Chipper Jones: Treasure on field, wealth of material off of it
When Chipper Jones retires, the Braves will lose a legend and we'll lose the rarely scene honest and open athlete. (Curtis Compton/AJC)
(This is just one of several articles that will run in Sunday’s AJC special section on Chipper Jones. The section will be a collectors’ item so be sure to pick one up.)
Economics preclude me from following Chipper Jones into retirement. But there’s a side of me that wonders, “Now what?”
This column isn’t about Chipper Jones’ greatness as a baseball player (obvious). Or that he will end his Hall of Fame career with the same franchise that drafted him (reducing Todd Van Poppel to an amusing trivia question). Or that what we are witnessing in his final season seems pure fantasy: A 40-year-old athlete with creaky limbs manufacturing enough highlights to push his team into the playoffs.
Rather, this is about what really has set Chipper Jones apart: genuine, unfiltered, cold-slap honesty.
In the media, we tend to be drawn to the talkers. It’s simple: Our job is to tell stories, and it’s easier to paint pictures when locker-room voices are disseminating something more insightful than, “I hit a fastball.”
“Talkers” shouldn’t have a negative connotation. This isn’t about the turbo-lipped wonders who rarely stray far from a mirror or an agent. It’s not about the pre-packaged star who cares only about image and marketing. They sanitize every remark, orchestrate every public appearance. They’re like pretty yachts sitting in still waters.
Jones has had priorities beyond self-preservation. He says what he actually thinks, and what he thinks most often is correct. He arrived like a lot of young players, “thinking he had hung the moon,” Tom Glavine joked. He won a World Series as a rookie in 1995.
When the Braves didn’t win another title right away, it was Jones who said during the 1998 postseason what many others were thinking: “I think this business-type attitude hasn’t gotten the job done.”
And John Schuerholz probably spit up his coffee.
How many other athletes would have the courage to criticize the organization for not re-signing pitcher John Smoltz? “With all of the gambles that the Braves have taken on players, for a couple of million more dollars, you don’t gamble on John Smoltz …?” Jones said.
This time, it was Frank Wren’s turn to spit up his coffee.
Who else in spring training last year would call out critics for suggesting that Jones was playing only for the money? Quoting: “The cynical fan can really kiss my ass. There’s a bunch of true fans, and the people who actually want to take the time to get to know me know who I am. The guy who sits in his mom’s basement and types on his mom’s computer, I couldn’t really care less about.” (I resisted the temptation to drop my recorder and hug him.)
How many athletes, understanding the potential for misinterpretation, would declare that Jason Heyward needed to learn how to play with pain? The words: “[He] needs to realize [that] at 80 percent [he’s] a force. There are a bunch of his teammates that are out there playing with discomfort and not healthy.” (And soon, there was a brush fire.)
What player goes into his final spring training and makes waves? Jones criticizing performance-enhancing drug users, but admitted he thought about taking steroids earlier in his career. He shared a conversation with his father: “He said, ‘I can’t think of anything that would disappoint me more than finding out that you did something like that.’ I said, ‘Well, you don’t have to worry about that.’”
The Braves are losing a legend. The fans are losing a hero. I’m losing a reason to open my laptop.
Glavine said Jones matured after the early years. He developed into a leader.
“He probably rubbed some veteran guys the wrong way at the beginning, but I think we were all that way,” Glavine said. “Some veterans want to wring your neck, but the good players recognize that and [change]. I think it’s a natural progression. Also, mostly everything he said was true.”
Jones’ openness and honesty, he said said, “certainly puts him in a small group. Some guys say they’re accountable, but when they have a bad game suddenly they’re not around [for the media]. For a superstar to be accountable through good or bad is a rarity. It has served him well. You wish more guys would be like that.”
Henry Aaron said recently that Jones “falls into that category of players who have not only meant a lot to the Braves but to the city. When you see a ballplayer like this come along and you watch him for 19 or 20 years, sometimes you don’t fully appreciate him until after he’s gone.”
That’s not the case here. I’m just hoping to have him for a few more stories.
By Jeff Schultz
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188 comments Add your comment
BabsinAtl
September 28th, 2012
2:20 pm
@Tumbledown – yes we are!
HUH?????
September 28th, 2012
2:21 pm
samuel
Watch out! Jeff wants to ban me for posting something similar. Guess people can’t handle the truth.
BabsinAtl
September 28th, 2012
2:26 pm
HUH????
And some people can’t handle, or are jealous of, the successes of others and, therefore, spew hate. I thought we were on a sports blog, discussing and/or celebrating the “athletic” ability of Chipper Jones. I didn’t realize we were on a religious blog. It isn’t about “handling the truth.” It is simply realizing that we are all human, with our shortcomings and frailties just like everyone else. Bash him for his personal life if you must, or if it makes you feel superior, but that has to be a pretty miserable existence. GO BRAVES!
HUH?????
September 28th, 2012
2:28 pm
“And some people can’t handle, or are jealous of, the successes of others and, therefore, spew hate.”
Please point out ANY hate I’ve posted. Project much?
“I didn’t realize we were on a religious blog.”
You are seriously confused. I have said NOTHING about religion.
“Bash him for his personal life if you must”
Please point out any bashing that I’ve done. You obviously have a reading comprehension problem.
Brock
September 28th, 2012
2:29 pm
Tumbledown- True AA should be on that list. And I’ll throw Jimmy V in there as one of my heroes
BabsinAtl
September 28th, 2012
2:34 pm
HUH?????
You also said no one was race baiting, and I provided you with example(s). Perhaps the failure to comprehend what you read is your problem, and yours alone. I find it interesting that you never responded to that post either. I would love to debate you further. However, I am off to the Braves’ game tonight to cheer on my team! Good day to you sir…
Banned Poster
September 28th, 2012
2:48 pm
Awesome blog Jeff. I must say that this is definitely one of the best I have read from you. Chipper is an Atlanta legend and definitely one I will miss once it is all over in (hopefully) the next month.
As for the troll, Chipper made a mistake back in 1998 and got up like a man, held a press conference, took questions and admitted his mistake. He corrected the faults that led him down that path and paid the ultimate price – a broken relationship and very public humiliation. He is a better man now. While I like Tiger Woods, he never went through the same questioning and scrutiny that Chipper went through. Tiger has dodged all questions or anything from his infidelity, while Chipper owned up to it.
JSS
September 28th, 2012
2:52 pm
Look at Clusters going all ‘Firing Line!’ Clusters, they are going to say you’re part of the Eastern Establishment!
JSS
September 28th, 2012
2:55 pm
SInce when has religion equaled morality?
JSS
September 28th, 2012
2:57 pm
“Corrected faults?” When? Where? How?
Banned Poster
September 28th, 2012
3:06 pm
Bill @12:32pm……well said sir. Very well said.
HUH?????
September 28th, 2012
3:07 pm
“You also said no one was race baiting, and I provided you with example(s). Perhaps the failure to comprehend what you read is your problem, and yours alone. I find it interesting that you never responded to that post either. I would love to debate you further. However, I am off to the Braves’ game tonight to cheer on my team! Good day to you sir…”
I didn’t respond to your earlier post because I didn’t see any “race baiting” going on.
Also, again, please post any HATE that I’ve supposedly written.
Oh wait, you can’t.
HUH?????
September 28th, 2012
3:09 pm
“As for the troll, Chipper made a mistake back in 1998 and got up like a man, held a press conference, took questions and admitted his mistake. ”
I love it when folks contradict themselves in one single post. First, you call someone a name and then you act high and mighty.
“Tiger has dodged all questions or anything from his infidelity, while Chipper owned up to it.”
This isn’t a blog about Tiger, is it. No one is “bashing” Chipper. Merely pointing out that he isn’t this grand legend that some folks make him out to be. He’s a good ballplayer, not great, and he will end up in the HOF. He’s cost Atlanta a few players because of his salary.
Banned Poster
September 28th, 2012
3:11 pm
@JSS. Chipper and his first wife reconciled for awhile and went through counseling to try and make it work. Obviously that relationship didn’t work out and they both moved on. Chipper, however, didn’t just throw away the life of the young child he fathered. He could have easily sent him and the mother checks and moved on with his life, but he didn’t. He made them apart of his life and the son is treated no different than his other three kids. That is correcting his fault in my opinion. He became a man and owned up to his mistake. Now obviously this is not good for you and your high and mighty pedestal that you put everyone on. God forbid you have any skeletons in your closet. Hypocrite.
Banned Poster
September 28th, 2012
3:13 pm
“I love it when folks contradict themselves in one single post. First, you call someone a name and then you act high and mighty. ”
Not acting all high and mighty. Calling you what you are…..a troll.
Banned Poster
September 28th, 2012
3:17 pm
The hero label is obviously being bantered about in a baseball perspective. The fact some of you can’t comprehend that is mind boggling. Chipper is a hero to many of us Braves fans just as Murph and Hank were. Nothing wrong with that. Yes firefighters, soldiers, and policeman are heroes and are the most deserving of that title. But again, we are talking about baseball here.
Ron
September 28th, 2012
3:21 pm
Chipper has brought alot of those intangibles that you would hope any prospect in your organization would bring. Yes he was hurt a great deal and Yes he wasn’t always great during the post season but Chipper is a player you want to see and hear and read about during the baseball season. (I could care less about his personal trials, we all have them), next when 3rd is manned by someone else, everyone will think back and then and only then miss Chipper.
PMC
September 28th, 2012
3:27 pm
I’m going to really miss the feelings like i had the last Tuesday night. (no runs in the 8th, but we’ve got Chipper coming up in the 9th. You know he’s going to get on base….) sure enough double, move over, HR Walkoff… pass the champagne.
Man I hope he bookends this thing with another World Series victory.
JSS
September 28th, 2012
3:36 pm
No skeletons, my mistakes were in public… Therefore, no hypocrisy… Nice try… Correcting means more then trying, it means learning… Chipper got a second chance at marriage and blew it… Now, he’s sworn off marriage (supposedly)… It isn’t a pedestal, he’s never been placed any higher or lower than any other person… He’s been held by certain folks as a role model… These same people have come on these blogs decrying other men relentlessly for their martial (or relationship) failures… No, that is the hypocrisy… Said it when he was in A ball in Macon parading the Macon Mall trying to score every piece of underaged tail in the vicinity. Then 3 hours later passing the same girls with Karin Fulford, here would come Mr. Jones… We all shook our heads, same refrain: “This will not end well!” So enjoy your “hero” worship, the 2012 season and post-season has to end eventually!
David
September 28th, 2012
4:16 pm
Having loved baseball all my life living in the midwest with the Royals as the local team, I was thrilled to be relocated to Atlanta in 1994. Little did I know then – I would learn more about baseball from Bobby managing a National league team day-in day-out and witnessing the career of another great 3rd baseman in Chipper. One of my favorite memories is seeing Chipper talk with George Brett at the All Star game this summer. We are going to miss you Chipper !!
Sidslid
September 28th, 2012
4:57 pm
Before the infidelity, WSB ran an ask Chippet segment for kids at 7:15. One time a kid asked if you have to be a good student to play baseball. Chipper’s response: “You have to be able to count to four.”
Ann
September 28th, 2012
6:50 pm
@ bluspot Not sure what you mean by “not real sure he embraced Atlanta totally since he never lived here.” Chipper has lived in a metro Atlanta suburb for many years. I’ve read that he spends the off-season at this ranch, but in season, he lives here, which amounts to probably 7 months of the year. Sounds like a resident to me.
Regarding his personal life, he has stated that he got married too young the first time around. He did not have kids at the time. With the divorce rate at 50% off due to infidelity, sounds like there are many that have had similar bad choices. You folks who keep mentioning policemen, fireman, and soldiers as heroes, are they also no longer heroes if they have cheated on their husband or wife? I don’t put sports players on pedestals either and do not use the term hero lightly. Many sports persons, such as Chipper, though, do a tremendous amount for charity and that is commendable.
Ann
September 28th, 2012
6:53 pm
Typo correction – “his ranch” and “often due to infideilty” instead of “off”.
Ann
September 28th, 2012
6:59 pm
There are many people out there these days with 2 failed marriages. The extensive traveling involved in professional baseball makes it challenging to maintain a marriage, as you are often not there, day to day, to assist with the household, parenting, etc.
dude999
September 28th, 2012
7:06 pm
Chipper is a great player; NOT a hero. Our men and women who have served and are serving now in the armed services are heros. NOT some millionaire who hits and catches a white ball.
ylojkt
September 28th, 2012
7:32 pm
Chipper is a hero to me and my family, we will all miss him after this season and wish he could play for a few more.
Being in the military makes you no more of a hero than working at Kroger. It actually makes me think the guy at Kroger was smarter than the guy who enlisted in these times, knowing he would most likely be sent to a place he has no business being with a job that could get him killed, serving a master that is indifferent to his fate as long as the contracts keep making his companies richer. Many have served their fellow soldiers with great honor and sacrifice, and are good people, even heroes to many; but the sheer act of signing away your life when you already know that there will be no true purpose in your death or injury is not heroic in the least to me.
JAJA
September 28th, 2012
7:35 pm
While I appreciate Chipper as a baseball, can not forget some of his extra activities off the field and how he destroyed a marriage—-his own. He maybe a honest player, but was not as a husband.
Baako
September 28th, 2012
8:00 pm
This is my first blog(so please bear with me). I’ve never been a true Chipper fan, but I’m a lifelong Braves fan. I thought the Braves were stupid for re-signing Chipper and letting Andruw Jones walk(shows how much I know, huh). But Chipper has always been a consumate professional. He has been a clubhouse leader and a team player. The thing I think everyone that has brought up his personal life don’t realize is that although Chipper is a great ballplayer, he is a man. I don’t know about the “perfect” people on this blog, but I have had my own shortcomings as a person. The only difference is Chipper is in the public’s eye. When JS was talking about Chipper’s “honesty” he was talking about his honesty as a ballplayer, not his personal life. BUT, to me “honesty” is also defined as being able to stand up for your shortcomings. He may have failed as a husband(by his own admission, BTW) but he was honest enough not to blame others for what he did. I don’t know about y’all, but Chipper is RICH! If my broke a$$ can have women throwing themselves at me, I’m sure Chipper has 10x that amount throwing themselves at him. So what he had a child out of wedlock, so what he cheated on his wife, he didn’t cheat his fans(he showed up and performed night in and night out), and to be able to take blame for what he did… that makes him a stand up guy to me. Nobody’s perfect, and he didn’t cheat on you. And for those of you that are dogging him out for making mistakes, acting all high and mighty, pretending that you have NEVER sinned, keep in mind that God said “Judge not…” and remember that ANYTIME you go against God’s doctrines, YOU ARE COMMITTING A SIN! So judge on, perfect one
Rowsdower
September 28th, 2012
9:14 pm
Let’s leave the God stuff and the off the field life out of it. We are talking about one of the best players ever and an icon. What this man accomplished on a baseball field makes him a hero to a lot of people. No, he didn’t choose to join the military. He chose to be a baseball player. I admire those that choose to join the military…choose. It was their choice. They have had to fight unjust wars because an idiot wanted to avenge his daddy.
Chipper Jones should be honored in this space. Those of you that choose otherwise need to take your business elsewhere.
ylojkt
September 28th, 2012
10:16 pm
Agreed Rowsdower. Chipper was right, he shouldn’t give a rats posterior about many of you. Especially the goody two shoes judgmental “christians” on here.
GO CHIPPER! OUR HOMETOWN HERO!
rpollardrealtor
September 29th, 2012
1:26 am
Jeff,
I can honestly say, I can’t stand most of your articles because you do what you’re paid to do and write articles that stir up debate. Thankfully you got this one right. Great Article Jeff!
rpollardrealtor
September 29th, 2012
1:39 am
Rowsdower,
Avenge his daddy? It’s soo funny how people are so quick to forget 9/11 and to blame bush jr or bush sr. for 9/11 you are very naive.
ATL kid living in Arizona
September 29th, 2012
1:54 am
Does anyone know how difficult it is to switch hit? Anyone? If you ever played the game I challenge you to step out of the box and go to the other side. Now reverse everything you’ve ever been comfortable doing. Let’s do this and at the same time match wits with the best pitchers in baseball. On top of that give your team another dimension against certain pitchers in certain situations. Do this effectively for 20 years. It’s not easy folks – But Chipper made it look as if it were. Take pictures and remind yourself what a solid player this man is and has meant to the Braves. We love you and will miss you immensely Chipper!
Butler9
September 29th, 2012
11:09 am
Never really did care for Chipper Jones. Just seemed like the typical, uneducated, red-neck ballplayer. But in recent years he began to win me over. Maybe it was his consistent productivity despite his ongoing battle with injuries. Maybe I began to gain a greater appreciation of his low-key personality as compared to so many other atheletes who seem more interested in self-promotion and over-the-top celebrations for run-of-the-mill things like tackles and receptions. Maybe I began to notice more how highly-regarded he is by opposing players and coaches. Maybe it was all the comments I heard from his teammates, who had nothing but good things to say about him and his quiet leadership. Or, i dunno — maybe he just began feeling like an ‘old shoe’ or something. At any rate, he has won my grudging respect, for whatever that’s worth. It’s been fun to watch his sunset season, admire his ageless heroics, and know that we’re watching the passing of one the game’s truly great ballplayers. Bravo, Chipper Jones … you’ve done well and have made a city proud.
Just Saying..
September 29th, 2012
11:43 am
Jeff, ever think you’re so widely read because you share many of the bark-off (Beelzebub…) comment traits you admire in Jones?
Anyways, really nice piece.
Jim
September 30th, 2012
5:41 am
I thought early this year he should step aside so his pay could be used for a few decent players that could play everyday. He proved me wrong. He’s worth every penny.
Packer Ed
September 30th, 2012
8:24 am
This Brave fan of 55 years says we have not won the most championshsips but the Braves sure have had the greatest individual players in the major leagues. Aaron, Spahn, Smoltz, Mathews, Glavine, Maddux,and Chipper.
Who else should be added to the list?
PiersonBrave
October 5th, 2012
12:18 pm
Alphare
September 28th, 2012
11:27 am
Bill, this is not about first stone.
If my son cheated on his wife and had an illegitimate child as a result, I would kick his butt and ask him to get out of my face.
But I guess everybody has a different moral standard
——————————————————————————–
Wow! Some parent you are. Kick your own flesh and blood out of your relationship?
I guess that you would not want anything to do with your grandchild, also. Real mature and christian of you.
Some people make mistakes and deny (Clinton) Others make mistakes and own them (Chipper).
The chastity of some bloggers comment’s lead me to believe that they are without sin. Sigh, must be nice to be able to look down your long noses at the peons and riff raft of the world.