Red Downs

Who was Red Downs?

Jerome Willis "Red" Downs, was a Major League Baseball player, who gained notoriety later in life as an armed robber during the Great Depression.

Downs was born and raised in Neola, Iowa, a small town with a town ball baseball team. Downs played on the Neola team, known as the Neola Erins, as a young man. Between 1903 and 1906, he played minor league baseball on teams in Fort Scott, Arkansas, Guthrie, Oklahoma and Topeka, Kansas. In 1906, he led the Western Association with 8 home runs, leading to his signing with the Detroit Tigers. Downs had a batting average of .227 in 241 major league games. Downs and Germany Schaefer platooned at the second base position for the Tigers in 1907 and 1908. Detroit won the American League pennant in both of Downs' years with the team. He played 2 games in the 1908 World Series, getting one hit in 6 at-bats for a .167 batting average. Downs also scored a run and had an RBI in the 1908 World Series.

The Chicago White Sox acquired Downs after the 1908 season, but he got off the team train while on the way to spring training and did not reboard. Downs played with the minor-league Minneapolis Millers for most of the 1909, and then got another shot at the major leagues with the Washington Senators, but he declined to take the long trip east to play in only a few games. He played in 1910 and 1911 with Columbus, Ohio's team. The Brooklyn Dodgers drafted Downs after the 1911 season, but he was released after only 9 games in 1912. He was then picked up by the Chicago Cubs, where he took Joe Tinker's spot at shortstop. Sporting Life, in August 1912, reported that "Jerry Downs is proving a good substitute for Johnny Evers. The lad can bat some."