Chipper Headed to 15-Day DL

When Chipper is down, so are the Braves.

Chipper Jones’ left leg contusion is severe enough that the Atlanta Braves had to place him on the 15-day disabled list tonight after their 7-4 loss to the Washington Nationals at Turner Field in Atlanta. The move is retroactive to Wednesday when Jones pinch hit in a game against the Cincinnati Reds, drawing a walk. That pinch hit appearance was Chipper’s first game action since suffering the injury at Tropicana Field against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 18 in interleague action.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez has said that the player called up to take Jones’ spot on the roster will be a catcher, likely Triple-A Gwinnett catcher J.C. Boscan. The Braves are in need of a second catcher right now after backup catcher David Ross (the best backup catcher in the bigs, in my opinion) strained his right groin in the Braves loss tonight (May 25). On top of that Braves starting catcher Brian McCann has missed almost the entire week with the flu, which he was forced to finish the game tonight for Ross while still having.

According to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution: “Jones said the nasty bruise was taking much longer to heal than he originally expected. While Jones has been able to take batting practice, he said he could only run at 25-30 percent of full speed due to soreness in the area ranging from his foot to mid-calf from the bruising.”   

The worst part of all of this is that Jones did pinch hit in Wednesday’s game, meaning that the retroactive date for him to come off of the DL. Had he not made that short appearance, the retroactive date would’ve been May 18, meaning that Chipper could’ve potentially returned sooner to the Braves lineup.

The Braves have proven desperate to have Jones in the lineup this season. With Jones in the lineup the Braves have been the best team in the National League East Division, but with him out of the lineup they have looked like cellar dwellers. This fact alone seems to make Chipper the single most important player in baseball this season to a particular team.

In shortened time this season Chipper is batting .307 with five home runs and 24 RBI. When healthy and in the lineup Jones has put up All Star type numbers, so for the Braves (who are sinking fast) sake they better hope he returns as soon as possible and keeps up his hot pace.

Chipper Approaching Third Base Record

*NOTE* First of all, I must greatly apologize for the length of time that it’s been since I’ve updated this blog. I haven’t had the chance to write for it since I attended the Braves/Cardinals series a couple of weeks ago. I’ll try not to let that much time go by before updating again during this season, despite my busy life getting in the way.  

One milestone that Chipper Jones will likely break this season is to finish his career with the most career RBI of any third baseman in baseball history. That sentence and stat alone should prove Jones’ stature as one of the all-time greats in his sport. The current leader in that category is baseball Hall of Famer and Kansas City Royals legend George Brett who finished his career with 1,596 RBI. Between Brett and Jones is the man generally considered as the greatest third baseman in baseball history Philadelphia Phillies legend Mike Schmidt with 1,595 RBI.

Only needing 12 RBI to break the record for most RBI by a third basemen, Chipper should have the record within the next month if he remains healthy (something which he’s currently not). Jones has missed the last few Atlanta Braves games with a calf contusion that’s seen him miss most of the Braves series against the Tampa Bay Rays and the current series against the Cincinnati Reds. He is, however, expected to rejoin the Braves lineup soon.  

George Brett

Despite approaching the record for most RBI in a career by a third baseman, Jones has not accumulated all of his career RBI at the position. As most probably remember, Chipper played a couple of seasons as the Braves starting left fielder in the early 2000s. Jones has also accumulated RBI in his career at shortstop (which he began his career as and was drafted as) and as a designated hitter in interleague play.

It’s amazing to see that Jones is going to surpass both Mike Schmidt and George Brett in one of the sport’s most important statistical categories in the upcoming weeks. Other names he will either likely pass or could pass this season include Hall of Famers Andre Dawson, Nap Lajoie, Goose Goslin and Ernie Banks. He never ceases to amaze.

Braves Take Thrilling Game in Personal Farewell to Hero

Me with my girlfriend Aprille

So many emotions ran through my mind during the great Atlanta Braves 12-inning victory against the St. Louis Cardinals tonight as I sat high up on the third base side of Busch Stadium, with a fantastic view of the entire field and an enchanting view of the St. Louis skyline, Arch included that I don’t think I can possibly do them all justice in this blog post. 

Tonight’s game was all about me as a lifelong Braves fan and Chipper Jones fan getting to see the legendary, future hall of fame third baseman one last time before he calls it quits at the end of the season. As soon as I heard he was retiring toward the end of Spring Training I knew I had to get tickets to see him play one last time and I knew the best chance would be the Braves one trip to St. Louis the season. 

After getting the tickets I immediately began to worry about whether or not Jones would even be able to play due to his injured knee that’s kept him out of a handful of games this season, but was incredibly relieved just minutes prior to the first pitch of the game to find out that he indeed would be playing as he took the field for his last second calisthenics.

View of Busch Stadium

Jones did play indeed and he did it fantastically well over the entire 12 innings that the game would last. Jones went 2-for-4 in the game with two singles, two walks, a RBI and two runs scored, including what would prove to be the winning run in the top of the 12^th inning as he was driven home on Braves right fielder Jason Heyward’s game-winning homer after walking ahead of him to lead the inning off.

Even though Jones has recorded two base hits previously in the game I was somewhat disappointed that my lasting image of Chipper would be of him walking back to the dugout after looking at a called third strike in the top half of the ninth inning. However, with the game prolonged, mostly by Braves relievers Eric O’Flaherty and veteran Livan Hernandez pitching beautifully out of multiple jams, Jones got another final at-bat for me to see in person and drew the walk against Cardinals reliever Kyle McClellan before crossing the plate on Heyward’s shot that barely cleared the wall in center field. Now, my final image of Chipper Jones in person will forever be that of him stepping on home plate with that deciding run. The baseball gods were really on my side tonight with that offering.

Chipper scoring the winning run was certainly not the only special moment of the night for me as a Braves fan. The standing ovation from the entire Busch Stadium upon Chipper’s first at-bat in the first inning, in which he would also draw a walk, was almost enough to bring a tear to my eye. I’m pretty surprised, actually, that it didn’t. I kind of wish it had, as it would’ve made the moment more poetic. Massive respect goes out to Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who noticing the great moment, took a meaningless trip out to the pitching mound to let Chipper have a prolonged moment in the sun, something he’s seeing at every final stop he makes on the road during this season.

I’m sure I could go on and on about tonight’s game, and I wish I could, but it’s early in the wee hours of the morning and I’m running out of adrenaline on this fantastic day, which must rank up there with the greatest of my still fairly young life. I know that Chipper’s farewell tour still has a long way to go until the end of the season, but my farewell was tonight and it was one helluva fare the well.  

    

Click HERE to see box score of game. 

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This didn't have a whole lot to do with the ballgame and Chipper Jones' farewell, but I wanted to share this photo that my girlfriend, Aprille, took because it's one of the greatest/most amusing things I've ever seen at a sporting event. 

I'm typically not a fan of sports mascots, but there was a truly great moment from the Cardinals mascot, Fred Bird, on Friday night when he showed up as fans, us included, were waiting in line to enter the ballpark. There was a street musician outside of Busch Stadium playing a guitar and upon noticing him, Fred Bird walked on over, strapped on the musician's axe and started playing. It wasn't Jimmy Page's solo from "Stairway to Heaven," but as far as mascots go it was Zeppelin-esque. 

Just One More Day 'til Gametime

Now that it’s past midnight and Thursday morning I can finally say that there’s just one more day standing between me and the Atlanta Braves vs. St. Louis Cardinals game I’m going to see at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Friday night.

I’ve been anticipating this game ever since I got tickets for it over a month ago. Back toward the end of spring training when Braves’ future hall of fame third baseman Chipper Jones announced that he’d be retiring after this season I knew that I had to go see him play ball one more time. That may not be a hard task for most Braves fans, but when you live in central Arkansas the opportunities grow small. I knew that my only chance would be to catch the Braves during their one trip to St. Louis to play the Cardinals this season. Luckily things worked out and I’ll be seeing the game at 7 p.m. on Friday night on the third base side of the field, hopefully with a good view of Chipper at the hot corner.

My fandom of baseball can be traced back to the beginning of Chipper Jones’ career during his rookie season in 1995, when I fell in love with the sport and the Braves. Seventeen years later I still love the sport and the Braves, despite only being able to see them play a handful of times on television a year because they’re no longer shown exclusively on TBS (a sad day that was and one I hope to get time to write about on this very blog). My love for baseball and the Braves is never going to die, no matter what. If I could make it through the steroid issue that forever tainted the game than nothing will kill my interest or love for it. However, the end of Chipper’s career really signifies a sort of metaphorical end to my life. I know that at 24 and a half years old that I’ve been an adult now for quite some time, but I honestly (a year removed from graduating college at the University of Central Arkansas) still feel like a kid much of the time. That probably sounds weird, creepy and all sorts of things, but it’s true. One of the few things left from my childhood is the joy and true honor of watching Jones round those bases and field his position in the field. That will come to an end in early October, or if we’re truly lucky in late October (how cool would it be to see Chipper Jones begin and end his career with World Series titles?).   

The biggest concern that I have going into Friday’s game is whether or not Chipper Jones will actually play in the game. Jones has been playing in most of the team’s games of late, but has also missed a lot of time earlier on in the season after recovering from knee surgery right before the season began. It would frankly be pretty disappointing and heartbreaking to travel all the way from Conway, Ark. to St. Louis (a good eight or nine hour drive) to have Jones not in the lineup, but I know that that’s the way the game goes sometimes. Either way it should be a damn good game. 

I hope that tomorrow at work, my last day at work this week, flies by so I can get on the road to St. Louis. The Cardinals are the local team so tune into the television on Friday night and you might see me, I’ll be one of the very few in attendance at the Busch wearing a Chipper Jones T-shirt.

This will be my last blog post before the game on Friday night, but I'll definitely have a ton to say following the game. 

Jones Ties Career Best With 5 RBI Game; Has Words About Moyer

Chipper Jones had another great game on Saturday night (May 5) in the Atlanta Braves 13-9 win over the Colorado Rockies as he drove in a season high five runs. The five RBI game matches Chipper’s career best.  

The Braves were down 6-0 to the Rockies before Jones really got them kickstarted. In the top of the fifth inning, Chipper doubled in pitcher Mike Minor for his first RBI of the night at Coors Field in Colorado. In the top of the sixth inning he drove in shortstop Tyler Pastornicky and pinch hitter Juan Francisco on a single to center for RBIs two and three. RBIs four and five came in the top half of the seventh inning when another single scored right fielder Jason Heyward and pinch hitter Martin Prado.

Despite, Jones’ career-tying game the thing that possibly stood out the most from Saturday’s game was a controversy that brewed between Jones and the Rockies 49-year old starting pitcher Jamie Moyer, who earlier this season became the oldest starting pitcher to win a game in baseball history. Moyer accused Jones of stealing signals.

After the game Jones mentioned that Moyer’s accusation of him stealing signals “woke up a sleeping giant” and led to the Braves comeback after starting the game down 6-0 to the Rockies.

Jones told MLB.com: “He accused me of relaying a sign down 6-2 with a 3-0 count to Brian McCann. I have never relayed a sign to anyone while I’m on second base. You question our integrity, that’s wrong. I’ve never accused him of doctoring a baseball. I’ve never accused him of over-milligraming, nothing. That’s (garbage) and he woke us up. I didn’t see any signs on the 900-foot homers that were hit.”

Jones also told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s David O’Brien on Sunday: “I told (Todd) Helton and Tulo (Troy Tulowitzki) to tell him he could meet me in the tunnel to discuss it if he’d like, and I never heard back.” I love that Chipper 

Jones still has that kind of fire at age 40 in his final season.

I really don’t get why Moyer and other players and baseball people view stealing signs as such a big deal/bad thing in the first place. Sign stealing should be viewed as a great strategy/skill and not breaking one of baseball’s unwritten rules. So, Moyer was essentially making a huge deal out of something that baseball folk need to desperately get over. 

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It is now less than five days before I get to go to Busch Stadium up in St. Louis to see the Braves take on the Cardinals. I desperately hope that Chipper Jones is in the lineup for Friday night's game.

Chipper Ends Wild Game With Walk-Off

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated this blog, so I must apologize. It’s been an extremely hectic week with me working almost every day of the week and moving apartments during the week.

So, forgive me for going back a few days for this one.

The Atlanta Braves game on Wednesday (May 2) against the Philadelphia Phillies was probably the team’s (and maybe all of baseball’s) wildest game of the year, thus far. The Braves faced big deficits at multiple points during the game, made big comebacks, fell back down and then eventually won the game in extra innings 15-13.

Despite there being zero pitching from either team (which is interesting because both teams have top 10 pitching staffs [maybe even top 5] in the majors), this would’ve been a game that I would’ve killed to have seen. More than a month into the season I’ve seen about two and a half Braves games thanks to living in central Arkansas.

Seeing as how this is a blog about Chipper Jones’ final season there must be some sort of relevance in talking about this game, right? Yep, there is. For it was Chipper who ended this epic game with a walk off home run, the eighth walk off homer of his career, in the bottom of the eleventh.

Click HERE to see the shot

The home run came off of Phillies reliever Brian Sanches and is Jones’ 500^th home run as a professional baseball player (458 in the major leagues and 42 in the minor leagues [this number which came from the Atlanta-Journal Constitution apparently excludes homers in the playoffs, spring training and the all star game).

His homer was his fourth of the season. He would hit his fifth dinger of the season off of Colorado Rockies pitcher Matt Reynolds on Friday (May 4).  

Jones, who turned 40 recently, was joined by another 40-year old with a walk off on Wednesday. Rockies slugger Jason Giambi hit a pinch hit walk off homer to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers.

  
Jones said of his walk off homer: ''When I am in there, I want to make a splash. I did it tonight."