ENCINITAS — Spencer Jones took the field as a center fielder for the New York Yankees with a reminder of home.
Jones left San Diego on Sunday, having played 26 games in his rookie season at the iconic position of Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, with “Just Cruisin” stitched into his glove.
“He told me, ‘If I ever make it, I’ll put it on my glove,’” Jose Balderas, one of Jones’ coaches at La Costa Canyon High School, told The Coast News. “And it’s there now.”
The saying dates back to a common refrain Balderas would offer when players he coached or others in the community asked how he was doing. It became a philosophy and rallying cry, and Balderas would make shirts for the Mavericks whenever the playoffs rolled around.
“That was the motto: just cruisin’ along,” he said. “If we play hard and take care of each other, we’ll be fine. We’re here for a reason.”
Jones returned to San Diego to play his hometown Padres as a visiting Yankee. He collected four hits, including two doubles, while playing center field in all three games.
Leigh Jones, his mother, said it was the first time he had been home during the summer in six years.
She said that “all the stars aligned for this weekend,” including an off day between the series that ended in Anaheim and the one that began in the Gaslamp Quarter.
Leigh said Spencer spent that time with close friends, his three brothers and the family dogs in and around their Cardiff-by-the-Sea home. They grilled Cardiff Crack for dinner, hit their favorite taco shops, and even spent time at the beach.
Chaz Gagne, a longtime family friend and 11-time Encinitas Little League coach, said, “It was the old kids hanging around together,” playing cards and carrying on as they did back in the day.
“Stone-cold sober, they’re just giggling their asses off because nothing has changed,” Gagne said.
Jones returned to the Bronx for a pinstripe playoff push, capable of playing all three outfield positions because of his speed, arm and power bat. Through Sept. 6, he had hit 13% better than the league average by weighted runs created plus and had added nine stolen bases and nine homers in 223 plate appearances.
Those who spoke to The Coast News said he left his hometown of Encinitas — and San Diego County more broadly — warmer than he found it because of both his play on the field and his easygoing, engaging presence.
“He came into this weekend with a lot of friends and left with a lot more,” Gagne said.
‘YMCA rat’
The youngest of four brothers, Spencer’s first exposure to sports was watching Wesley, Niko and Ethan.
“He had to go to all his brothers’ events to watch before he could play himself,” said Chris Jones, Spencer’s father. “He wanted to get in there to prove he could do it too.”
The arrangement came with benefits, as Spencer would attend his brothers’ hitting sessions with Joe Pimentel. Chris said his youngest son would be “hanging with his fingers in the batting cage net,” trying to soak up all he could.
Chris rowed crew at the University of Pennsylvania but joked that he contributed little to Spencer’s baseball abilities.
“I was good at baseball until they took the tee away,” Chris said.
Spencer also grew up playing other sports. One year, his Pop Warner football team even reached the national semifinals. Jones played tight end and defensive end.
Chris said his son ultimately gave up the sport partly because of concerns about the long-term complications of concussions.
Gagne said Spencer was part of a crew of kids he called the “YMCA rats” who were “always hanging around, happy to be there” at the Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA.
“Whether it was going to the field or to watch the older kids, Spencer was always one of the kids in my van,” Gagne said.
He added that Jones also had his priorities in order.
“He and my son, Peter, would sit down and do their homework before they would go out and play,” Gagne said. “And that was a Spencer Jones thing.”
Naturally, Spencer grew up rooting for the San Diego Padres.
“Tony Gwynn was one of his favorites growing up,” Chris said.
He added that Spencer once toured Petco Park with his mother and was excited to get a behind-the-scenes look at where his heroes played. The tour ended with a gift bag of Padres merchandise, including a commemorative glove. Chris said the issue was that it was right-handed.
“Do you have a lefty glove?” he remembered his son asking because he wanted to play with it.
Chris added that as baseball became a bigger part of Spencer’s life, Leigh’s career as an educator at Cardiff Elementary School helped a lot.
“Thank god my wife was a teacher so she could spend all those summers on the road traveling to all the tournaments,” Chris said. “Summers off and you can run the kids around.”
‘The gravity’
Naturally, the world of the “YMCA rats” revolved around the Little League ballfield, where a home run hit to right field could land in the adjacent skate park.
Jay Paris helped Gagne coach one of Spencer’s Little League teams, which also included future pros, Austin Machado and Cole Roberts.
“I didn’t have much to do with Spencer’s success,” Paris said. “I just wrote his name in the lineup and got the hell out of the way.”
He added that the team had to develop a strategy to counter teams that would intentionally walk Jones. Little League has a strict pitch count, so the coaches would encourage Jones to swing at two pitches well outside the strike zone to “burn some of those pitches,” Paris said.
With a full count, opposing coaches would often change tack and let their pitchers throw a competitive pitch to try to get Jones out.
“Invariably he would hit one into that skatepark when they did,” Paris said. “That’s why those kids wear helmets out there at the skatepark – because Spencer might be up.”
Gagne said he remembered one particular home run that Jones hit over the skate park and down the hillside above Interstate 5. He said it may have reached the freeway.
“We never found the ball,” Gagne said. “I turned to the ump and he goes, ‘Wow.’”
Gagne added that kids who show promise often lose interest in Little League and instead devote the bulk of their efforts to their travel teams. That was not Spencer.
“He was always there, always did a great job – just completely into it,” Gagne said. “He was very loyal to Encinitas Little League.
“I had a bunch of great kids who were leaders on my teams, but you didn’t have to tell Spencer anything more than once. He was going to get it and he was going to do it.”
Chris said he remembered the Little League days as “focused on kids having fun and enjoying playing baseball together,” largely because of the environment created by “reassuring, supportive coaches.”
“Growing up in that kind of environment made baseball the gravity of a community event,” Chris said. “The goal was just rewarding the best players, but rewarding the good teammates. Baseball is a sport of failure and it’s important to work through the challenges together.”
‘High academic individual’
Jones attended LCC along with his childhood friend Austin Machado, whose father, Justin, has been the school’s longtime head baseball coach.
“He was taller than his coaches since he was in t-ball basically,” Justin said. “You knew there were some special qualities in there, it was always a matter of time before he put it all together.”
He added that those special qualities extended beyond his speed and athleticism.
“What people don’t understand about Spencer is that he’s a high, high academic individual,” Justin said. “He’s super, super smart. Maybe being around baseball, that can hurt you or help you, but he’s taken a lot of pride in his academics as well as baseball.”
Balderas said Jones stood out on the field, even as a freshman.
“He glided when he ran the bases,” he said.
Jones mainly pitched and played first base in high school before a fractured elbow ended his senior season.
“I always tried to get him in the outfield in high school, but he would always say, ‘I don’t want to play in the outfield, that’s boring’ and now he’s playing in the outfield in the big leagues,” Machado said with a chuckle. “I may have known something.”
LCC has produced other MLB players during Machado’s time as head coach, including Mickey Moniak and Phillip Evans.
Machado said all of those players are “special in their own ways” and that “the guys that make it have some kind of freakish ability.”
Jones ranks in the 90th percentile in sprint speed and the 81st percentile in arm strength, according to Baseball Savant. His bat speed ranks seventh in MLB among players with at least 200 swings.
But Balderas said Jones stood out in other ways.
“You get what you see,” he said. “He’s a great player but more importantly a great person. He’s always got the time of day to talk to the kids. Someone special – great human, great teammate, great family, everything a coach could want.”
Chris said a big part of why his son chose to play baseball at Vanderbilt University was head coach Tim Corbin’s “focus on building the person first.”
“One thing Spencer does really well is build good relationships,” his father said.
‘Steps and stages’
Like others interviewed for this story, Paris kept in touch with Spencer over the years. He met up with Jones in the locker room in San Diego — “I got to see him and get a big hug from him,” Paris said — and once attended one of his college games against Ole Miss.
“I got to see him hit a home run at the Encinitas YMCA and in Oxford, Mississippi,” Paris said. “I’m sure that’s a pretty short list.”
Chris said he’s been proud of how his son has handled adversity, such as elbow injuries in high school and college.
“There are lots of steps and stages – it’s a long journey to actually get to play on a major league field,” he said. “It’s not an easy process, and you have to put in the work, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a special thing to not take for granted.
“I couldn’t be more proud of Spencer. He’s earned it and put in the work every day.”
Leigh said she often structured her days around watching Spencer’s games as her son worked his way through the college and minor league ranks. She added that she has yet to fully adjust to the new reality.
“He just caught a ball in centerfield at Yankee Stadium – like who does that?” Leigh said. “It still hasn’t fully hit me yet. That’s just Spencer, that’s my son.”
She added that his journey has led her to reconnect with many friends she had inadvertently lost touch with. A college roommate reached out with a story about discussing Spencer during a business meeting after she found out the meeting was with a Yankees fan.
“I love that he’s got these people out there cheering for him that he doesn’t necessarily know,” Leigh said. “Just to know that they’re out there and letting me know, I love it.”
