Chipper Ties Brett's RBI Mark; Honor Probably Short-Lived

The Atlanta Braves had an extra innings collapse on Wednesday night (July 18) losing to the San Francisco Giants 9-4 in 11 frames, but star third baseman Chipper Jones managed to make a little baseball history in defeat.

In the bottom of the 11^th inning Chipper took a pitch deep from Giants relief pitcher Brad Penny for a solo home run and his 1,596 RBI of his career. The RBI ties Kansas City Royals legend and Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett for the most RBI all time by a third baseman.

Leading your position all time in a huge statistical category such as Runs Batted In is a major deal in baseball and something that only a small handful of players can say they’ve accomplished. Jones adds his name alongside such true greats as Yogi Berra (catcher), Cap Anson (first base), Nap Lajoie (second base), Alex Rodriguez (shortstop) and Hank Aaron (outfielder).

This is one of those moments this season and throughout Chipper Jones’ lengthy career that just makes you take notice of his career achievements and realize that he’s clearly one of the all time greats like those previously mentioned legends that he joined Wednesday night.

Barring missed time due to injury, and his knee is currently aching pretty badly which will likely result in him missing today’s game against the Giants, Jones should break Brett’s record to be solely alone in most RBI by a third bagger in the National Pastime’s history within the next week.

George Brett

However, I shall mention that Jones should cherish this honor while he has the chance, because it will likely be a short lived one. New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, who is currently baseball’s all time leader in RBI by a shortstop, only needs to play 131 more games at third base to automatically become the all time baseball leader in RBI by a third baseman. When Rodriguez switches from shortstop to third base (likely sometime next season) then Honus Wagner, who last played baseball in 1917 and last breathed air on this planet in 1955 will regain his crown as RBI leader among shortstops. It’s simply amazing to me that a guy who’s been dead for 57 years can break a record … God, I love this game.

Jones’ solo shot on Wednesday night was his eighth homer of the season. Chipper is batting .313 on the season and has 35 RBI. 

Click HERE to see Jones tie Brett's mark. 

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.

Only 2 Days Remaining to Vote Chipper into All Star Game

There are only two days remaining to vote for the Major League Baseball All Star game starting lineups and Atlanta Braves future hall of fame third baseman Chipper Jones is fourth in the voting among National League third baseman. 

Now, I know that Jones has been injured twice during the season thus far and hasn’t played in as many games as most of the third baggers in the league. And, I also know that Jones is not nearly having as great of a season as New York Mets third baseman David Wright or even St. Louis Cardinals third baseman David Freese, and I usually scoff at fans who vote for their favorites over the best players in the league. 

However, I can’t help but think that Chipper Jones deserves the starting nod at third base for the All Star game this year in his final year in the sport. I remember all the way back to 2001 when Baltimore Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. was voted to start the All Star game for the American League and how great of a moment that was for not only him, but for fans all across the country.

Chipper Jones deserves that moment and all true legends of baseball really deserve that moment. I have a feeling that Chipper would want to be the last person to take the honor away from David Wright, but I also know that he’d feel extremely honored by the fans if they banded together and voted him into the midsummer classic. 

I’ve done my part and voted for Chipper the maximum 25 times. Now it’s your turn to go to MLB.com and do the same.  

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.   

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.

Chipper Jones Career Stats

Today is Opening Day in Major League Baseball. OK, so technically Opening Day was last week when the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners matched up in Japan, but today is the unofficial Opening Day. OK, so today there is only one game featuring the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals against the newly named Miami Marlins (which you can see on ESPN at 6 p.m.). Most teams open up their seasons on Thursday, including the Atlanta Braves who open in New York against the Mets around noon.

Chipper Jones is starting the season on the disabled list, after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery last week to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee, for the Braves and hopes to be in the lineup for the Braves home opener on Friday, April 13 against the Milwaukee Brewers. If he does debut on the 13th, he will have missed the first six games of the season.

Here are Chipper Jones' key career statistics coming into the 2012 season, his final season in the big leagues ...




Batting Average: .304
Hits: 2,615
Home Runs: 454
RBI: 1,561



Career Accolades:
7x All Star
1999 National League MVP
2008 National League Batting Champion

"Unofficial" Start

Upon hearing the news that this would be great Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones’ final season in baseball about two weeks ago I came up with the idea to start up a blog to chronicle his last season in the big leagues. 

This was probably a horrible idea, as I barely have time for anything while working a 40 hour a week job, keeping up a daily entertainment website, The Word, and a weekly sports podcast, Basement Sports, in addition to just your every day daily life things.

There’s really no telling how well I will keep up with this blog or if it will really ever even take off to begin with. After all, I did think of starting it almost two weeks ago and two weeks later it still sits barren.

This post is actually sort of the “unofficial” start to the blog. It’s the “unofficial” start because this is in no way the way I wanted to go about releasing the blog to the viewing public. I just feel that I’ve waited so long between my procrastination and busy-ness that I needed something to fill space on the blog with the season about to get underway.

My original idea for this blog was for it to be a sort of day-to-day thing keeping up with Jones’ season along with writing about what his career has meant to me as an Atlanta Braves fan and baseball fan, in general. With my incredibly busy life and stunning skills at procrastination I can already confirm that the original plan is probably not going to happen – it certainly hasn’t thus far.

In short, I’m going to try to do my best with this blog and hopefully that means that it’ll be updated once or twice a week … I’m not making any promises.