Chipper Jones Ends All Star Game Career In Style

Before Tuesday night’s Major League Baseball All Star Game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City National League manager Tony La Russa enlisted Atlanta Braves legendary third baseman Chipper Jones to give a speech to rally the troops. The 40-year old told his All Star teammates, which he referred to as the “elite of the elite” that he was “not going out losing his last one.”

You can see Chipper’s complete pregame speech: HERE

Well, Jones’ speech must have really gotten into his teammates heads, because they came out swinging in full force against American League starting pitcher and Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander, the best pitcher in baseball in my opinion, and slapped him around for five first inning runs.

With one out in the first San Francisco Giants center fielder Melky Cabrera single and then scored on a RBI double by Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun. After Braun’s double, St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Carlos Beltran and San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey were both walked by Verlander. San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who I thought was wrongfully voted to start the game by Giants fans stuffing the ballots, cleared the bases with a three RBI triple. Sandoval was then driven home by Braves second baseman Dan Uggla on an infield single.

The NL squad would add three more runs in the fourth inning off of Texas Rangers pitcher Matt Harrison when Cardinals shortstop Rafael Furcal triples and then was driven home by Cardinals Matt Holliday, as a designated hitter, on a single. Cabrera than followed that up with a two-run homer, which solidified his winning the game’s MVP Award.

Chipper Jones entered the game for the National League in the top half of the sixth inning in the designated hitter role. My excitement level jumped immediately even before I saw Jones on the television screen, because I knew he was going to bat before seeing him thanks to the Kauffman Stadium PA playing Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train”, Chipper’s longtime at-bat music, in tribute to the third sacker.

The at-bat marked Chipper’s first at Kauffman Stadium, the only ballpark in baseball that Jones hadn’t previously played at during his 19-year career in baseball. As Jones took to homeplate the Kauffman Stadium fans gave him a fantastic ovation, just as they had during the player introductions, and Jones acknowledged the ovation by stepping out of the batter’s box to tip his cap. Jones’ only rival as far as ovations during the game was the Kansas City Royals hometown player Billy Butler, who went 0-for-2 during the game, much to the crowd’s chagrin.

Fittingly in Chipper’s final career All Star at-bat he got a base hit off of Chicago White Sox pitcher Chris Sale on a perfect placed single just past Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler. It wasn’t a blast by any means, but as former Braves legend Tom Glavine said on his newly started Twitter profile said it’ll look like a line drive in the box score. Chipper had a smile on his face almost immediately upon hitting the ball and legging it out to first base. It wasn’t a Cal Ripken Jr. 2001 All Star Game home run moment, but it was just fine for Chipper and fans everywhere. I can honestly say that I’ve never cheered as loudly for a squibber that just eeked through the hole.

Jones said about the hit after the game: “I was trying to run it out all the way. I mean, 40 years old legging out an infield hit in the All-Star game – that’s exactly the way I scripted it.”

You can see Chipper’s final career All Star Game at-bat: HERE

The National League would go on to win the All Star game 8-0 behind fabulous pitching performances. The National League pitching staff frankly made the best hitters in the American Leaguer look like Little Leaguers on Tuesday night. The shutout was the first in an All Star game since the NL shutout the AL 6-0 in 1996, when fellow Braves legend John Smoltz earned the win and Chipper made his All Star Game debut. It’s also fitting that Jones began and ended his All Star tenure in shutout games.

Jones ended his All Star Game career with a .429 batting average (6-for-14) with a home run and RBI in eight All Star Games (only played in seven).

It was just a magical night all around for both Chipper Jones, his fans and especially this fan. There have been many of those along the way, and hopefully there will be many more during the final second half of Chipper’s career.

Click HERE to see box score of game

Chipper Needs Your Final Vote

Well, Chipper Jones unfortunately wasn’t voted in as the starting third baseman of the National League All Star team by the fans … and neither were deserving third baseman David Wright of the New York Mets and David Freese of the St. Louis Cardinals.

In a disgusting surprise, fans of the San Francisco Giants stuffed the ballot boxes in the final days of All Star voting to vote their fan-favorite Pablo Sandoval into the starting position. Sandoval’s inclusion into the game by the fans likely makes him this year’s worst All Star choice for the National League. He’s nowhere near as deserving as Jones, for lifetime achievement reasons, or Wright and Freese, for on-field reasons. This is why fan voting for the Major League Baseball All Star game is asinine. It’s just a popularity contest.

Sandoval’s inclusion in the All Star game meant that at least one truly deserving third bagger would have to miss out on the game. Unfortunately, Chipper didn’t make the NL all star squad as a reserve either. Wright was given the reserve spot by the player’s vote.

However, National League manager Tony La Russa has given fans one more opportunity to place Chipper Jones into the All Star game by including him among the five nominees for the Final Vote. Jones will be joined in the Final Vote by four other truly deserving candidates: Freese, Chipper’s Braves teammate outfielder Michael Bourn, Washington Nationals rookie phenom outfielder Bryce Harper and Arizona Diamondbacks second baseman Aaron Hill.

As a future hall of famer and likely one of the five greatest third baseman to ever play the game of baseball, Chipper greatly deserves the honor of being named to the All Star game and this will likely be his last opportunity for him to make it (it’s highly unlikely that he would be added as an injury replacement).

Fellow Final Vote nominee Bryce Harper said himself that Chipper deserved the All Star nod to MLB.com: “He should have already been in the All-Star Game, no matter what. He's an All-Star, and he's been an All-Star for 20 years. I think Chip should have been there and, like I said, if I had a vote, Chip's going.”

Click HERE to see what Chipper had to say about being included in the Final Vote.

Voting for the Final Vote is open now and will continue through 3 p.m. on Thursday. You can vote for Chipper by clicking HERE.

Vote Chipper Into 2012 MLB All Star Game

The newest National League All Star voting numbers were released on Tuesday (June 12) and Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones, who recently returned to the Braves lineup, is currently fourth in the all star voting among National League third basemen.

Jones has 1,054,586 votes thus far. The good news for Chipper and Braves fans is that the voting for N.L. third basemen is among the closest positions in the balloting. The current N.L. leader at third base in the voting is New York Mets third bagger David Wright with 1,358,992 votes. Second in the balloting is San Francisco Giants hot corner resident Pablo Sandoval with 1,103,650 votes and coming in third is St. Louis Cardinals David Freese with 1,095,206.

Braves second baseman Dan Uggla is the only Braves currently leading his respective position in the balloting. Uggla has a fairly solid lead over Cincinnati Reds all star Brandon Phillips.

Now, I’ve never been a fan in my life of fans getting to vote for the Major League Baseball All Star Game starting lineups, because they often get things wrong. Fans tend to vote for the most popular players or their favorite players over the players who are most deserving of being all stars.

That previous paragraph means that every single thing I’m about to say makes me a hypocrite this season. I think that in his final season in baseball Chipper Jones, a seven-time All Star, should be named to the National League All Star team as its starting third baseman. We’ve seen this type of thing happen in the past. Baseball hall of famer and Baltimore Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. was famously voted into the American League All Star starting lineup in his finals season back in 2001. As a legendary player and a great ambassador for the game of baseball, Chipper Jones truly deserves that same treatment. 

Mets' 3B David Wright is current vote getter

I know that Mets superstar David Wright is having the best season of any third baseman in the National League, and arguably MLB as a whole, with a .354 batting average, eight home runs, 34 RBI and 40 runs scored and has been the MVP for a surprising Mets team thus far this season. His performance and stats this year prove he is an all star and in my opinion should definitely be the game’s starting third baseman had this been any other year. I think he should surely be named to this year’s squad as a reserve. Even though he’d know in his head that he was the better third baseman this season I doubt Wright would mind all that much if Jones was elected to start the midsummer classic over him. 

Vote Chipper Jones into the 2012 MLB All Star Game!

The truth of the matter is that despite Jones not having all star worthy numbers two and a half months into the season that doesn’t mean he hasn’t played like an all star this season. Jones has been an all star caliber player in his playing time, which has been dramatically shortened by multiple injuries. When in the lineup Jones has been the Braves best hitter this season hitting .306 with five homers and 24 RBI. Jones has played 26 fewer games this season than Wright and only has three fewer home runs and 10 fewer RBI. Had Chipper have been completely healthy his numbers right now could possibly be superior to Wright’s.

Let’s work together to try to give Chipper Jones the honor that he truly deserves by being the National League starting third baseman in this year’s All Star Game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City (the only stadium by the way in which Chipper has never played a game in his career) by voting him in. You can click HERE to vote for Chipper up to 25 times. I know I’ll be using all 25 of my votes on Chipper. Sorry, David Wright, you really do deserve it, but sometimes even I’ve got to play favorites.