It’s been a long, great season for Chipper Jones and the
Atlanta Braves in Chipper’s Farewell Tour of Major League Baseball. Jones has
done a lot of great things this season, received a lot of great gifts from
teams all around the league and received great ovations from fans all around
the league.
Despite the end of the regular season today, Chipper’s
career isn’t over yet. He has at least one more game on Friday afternoon when
the Braves take on the St. Louis Cardinals in the wild card game for the right
to meet the Washington Nationals in one of the two National League Division
Series.
Chipper didn’t start in his final regular season game with
the Braves opting to rest him before Friday’s wild card game, but the veteran
third baseman did receive a pinch hit at-bat against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jones
led off the top of the sixth inning with a pinch hit appearance off of Pirates
starting pitcher A.J. Burnett and thankfully got a base hit in his final
regular season plate appearance by lacing a single through the right side of
the infield.
The pinch hit single for Jones was a fitting end to his
[regular season] career as it came 19 years and 19 days after his first career
hit, which uniquely happened to be a pinch hit single off of Reds’ pitcher
Kevin Wickander. After his hit, Jones scored what would be the final run of his
illustrious career on a single by catcher J.C. Boscan.
Jones received a standing ovation from the Pirates crowd at
PNC Park before his pinch hit appearance and as a salute to the fans tossed his
batting gloves into the crowd after scoring the run. The Braves would end the
season with their 94th win beating the Pirates 4-0.
In addition to the game being the final one of Jones’ career
it was also the final game for starting pitcher Ben Sheets who announced he would
retire yesterday. Sheets was a big boost for the Braves this summer coming out
of retirement to win a few big games for the ballclub after being out of the
game for almost two seasons. Sheets went out on top striking out two batters in
his only inning of work, including the final batter he faces potential MVP
Andrew McCutchen.
The pinch hit single for his first career and final career
at-bat is a perfect way to bookend Chipper’s career, but an even better way to
end his career would be to bookend his career with World Series championships.
Jones and the Braves won the World Series in his rookie season of 1995. The
Braves need 12 more wins to send Chipper out on top with another championship.
The battle begins against the Cardinals on Friday at 4 p.m. on TBS.
You can see Chipper's final career hit: HERE
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