Dixie Babble

Chipper Jones announced yesterday that this season will be his last in Major League Baseball.

It’s more than a little sad for me – not because I’m such a big fan of Larry Jones, Jr. (I’m still not entirely sure about a grown man going by the name “Chipper” because he was a “chip off the old block”), but because he and I are the same age, and I distinctly remember the hype that accompanied his rookie season, and even though we’ve known for a couple of years that the time for him to hang ’em up was fast approaching, if now is in fact the time for him to hang ’em up, then that makes a statement as uncomfortable as my own aching knees and graying hair.

Did Chipper never get his just due because he played in Atlanta?  Would he be talked about more as one of the great players of his generation if Ted Turner, the Mouth of the South, still owned the Braves?  Was it because he only has that one World Series ring, from way back in his rookie season, that most baseball fans aren’t aware of how spectacular his numbers have been?

Going into the 2012 season, Jones has a lifetime .304 average, with 454 home runs, 526 doubles, 1,455 walks, a .402 on-base percentage and a .533 slugging percentage.  The only other players with those kinds of career numbers?  Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, and Ted Williams.  Note that two of those guys have had movies made about them.  (And Teddy Ballgame should, if they could ever find someone awesome enough to play him.)

Since the mid-1990s, Chipper has been the South’s iconic baseball player, and he played the role about as well as he played the game.