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.  

Chipper Hits Two Homers on Own Bobblehead Night

I apologize for this blog entry being so old.

Last Thursday night was Chipper Jones Bobblehead Night at Turner Field in Atlanta when the Atlanta Braves took on the San Diego Padres.

33,157 fans showed up at the Ted to celebrate Jones’ career and receive the nice souvenir, but they got a little extra treat that they probably weren’t expecting.

The 40-year old future hall of fame third baseman had his 40^th career multi-homer game and his first of the 2012 season, his final year in Major League Baseball. The two blasts by Jones led the Braves to a 6-0 win over the Padres behind a stellar complete game shutout by starting pitcher Kris Medlen, the first complete game shutout of his career.

Jones received a curtain call and standing ovation from the crowd of Bravos fans for his exploits during the game. After the game he told the media: ''If we have to make some silly bobblehead things to get people in the stands, so be it. Keep doing it. We get motivated to play every night, but there are certain nights when it's special, whether certain family members are in the seats, or it's your birthday, or it's bobblehead night.'' (From Yahoo Sports)

If a Chipper Jones bobblehead is what gets butts into the seats at Turner Field (a place that’s often seen lackluster attendance) and drives Chipper to hitting multiple homers every game that the Braves franchise should produce CJ bobbleheads every night of the season.

Chipper Jones’ season stats as of tonight (August 22) are a .311 average with 13 homers and 54 RBI. Jones has an outside chance of hitting 20 homers this season for the 15^th time in his career. He hasn’t had a 20-homer season since 2008 when he hit 22 homers and also won the National League batting title. 

 

Chipper Doesn't Recommend New York's Grand Hyatt

Who knew you should stretch before sleeping at the Grand Hyatt?

In addition to introducing the world to his own baseball language on Twitter, Atlanta Braves slugger Chipper Jones has also adapted to what really is one of the biggest things to do on the social media platform … bitching about life.

Come on you know everybody does it. Isn’t that one of the primary functions of social media to bitch about life’s problems? Bitching had never been so easy before social media sites like Facebook and Twitter were created where you can let hundreds, if not thousands or millions of people know that you have a migraine or that your girlfriend did something to piss you off with just one click of a button.

Chipper has mostly used his Twitter account for baseball speak, remarking about Braves wins and losses and bragging about every time a teammate went yicketty, but on Thursday night he finally used it for one of its main intentions … to bitch.

Apparently Chipper Jones was less than thrilled with the Braves hotel in New York City where they were in town to play the New York Mets and sent out the next three tweets:  

*“If anyone was thinkin about stayin at the Grand Hyatt in NY,dont! My AC is set on 65 and its north of 80 in here. Like a freaken sauna!”

*”The movie channels dont work and the beds make my back spasm up! Am i complaining too much? Im sorry, gotta vent to someone. Love yall!!!”

*”Ahh the power of social media. TV guy just showed up at my door. Didnt even have to call the front desk. See what happens when u vent a tad?”

There are some out there that might see these tweets and think that Jones is being a spoiled, rich athlete, but honestly it just helps to remind us that even though we’ve been watching him on TV for close to 20 years hitting home runs and winning ballgames that he’s just an average guy with typical everyday problems like me and you. Sure, we may never have stayed at the Grand Hyatt in New York City, but we’ve all had uncomfortable hotel stays.

Chances are that Braves fans are likely going to hate the Grand Hyatt just as much as Chipper does as the third baseman had to be scratched from the Braves lineup against the Mets on Friday night thanks to a bad back received from the hotel’s poor bed. Luckily the Braves didn’t need the old man to shutout the Mets 4-0, behind a stellar pitching performance by the newest Brave and trade deadline acquisition Paul Maholm.  

Jones Introduces Twitter World to "Chipperish"

When Atlanta Braves superstar third baseman Chipper Jones joined the social media world of Twitter a few weeks ago few probably could’ve foreseen that the slugger would actually introduce the world to a brand new language. A language that an MLB.com article has dubbed “Chipperish.”

In his early tweets Chipper would use strange words such as “yicketty” and “mammo” when describing his team’s play.

For example this early tweet from July 25: “Mike b and jhey go yicketty! The roadrunner went mammo! And the Bravos have a winning road trip. My kind of day off, no action!!!”

Jones would later explain to confused Twitter followers that “yicketty” was slang for home run and “mammo” slang for a “big bomb”, which is actually slang in itself.   

Baseball is certainly no stranger to slang terms and likely has more slang than any other sport, maybe even most other sports combined. Among my favorite baseball lingo terms are Uncle Charlie and yakker, which are both references for a curveball.

There are more terms for a home run than any other statistic or play in baseball like: dinger, blast, four-bagger, moon shot, tater and on and on, but it seems “yicketty” and “mammo”, likely created by Chipper Jones, that great linguist himself, are the ones that he prefers to use. It’ll be interesting to see if those terms catch on around the game, it already appears that they have among Chipper’s teammates with multiple Braves players also using the terms on Twitter and Braves announcers even using the terms during broadcasts.

It shall be interesting to see if “Chipperish” ever becomes as popular in the baseball or even pop culture lexicon as legendary New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra’s “Yogisms”.

Which leads me to a few of my favorite “Yogisms” …

*"Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical."

*"The future ain't what it used to be"

*"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

*"I didn't really say everything I said." … Which is probably very true. 

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.     

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 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