Jablonski's pro career began in the
Boston Red Sox organization in 1947. After two seasons at the Class D level, the Cardinals acquired him in the 1948
minor league draft. In 1951, he was the Most Valuable Player of the Class B
Carolina League after he won the league's
Triple Crown. Then, after one season in
Triple-A, Jablonski broke into the
1953 Cardinals' starting lineup. He started all 157 games for the Redbirds at third base, and set career bests in
home runs (21) and
runs batted in (112), finishing third in the National League's
Rookie of the Year Award balloting (behind
Jim Gilliam and teammate
Harvey Haddix). In , he drove in over 100
runs for a second straight season and
batted a career-high .296. Selected to the
1954 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, he started at third base for the National League and contributed a
fourth-inning single off
Sandy Consuegra to help the Senior Circuit overcome a four-run deficit and take a 5–4 lead. But the rival
American League ended up winning the slugfest, 11–9, at
Cleveland Stadium. His 1953–54 seasons constituted the high-water marks of his big league career. Although he led NL third-basemen in
assists in 1954, Jablonski committed 27 and 34
errors in successive seasons, and with hard-hitting and slick-fielding
Ken Boyer poised to break onto the varsity roster, the Cardinals traded Jablonski to the Redlegs along with
pitcher Gerry Staley for Cincinnati
relief ace
Frank Smith after the 1954 campaign. Then Jablonski suffered through two sub-par seasons in Cincinnati, batting only .240 and .256 and spending part of back in the minor leagues. The Reds traded him to the Chicago Cubs after , but Jablonski would never appear in a regular-season game for his hometown team. Chicago sent him to the New York Giants on the opening day of the season. Jablonski was the Giants' regular third baseman during their final New York season and batted .289, but the following year he lost the starting job to rookie
Jim Davenport and hit only .230 in part-time duty. Sent back to the Cardinals just prior to opening day in , Jablonski backed up Boyer and served as a
pinch hitter through August 20, before being claimed off
waivers by the Kansas City Athletics. After he closed the 1959 campaign with Kansas City, the A's demoted him to the Triple-A
Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers for most of before giving him one last MLB trial in the closing weeks of the season. In his final big-league game on September 17, he pinch hit against
Jack Harshman of the
Cleveland Indians and
flied out. All told, Jablonski had 687
hits as a big-leaguer, with 126
doubles, 11
triples and 83 home runs, batting .268 with 438 runs batted in. His professional career continued through 1964 at the Triple-A level. Ray Jablonski died at age 58 in Chicago. He was buried at
Resurrection Catholic Cemetery in Justice, Illinois. ==References==