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.     

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. 

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.