI.

That season was the first time that Jones stepped foot in the city.

“I was very happy to be in Seattle. … Getting the chance to play in the big leagues every day meant a lot to me, so that’s why I am basically beholden to Seattle,” Jones said.

While he spent only a quarter of his major-league career in the city, it still means something special to Jones. He has come back on various occasions, including at the start of the 2026 season when he threw the first pitch on opening day.

Jones went on to play in New York, San Diego, Detroit and California. He was named an All-Star again in 1982 playing for the Padres and won the World Series with the Tigers in 1984. Despite his accolades elsewhere, Seattle is important to Jones.

That’s largely because of a brain injury that he sustained in 1980, the year after he left the Mariners. Jones was playing for the Yankees and, during an August game in Oakland, he crashed into the plywood center-field wall at the Coliseum and fell to the ground.

Jones had a separated shoulder. But he also hit his head. Reflecting on that moment, Jones said he was unaware at the time how dramatic the effects of the impact and minutes-long unconsciousness were until much later.

“You get a concussion now, and it’s like everyone’s concerned about it,” Jones said. “You get a concussion in 1980 and nobody was concerned about it.”

His playing career in the major leagues ended in 1987. When he left baseball, Jones said that he was “not prepared to be successful in life or make a living.”

“I’ve had some trying times, and I’ve had some great times,” Jones said. “As it said in the Bible, ‘God said your latter days will be better than your former days,’ and I have to admit that my latter days are better than my former days.”

After leaving baseball, Jones was able to get an entry-level job at a company selling insurance. He spent just shy of three decades working there before he retired. Jones said that he faced various challenges in the years after his playing retirement, including the impacts of a head injury he didn’t yet understand and struggles involving alcohol.

“I went through a lot. But when you live life, if you’re lucky and you make it through, you will have some difficult times,” Jones said. “I’ve been able to weather the storm and live a life that I never would have thought was possible when I got out of baseball.”

Jones has lived in the San Diego area for the past four decades. He officially retired from his insurance career about eight years ago, something he said he needed to “find some answers to a lot of questions that I had over the years” and spend time with his wife.

As for the Mariners now, Jones believes the organization has built the kind of culture that is necessary to win, adding that it’s not “luck that the Cardinals and the Yankees and the Dodgers continue to win whether they win the World Series or not.”

“I still follow the Mariners from afar to see how they are doing,” Jones said. “I’m hoping they do well. I’m hoping for them to get to a World Series.”