Chipper Jones announced, today, that the 2012 season will be his last. He has announced he will retire at the end of this season.
Quite literally, it’s the end of an era.
Jones will finish this season having played his entire 19-year career for the Atlanta Braves. That, alone, is fairly unique in this modern era of baseball. But Jones, himself, is the last link to the incredible Braves teams of the 90’s and early 2000s. His rookie season of 1995 was the year the Braves won their only World Series title (and the only one by an Atlanta professional sports team).
A switch-hitter with a career .300+ batting average and more than 400 home runs, his stats alone will ensure he will become a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, quite possibly during his first year of eligibility.
The good news for Atlanta fans is that Jones and the Braves want him to remain with the team in some capacity after the 2012 season. For years, he has served as a great mentor and role model for many of the young ballplayers who have worked their way through the Braves minor league system to become the wave of stars.
The fact that Jones played his entire career for one MLB club harkens back to the old days when that was commonplace. Now, it is rare.
For an Atlanta fan during this incredible run, I am very happy to have seen it and to experienced many of the highlights of Jones’ career and I wish him well as he goes through this MLB season and begins a new chapter during future ones.
JG
Originally posted 3/22/2012
No comments:
Post a Comment