SUGAR LAND, Texas — To one retired big leaguer, it wasn’t anything like a championship parade, it was better.
“It was the most exciting thing I’ve ever had happen to me,” Grover "Deacon" Jones said. “One of the most exciting.”
Jones has the title of special assistant with the Sugar Land Skeeters minor league team and his coworkers said he's a joy to be around.
“He walks through the office and always has a great smile on his face,” Chris Parsons, Vice President of Sponsorship Sales, said. “’Great day to work! Can’t beat the hours!’”
So, when team Parsons and others realized Jones would soon be celebrating his 86th birthday in quarantine, they knew they had to do something.
“You know anything we can do to honor him,” Ryan Posner said.
Posner is the media relations director and briefly played for the Chicago White Sox and also served as a coach with the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres.
“Then somebody on staff threw out the idea, ‘Let’s drive by his house and do a parade,'" Posner said.
As part of the secret plan, Parsons was one of the first to arrive at the Jones residence on April 18. Then came the cars and soon Deacon’s neighbors joined in.
“My first thought was, ‘It’s a funeral,’” Jones said. “But I didn’t see a cop!”
A simple gesture, Jones told me, gave him a smile the size of big league stadium.
“They got me. Parsons set the hook. I swallowed it. Hook, line and sinker,” Jones said.
Which is perfect because this man’s a keeper.
“I got to ask the sucker, “What (are) you going to do for my next 86th?” Jones asked.
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