Chipper’s toe-tap winds up kicking Braves in the rear
Jeff Francoeur’s excursion to Dallas to work with Rudy Jaramillo, the hitting coach of the Texas Rangers, raised eyebrows and raised Terry Pendleton’s hackles. But how about this? Chipper Jones helps a former Brave with his toe-tap and the former Brave winds up — not to go all Munson on you here — kicking his old team in the gut with a steel-toed work boot.
Nick Green hit a home run off Jeff Bennett to beat the Braves in the ninth inning Sunday. You know that already. But on Saturday Daniel Barbarisi of the Providence Journal described how Green, who came up in the Braves’ farm system and played here in 2004 before being traded to Tampa Bay for Jorge Sosa in 2005, worked out over the winter with Jones and Brian McCann and Francoeur and former Brave Mark DeRosa.
Green noticed three of them — Francoeur being the exception — tapped their front toe before swinging, so as to keep their weight on the back foot. Barbarisi quoted Chipper thusly: “Just think of it as throwing a punch. You get [angry] at some guy, you’re not going to just stand shoulder-to-shoulder and throw a punch. You’re going to draw everything back, and try to get as much into it as you can. Same thing with a baseball.
“When I was young, I used to get out on my front foot. I used to bail a little bit. And my dad said, take the toe tap to overexaggerate and get everything on your back side. Get your foot down, and then explode into the baseball. It’s worked for me.”
At the time, Green was looking for work. He’d bounced from Tampa Bay to Pittsburgh to Seattle to the Yankees without settling, and he spent the 2008 season in Class AAA. From Barbarisi’s story, here’s Jones again: “We brought him in [to the workouts] because he was a former teammate, and he came in, he worked just as hard as any of us this offseason. I felt like if he got the chance to play every day that he would produce … I never dreamed he would be playing shortstop for the Boston Red Sox here in the middle of June, but here he is.”
Green signed a minor-league contract with Boston in January. He’s playing because starting shortstop Jed Lowrie is hurt, and the toe-tap he learned from his buddies has helped him hit .293. And on Sunday he bent the 15th homer of his big-league career around the Pesky Pole to beat the team that raised him.
But before you say, “Thanks a lot, Chipper” … be advised that this stuff happens all the time in professional sports. Players help pals, and because guys are forever changing teams, today’s pupil could be tomorrow’s nemesis. It’s the nature of the business.
And it wasn’t as if Nick Green had never hit a walk-off homer before. As Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe noted, he did it as a Brave on July 2, 2004. He did it against the Boston Red Sox.
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77 comments Add your comment
ATLVOL
June 22nd, 2009
3:18 pm
Only 4 and half back at 4 games under .500….I’ll take it all day long. Solid play over the next 2 weeks will give us a chance…..less than stellar will most likely seal our fate. Time to bear down and beat the best in baseball……Go Braves
Noah
June 22nd, 2009
3:19 pm
Most teams have the same rap, its how baseball works unless you say you are never going to trade anyone. Then again you wouldn’t get players like JJ either then.
They have a terrible record of dumping prospects for rentals who bring no titles and move on quickly to greener pastures.
Cutler
June 22nd, 2009
3:30 pm
gg, are you kidding me? If anything, you left the guy with the most potential off that list in Elvis Andrus. Luckily Shane took care of the rest.
Adam
June 22nd, 2009
3:31 pm
Nick Green has never done anything…. Look at Soto with the Cubs, Martin with the Dodgers… etc…
He’s playing well now but players rarely blossom this far into a career.. We’ll see.
Nick Green has nothing to do with the FACT that most of the Braves runs are scored with 2 outs…. THAT MEANS FEW BIG INNINGS, NO SUSTAINED RALLIES.
Typical example: Base hit, walk… double play…. single…. rollover 4-3 out. That’s why they end up games with 2 runs, 12 hits.
We never sacrifice and move guys along. We do it and we almost have to stop the game as the dugout celebrates.
You can’t play Earl Weaver baseball without a single 30-home run hitter — maybe even a 20-homer guy. Ridiculous.
dhardy1468
June 22nd, 2009
3:42 pm
I don’t really think that the toe tap had anything to do with the loss. The fact of the matter is it was a stupid decision to take Gonzo out after a 1-2-3 8th inning, and put in who to pitch, Jeff Bennett?
I dont care if the Green is RHB and they didnt want the Lefty (P) Righty (B) matchup. Gonzo could have easily got him out. Instead Chino and McDowell made a bonehead decision to bring in Bennett.
Mike
June 22nd, 2009
3:53 pm
Half of you guys are saying get rid of Francouer and the other half are saying we got rid of people who were not producing and then they started producing. Which is it guys. How do you get it both ways.
Joey
June 22nd, 2009
3:56 pm
Is there another MLB manager who would trot out Kelly J, Jeff B and Jeff F in nearly every game? Don’t we have the second best farm system in the major leagues? Bring some kids up – they can surely do better than these 3 pathetic players.
Joey
June 22nd, 2009
4:02 pm
Lately when Jeff Bennett comes in, I just turn the channel, look at my wife and say, “tomorrow’s box score will read – LP-Jeff Bennett.” Then I show her the box score the next day for verification. I’m confident that I have a 75-80% of being right. What has he blown now 7 or 8 leads in games?
Buzz
June 22nd, 2009
4:02 pm
Mrs. Chanandler Bong, Bobby makes the call even when ejected by making the Verizon Wireless Call to the Dugout.
nuf sed
June 22nd, 2009
4:05 pm
Good luck to Nick Green. He earned it.
Shamus Thacker
June 22nd, 2009
4:10 pm
Twixed the Braves, Phooeys, and Muts, it’s not gonna come down to who wins the most, but who loses the least…
Joey
June 22nd, 2009
4:11 pm
Bubba, I don’t buy your item 2). I think Frank Wren has done a great job of adding players and pitchers this year. He’s gotten pretty much everyone he has gone after that the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers didn’t want. And he cannot compete with those three’s checkbooks. I think Bobby Cox cannot inspire or motivate his players. They just don’t play with fire. It’s like they know Cox has their back no matter how badly they play or think on the field. I truly hope we don’t replace Cox next year with another “player’s manager.”
RHR
June 22nd, 2009
4:14 pm
He said he had “one of his best at-bats” on Saturday. Uhhh….
Which one do you reckon he was talking about? The fly out, the weak grounder to 1st on the 1st pitch, or the would be ball 4 GIDP leaving 2 men on in the 8th inning?
God I can’t stand him. I would take a loss for every game the rest of this season just to get rid of him.
RHR
June 22nd, 2009
4:17 pm
CHIPPER FOR BRAVES’
HITTING COACH!!! In that way, he can save his knees, feet and whatever else is ailing him and maybe correct everyone else’s slump in the lineup!
Yeah I’m sure Chipper will jump right on trading his players salary for a hitting coach salary.
JPK
June 22nd, 2009
4:25 pm
About Francouer…. I don’t see why everyone on here just wants him gone and says he is an INSTANT out! The last 10 games or so he has been producing and if not producing EVERY at bat… he has ben producing big when he does.
Buzz
June 22nd, 2009
4:25 pm
Let’s look at Green’s homer. a 300 foot fly ball that is not out of many, if any, high school fields in Georgia. For instance, it is no where near getting out at West Hall in Oakwood at 335 ft
Buzz
June 22nd, 2009
4:27 pm
JPK….consider the Stenchy is a rally killer more than he finds a hole.
TheShoz
June 22nd, 2009
4:36 pm
When needing to surrender, most people wave a white flag or raise their hands in the air. Bobby Cox puts in Jeff Bennett…
Shamus Thacker
June 22nd, 2009
4:38 pm
The Bennett situation is as puzzling as running Frenchy’s moribund azz out there every night.
Soriano’s out there, possible game-deciding spot, but Hell, Bennett’s out there too. I love Bobby (non-Biblically) but it would take someone OUT-OF-HIS-DAMN-MIND to make the wrong decision here. Is Bobby crazy? More than likely not. Is Bennett his son? Not that I know of. All I’m left with is this one simple question… WTF!!??
RHR
June 22nd, 2009
4:54 pm
he has ben producing big when he does.
Got any examples for us besides that one game vs the Cubs?
Buzz
June 22nd, 2009
5:07 pm
Bennett has gained possession of the comprimising photos that Keith Lockhart had back in his day.
OedipusTax
June 22nd, 2009
5:20 pm
Is it just me? Could I be wrong? A couple of years ago Francoeur fouled a pitch off of his face. He’s never been the same since. Can anybody with the baseball statistic capability quote what his batting average has been since the accident, and what it was before the accident? Now, he’s one of the most frustrating personalties to watch play baseball that I’ve ever known, and I’ve rooted for him since his Parkview days as I’m from Gwinnett County. However, today, he’s nothing more than a glorified singles hitter that has a strike zone about the size of barn. Could it be that his eyesight simply has never been the same? Maybe he’s got double vision and it hasn’t been diagnosed?
OedipusTax
June 22nd, 2009
5:27 pm
JPK, Francoeur has a double and a home run batting .228 with a slugging pct. under 300 in the month of June. 13 hits. And .OBP of .281 because he can’t walk, which is the lowest of any regular by a great deal. He’s been under performing for two years, and has been treated with kindness and patience by the Braves. Unless he performs a miraculous turn around, he’s toast, and deservedly so by his inability to hit.
Mark Bradley
June 22nd, 2009
5:50 pm
Joey, regarding “Jeff Bennett, LP”: They used to tell a story in St. Louis that Harry Caray, then the Cardinals’ announcer, thought Ken Boyer — the 1964 National League MVP — was such a lousy clutch hitter that Harry once called a game thusly: “Bottom of the ninth, tying run on the third base, Boyer at the plate — and we’ll be back with the wrapup after this.”
Mike
June 22nd, 2009
6:00 pm
I may be looking too hard for positives through my rose-colored glasses, but it was great to see Chipper fired up yesterday. We need to see more emotion from him, as his mates will feed off it. Would be nice to shed the “Briefcase Braves” image once and for all…
RHR
June 22nd, 2009
7:38 pm
That’s hilarious Mark.
Sounds like something Skip would say.
Ken Boyer
June 24th, 2009
1:22 pm
Jeff Bennett ain’t no Ken Boyer