Chipper, Braves Clinch Posteseason Berth

I know this is about four days too late, but congratulations to Chipper Jones and the 2012 Atlanta Braves on clinching a postseason berth in entertaining fashion with a walkoff, game-winning home run by second year first baseman Freddie Freeman against the Miami Marlins on Tuesday night.

You can see the walkoff homer: HERE

The thrilling victory for the Braves ensures that Chipper will play in at least one playoff game in his final season as the Braves will most likely be the first of two wild cards in the National League. Despite being a whopping six and a half games ahead of the second NL wild card team St. Louis Cardinals with just four games remaining in the regular season the Braves will be forced to play the Cardinals in a one game playoff next Friday to determine which team will go on to the Division Series.

I wasn’t a fan of Major League Baseball adding a second wild card team to each league prior to the season and now I’m really aggravated by it as the Braves could easily get screwed by the new format. It’s actually the one game playoff format that bothers me more than the addition of the second wild card. If you’re going to have a second wild card than the two wild cards should meet in a best of three series. Anything can happen in a one game playoff and the Braves will be facing a red hot Cardinals team that has won nine of its last 12 games. Being the much better team this season the Braves really don’t deserve the chance to have their run end in this fashion.

I fully understand at this point that Chipper Jones’ career is either going to end with a loss or with a World Series champion celebration and I’m perfectly fine and content with either, but if the Braves do in fact lose to the Cardinals in this new system I will be pissed off. Chipper and the Braves at least deserve a shot against either the Washington Nationals, Cincinnati Reds or San Francisco Giants as the fourth best team in the National League.

Congratulations to Chipper Jones and the Atlanta Braves, once again, on their trip to the playoffs. Chipper Jones began his career with a World Series victory in his rookie season of 1995. It sure would be nice to bookend his career with World Series rings.

You can watching the clinched playoff berth celebration: HERE

Cute story time …

I knew that the Braves had the opportunity to clinch a playoff berth on Tuesday, so even though the Braves weren’t on television here locally in Arkansas I was following the late innings of the game on MLB’s Gameday. I was attempting to pay attention to the game on Gameday while my girlfriend, Aprille, and I were watching the new NBC/Matthew Perry sitcom “Go On” on television. The Braves trailed by a run going into the bottom of the ninth inning with Chipper leading things off for the Braves. Chipper quickly led off the inning with a double and then moved to third base on a wild pitch by the Marlins reliever. When Freddie Freeman took the pitcher deep to straightaway center field and the flashing home run sign flashed on the top of the Gameday screen I leapt off of my couch and onto the living room floor and yelled something to the effect of “Yes!” My girlfriend, who had zero clue that I was paying attention to the game online while we were watching the show, looked at me like I was crazy or had lost my mind. She must’ve been thinking to herself, “Damn, he must really love Matthew Perry.”  

Despite Chipper Retiring, Braves Future Still Looks Bright

This entire baseball season as an Atlanta Braves fan has been dedicated to the farewell tour of future hall of fame third baseman and Braves legend Chipper Jones, who is going to be sorely missed following his retirement.

However, while watching Sunday night’s game between the Braves and the San Francisco Giants, which Chipper did not start in, but did receive a pinch hit farewell appearance late in the game I was struck by the realization that even though Chipper is going to be missed that the Braves still have a very, very bright future.

This realization came to me late in the game when the Braves young sluggers right fielder Jason Heyward and first baseman Freddie Freeman connected on back-to-back home runs off of Giants reliever Clay Hensley.

As long as the Braves can keep all of their young talent together for years to come (including perennial all star catcher Brian McCann and their very talented pitching staff) this Braves team shouldn’t miss a beat heading into the future without Chipper Jones (as hard as that may be to fathom). I’m very grateful that these young guys like Heyward and Freeman have now had a few seasons under Jones’ tutelage to teach them the right way to play the game: the Chipper Jones way.

I honestly can’t think of too many teams with a young duo as talented as or more talented than the Braves have with Heyward and Freeman. The Angels with Mike Trout (possibly just the third player to ever win rookie of the year and MVP in the same season this year) and Mark Trumbo are the only other team that I can think of.

I’ve had a blast watching Chipper play the game ever since I became a fan of his, the Braves and baseball in general in Jones’ rookie season of 1995. I look forward to developing this kind of relationship with Heyward and Freeman going into the future. If these two kids play up to their potential we might be watching two more future hall of famers in the making.  

RealCJ10 Stuns By Joining Twitter World

In probably the biggest sign thus far that the world is indeed ending in 2012 Atlanta Braves legend Chipper Jones has gotten a Twitter profile.

Chipper Jones has always seemed to be a man of few words who seems to abide my Teddy Roosevelt’s “Speak softly and carry a big stick” motto in life. Chipper’s big stick has done most of his talking throughout his hall of fame career. Chipper has also always seemed like the kind of person who probably wouldn’t be all that technologically advanced.

So it came as a huge shock on Tuesday (July 24) to see that Chipper had joined his Braves teammates like Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward, Kris Medlen, Matt Diaz, Peter Moylan and Brandon Beachy on the popular social media site that only allows you to communicate 140 characters at a time.

Jones made his Twitter debut with the Twitter handle @RealCJ10 (click link to follow Chipper on Twitter!) around 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon with the message: “Hello all! Yes, the ol man finally got the twitta! Shame on the posers. Thx to all the followers already. No fans like braves fans!”

The “shame on the posers” line is in reference to the multiple imposters who created fake Chipper Jones Twitter profiles.

The Braves third baseman would make two more Tweets later in the evening. One after the Braves 4-3 win against the Miami Marlins stating: “Nice win by the bravos! Huddy [Tim Hudson] dealt, kimmy [Craig Kimbrel] closed it out. Need a W tmrw to finish out a good trip. Lookin forward to getting back to the ATL”

Jones finished the night with a tweet about his other passion besides baseball: hunting. Chipper tweeted: “For u hunters out there, I'm no longer on BC [“Buck Commander”] full time, tho u will see me on some shows. Major league bowhunter is my new baby on sportsmans”

“Buck Commander” is a hunting television show broadcasted on the Outdoor Channel that Chipper has appeared on multiple times. “Major League Bowhunter” is another hunting series that appears on the Sportsman Channel.

Click HERE to see a clip of Chipper on "Major League Bowhunter" 

As of 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, Chipper Jones was only following seven people or subjects on Twitter, but had 42,168 followers (not a bad first day on social media).

I would frankly be a little surprised if Twitter is something that Jones makes a habit out of or really does that often. It’s very likely that the slugger will be like many who join the social networking site and forget about it or realize it’s not for him very early on and either shut it down or abandon it. However, for my sake as a fan and for the sake of other fans wanting to know what Chipper is up to I hope he enjoys it and continues to tweet on.