A baseball and football star at Riverside, California Junior College (now Riverside City College), James decided on professional baseball. After playing briefly with the Dodgers in 1968, he returned to the minor leagues and made the Pacific Coast League All-Star team in 1969, and finished third in the league in batting average.
The Cubs acquired him in December 1969 draft through the Rule 5 draft, which allows major league teams to draft players from other organizations' minor league teams.
In the 1970 Chicago Cubs season, James played in 100 games as a rookie. Early in the season, he frequently was used as a defensive replacement in center field in late innings. By June he was the Cubs' starting centerfielder, but lost his position when the team acquired Joe Pepitone in July. On Sept. 3, James started in left field in place of Billy Williams, ending Williams' then National League record 1,117 consecutive games played streak.
External linksedit
Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
Venezuelan Professional Baseball League statistics
This biographical article relating to an American baseball outfielder born in the 1940s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
cleo, james, this, article, includes, list, references, related, reading, external, links, sources, remain, unclear, because, lacks, inline, citations, please, help, improve, this, article, introducing, more, precise, citations, october, 2016, learn, when, rem. This article includes a list of references related reading or external links but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations October 2016 Learn how and when to remove this template message Cleo Joel James born August 31 1940 is an American former professional baseball outfielder He played in Major League Baseball MLB with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1968 and for the Chicago Cubs between 1970 and 1973 Cleo JamesOutfielderBorn 1940 08 31 August 31 1940 age 83 Clarksdale Mississippi U S Batted RightThrew RightMLB debutApril 15 1968 for the Los Angeles DodgersLast MLB appearanceSeptember 26 1973 for the Chicago CubsMLB statisticsBatting average 228Home runs5Runs batted in27TeamsLos Angeles Dodgers 1968 Chicago Cubs 1970 1971 1973 A baseball and football star at Riverside California Junior College now Riverside City College James decided on professional baseball After playing briefly with the Dodgers in 1968 he returned to the minor leagues and made the Pacific Coast League All Star team in 1969 and finished third in the league in batting average The Cubs acquired him in December 1969 draft through the Rule 5 draft which allows major league teams to draft players from other organizations minor league teams In the 1970 Chicago Cubs season James played in 100 games as a rookie Early in the season he frequently was used as a defensive replacement in center field in late innings By June he was the Cubs starting centerfielder but lost his position when the team acquired Joe Pepitone in July On Sept 3 James started in left field in place of Billy Williams ending Williams then National League record 1 117 consecutive games played streak External links editCareer statistics and player information from Baseball Reference or Fangraphs or Baseball Reference Minors or Retrosheet Venezuelan Professional Baseball League statistics nbsp nbsp nbsp This biographical article relating to an American baseball outfielder born in the 1940s is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Cleo James amp oldid 1167499283, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
