An Ode to #10

When the New York Mets roll into Turner Field this weekend, it will mark the final home series of the season for the Atlanta Braves.  While the Braves will be preparing for the playoffs, this weekend marks a bittersweet occasion for those who have grown up doing the Tomahawk Chop.  The last remaining on-the-field piece of the Braves wildly successful 15-year run from 1991 to 2005 will be playing in his final regular season games in front of the home folks at the Ted.  Larry Wayne Jones, Jr., better known to those in the baseball world as Chipper, will be honored by the home crowd for a Hall of Fame career as he takes the to the home diamond one last time in his illustrious career. 

Chipper Jones was drafted by the Atlanta Braves as an 18 year-old shortstop from the Jacksonville, Florida area with the first overall pick in 1990. The Braves were in the middle of their sixth consecutive dismal season; a stretch that saw them average only 65 wins a season from 1985-1990 and using five different managers in the process.  The last manager, Bobby Cox, moved down from his front office position as general manager.  These two moves, the drafting of Chipper Jones and the transition of Bobby Cox from front office to the field, signaled a new era in Braves baseball. 

Chipper made his major league debut just three years later at the end of the 1993 season but only played in a handful of games.  He was poised to make his run for Rookie of the Year in 1994 but a late spring training ACL injury derailed the entire season for Chipper.  As it turned out, Chipper was able to have his rookie campaign in a much more meaningful season the following year.  Jones immediately became the starting third baseman for the Braves in 1995 and immediately proved his worth, belting 23 homeruns and driving in 86 while finishing second in the ROY voting (behind 27 year-old professional Japanese pitcher turned Dodger Hideo Nomo).  But even though he finished second in that vote, the Braves finished first on the field, defeating the Cleveland Indians in six games to win the 1995 World Series. 

The Braves continued to have success and Chipper Jones continued to develop into one of the premier players in the league.  By 1999, he had emerged as perhaps the best third baseman in the game.  It was no coincidence that Jones won the MVP and led the Braves to their fifth World Series in nine years (only the third in which he played).  He began building his legacy late that season when, in a mid-week series against the second-place Mets, Jones hit four homeruns in the three game sweep to all but clinch the division and the MVP.  He went on to finish the season with 45 HR, 110 RBI, .319 AVG, 116 runs scored, and an astounding 1.074 OPS.  The only downside to the magical season was getting swept in the World Series by the Yankees.  Chipper Jones and the Braves have never been back to the WS since. 

Chipper was not finished adding to his legacy, however.  In 2002, Jones went to management and offered to move from third base to the outfield so the team could go out and sign Vinny Castilla to add depth to the lineup.  He played left field for two years and played it well.  But then funny things started to happen.  Guys that had been woven into the fabric of the Braves franchise began to leave through free agency.  Tom Glavine departed in 2003 to join their bitter rivals, the New York Mets.  Greg Maddux left in 2004, re-signing with the Chicago Cubs.    And then, the unfathomable happened in 2006.  For the first time in his career, the Braves did not win the division; they didn’t even make the playoffs. 

Through it all, Chipper continued to add to his legacy, but he was not the same player that he was before.  He began to experience injuries, especially in the legs, and it was taking longer to recuperate from nagging aches and pains.  Entering the 2007 season, a season in which he turned 35, many were beginning to wonder how much Jones had left in him.  He answered that question with ferocity, finishing second to Matt Holliday for the batting title on the last day of the season driving in over 100 runs for the final time in his career.  The following year, Jones was able to stave off all comers for the batting title, winning it for the first time in his career at the age of 36 and hitting a career best .364.  But following that season, another strange thing happened.  John Smoltz was not re-signed and he departed for Boston, leaving Chipper and manager Bobby Cox as the final two holdovers from the glory days.  (Cox would eventually retire at the end of the 2010 season leaving Jones as the last man standing.)

Through all that has changed in baseball and in Atlanta over the past two decades, one thing hasn’t and that is Chipper Jones will be suiting up for the Braves and hitting in the middle of the lineup, a rarity in today’s game.  When it was announced in spring training this season that this would be his final season, it came as a surprise to no one.  After struggling through another knee injury in 2010, Chipper was determined to make his last season memorable, and he has.  He has played at a level that very few have ever been able to achieve in their final season.   The signature moment of Chipper’s storybook season came over Labor Day weekend against the Phillies.  The Braves were trailing the Phils 7-2 in the bottom of the ninth and the way the month had started, it had eerie resemblance to September 2011.  The Braves were able to scratch out three runs and leave two men on base with Chipper Jones coming to the plate with two outs.  With a season perhaps hanging in the balance, Chipper delivered with a three-run homer off of Jonathan Papelbon; launching the Braves to 15 wins in 21 games. 

When his regular season career ends a week from now, Chipper Jones will be regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation.  He will also go down in the annals as one of the greatest third basemen of all time and one of the greatest switch hitters of all time.  Even more important, anyone who has played with the Braves over the past two decades will attest to how great of a teammate he has been and how professional he is day in and day out.  When you look at Chipper Jones on the field, you know he gave the game all he had and he played it the right way.

But for all of the accomplishments that Jones has had on the field, his significance to me runs much deeper.  His rookie season was my senior year in high school, so it is hard for me to look at him as one of my childhood heroes.  Dale Murphy, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz are the ones that hold that distinction for me.  Chipper, who is my second all-time favorite Brave behind Murphy, was more like watching a big brother play than watching a hero.  That changed for me, however, when my oldest son, Brayden, was three years old.  He was just beginning to take some interest in watching the Braves games with me and he immediately latched onto Chipper Jones as his favorite.  He would be playing, you’d think he’d been lost in his own fantasy world, and then he would stop and ask, “Is Pitcher Jones batting?”  I would laugh and say, “It’s Chipper.  No, he’s not batting yet.”  When he did come to the plate, I would let Brayden know.  He’d stop what he was doing and say, “Come on, Pitcher Jones.”

It is hard for me to describe how I felt when he would do this.  It made me remember what it was like to sit on my oldest brother’s lap in the early and mid-1980s watching the Braves play on TBS.  He would tell me, “That’s Dale Murphy.  We like him.”  I always have that connection to Murph and my brother.  Now, I have switched roles and have a similar connection like that with Chipper Jones and Brayden.  My love for the Braves has come full circle; a bond being formed at a young age and passed on to my son at a young age.  That is what Chipper Jones means to this Braves fan.  But just as my experience has come full circle, wouldn’t it be sweet if Chipper’s career also came full circle?  I am not sure how many people have ever come into the league and won a championship in their rookie year and not win another until their final season, but how great would it be for Chipper Jones to bookend his magnificent career with World Series rings?