Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Astros, Biggio Honor Chipper; Slugger Singles in Final Houston AB


Chipper Jones’ farewell tour kicked off in Houston this week when the future hall of fame slugger headed to Minute Maid Park to face the Astros for the final time in their home ballpark. Farewell tours have become kind of commonplace among retiring baseball players who announce their retirement prior to a season or early on in a season. 2001 featured two memorably farewell tours when hall of famers Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn announced their retirements in the same season. On these farewell tours players are generally saluted by organizations and fans of the home team for their dedication to the sport and greatness in the sport. It’s truly an honor moment for these players and terrific of the organizations and fans to send them out in such a fashion.

Astros legend Craig Biggio presents Chipper with cowboy hat
Houston was the first stop on Chipper’s farewell tour and the act of gift giving has begun. Jones was presented a cowboy hat as a retirement gift from Astros legend and future hall of fame second baseman Craig Biggio during a pregame ceremony on Monday (April 9) prior to the start of the series, which the 
Braves would win 2-1.

You can see a part of the ceremony HERE

Biggio would say about Jones: “As a player, the home fans love you, but there's a lot of fans that respect you in other ballparks. They might not like you because of what you've done to them on the baseball field, but they respect you the way you play. To be able to let them say thank you in return is a classy move. It's a good thing. He'll be sad once that last day gets here, but he should enjoy it because he's meant a lot to the game."

Seeing Biggio honor Jones is a great moment for me as a baseball fan, because Jones and Biggio, who could be inducted into the hall of fame next year, were basically of the same mold when it comes to ballplayers. Both are throwback, gritty, hustle players that you just know could’ve thrived in the game in any era. Biggio is one of those guys who, though I’m glad spent his entire career with the Astros (as Jones will with the Braves), I would’ve loved to have seen play alongside Jones in the Braves infield. However, I’m thrilled to know both will finally join the same team in Cooperstown one day.

The Braves now have six games at home against the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets before Jones makes his last trip to Arizona to play the Diamondbacks on April 19.

In Jones’ final game against the Astros on Wednesday, the third bagger went 2-for-5 with two singles and a run scored. Jones is batting .444 after two games this season.

Chipper singled in his final career at-bat against the Astros in the ninth inning off of Astros reliever Wesley Wright in a fitting way to end his career against the Astros in Houston. The hit in Jones’ final at-bat also bookends his career in Houston as Jones hit a single off of Astros starting pitcher Greg Swindell on May 26, 1995 in his first at-bat in Houston when the Astros played at the Astrodome. (from Mark Bowman’s Twitter)

Jones has a career batting average of higher than .320 against the Astros with 20 home runs and 79 RBI against Houston in 124 regular season games. The Astros pitcher he touched for the most homers was Shane Reynolds whom he hit six homers off of. Jones and Reynolds would go on to be teammates for one season in 2003.   

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