As anyone who follows Atlanta Braves' baseball knows, this is the final year for manager Bobby Cox. Atlanta General Manager Frank Wren and the Braves are doing everything in their power to send Cox out a winner. However, a vital part of the team will no longer be on the field for the rest of this 2010 season. On Tuesday night, Chipper Jones tore his left ACL making a spectacular play off the bat of Houston Astros' left-fielder Carlos Lee. Thanks to Chipper's replacement, Brooks Conrad, the Braves went on to win 4-2.
So, several questions now emerge? Short-term, can the Braves hold off the Phillies without the heart and soul of their team? Sure, Chipper's 10 homers and 46 RBIs are not "off-the-chart" numbers, but there is no question who the emotional leader of this team is. The Braves need him and they need his bat. However, what is going to happen long-term? Chipper has openly talked about retirement and how this could be his last season. Being 38 years of age and trying to come back from ACL surgery is not an easy task. Chipper is a fierce competitor and does not want to hurt his team by not playing at his usual level.
Watching ESPN's Pardon the Interruption today, I heard Michael Wilbon say that the only thing that could make Chipper go out happier than making that play would have been to hit a game-winning homer against the Mets at Citi Field. That's probably very true! There is no question in anybody's mind that his successful 17 year career makes him a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. He has a career .306 BA with 436 homers. That makes him third all-time among switch-hitters, trailing only Eddie Murray and Mickey Mantle. Throughout his career, he has driven in 1,491 runs and has an on-base percentage of .405. He was a part of twelve of the fourteen straight division titles and was runner-up in the 1995 Rookie-of-the-Year voting behind Hideo Nomo.
One of my favorite memories of Chipper Jones came in his MVP season of 1999. That year, the Braves and Mets were going toe-to-toe right into a 3-game series at Turner Field in September. In game 1 of the series on September 21, Chipper homered left-handed to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the eighth, after some thought, Mets Manager Bobby Valentine decided to go with his gut and bring in lefty Dennis Cook to turn Chipper around and make him bat right-handed. Now, anyone who followed Chipper's career to that point knew that he could not hit with power right-handed. In fact, prior to 1999, only 12 of his 110 career homers came right-handed. However, thanks new hitting Don Baylor, Chipper fixed that in 1999 season, hitting 12 alone that year up to this spot. On the third pitch of the at-bat, Chipper took Cook's 1-1 fastball and launched it into the left-centerfield seats and gave the Braves a huge win. He would go on to homer twice more in the series as the Braves swept Mets and won the division shortly after.
Fast-forward eleven years later and perhaps we have seen the last of brilliant career from one of the game's all-time great third basemen. How fitting would it be for Chipper, who has been with Bobby Cox from the beginning of his career, to go out like this? Within the last two years, I have seen the Braves retire both Greg Maddux's (31) and Tom Glavine's (47) numbers. No doubt Chipper (10) and Bobby (6), along with Smoltz (29), will be right beside them in a few years.
Indeed, 2010 will likely bring to an end one of the greatest eras in sport's history. The good news for the Braves is that Omar Infante and Brooks Conrad, both of whom have been raking the ball in Chipper's absence earlier, will get their long overdue shots to play. Omar has been lights out and Conrad has hit 3 late-inning bombs, including 2 grand slams, to propel the Braves to big wins this year.
Many questions remain. Can the Braves hold off the Phillies? Is this the end for Chipper? What is Frank Wren going to do? We don't know. What we do know is that we have witnessed one hell of career the last 17 years and it's a sad day for Braves' fans all over.
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