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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > June > 05
Thursday, June 5, 2008
400th homer highlights career of brilliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s all about names at this point for Chipper Jones. We’re talking about magical ones, too. Earlier this week, when the wonderfully gifted Braves third baseman dropped No. 399 for his career over the wall in right-center field at Turner Field, some of those names involved Dale Murphy, Al Kaline and Andres Galarraga.
Just like that, Jones roared past Murphy on baseball’s all-time list for home runs to become co-sluggers with Kaline and Galarraga at No. 43.
Then came Thursday night, when Jones strolled to home plate at Turner Field in the bottom of the sixth inning to rise closer to Duke Snider, Darrell Evans and Billy Williams. They are the next three guys above Jones on that list after he took another one of his easy left-handed swings to push a shot 10 rows into the right-field bleachers for the 400th homer of his ongoing career of brilliance. After the ball reached its destination, there were fireworks, a standing ovation among the 27,238 and Jones receiving a quick set of hand-slaps from teammates in the dugout before leaving to satisfy the screamers.
Twenty-five seconds into Jones’ noisy and impromptu party, he scampered up the dugout steps with cap in hand to wave toward the crowd before disappearing back inside. At the end of the inning, there was a video tribute on the scoreboard with highlights of Jones’ home runs over 15 seasons, featuring No. 1, No. 100, No. 200, No. 300 and his latest entry.
“I was blushing the whole time,” said Jones, still blushing with the memory that occurred before a slew of relatives from his native Florida. They saw the people’s choice receive only his second curtain call during his 15 seasons with the Braves. The last came in 1999, and the way Jones is threatening to swing this well for longevity, it won’t be his last. Added Jones, “This was way up there. This was probably in the top one or two greatest moments of my entire career. Obviously a World Series [title] is what we all shoot for. I got one of those during my rookie year, and this would be a close second.”
Then again, maybe not. Maybe the best is yet to come for Jones, flirting with the territory of Ted Williams, another magic name. After all, this is a 400th homer for somebody hitting over .400 this late in the season for one of the few times ever. In fact, the last player to finish an entire season over .400 was Williams.
That’s why those watching Larry Wayne Jones Jr. these days need to realize that the game didn’t even see the likes of this with a couple of other magical names — Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray. They are the only switch-hitters with more career homers than Jones. Neither Mantle nor Murray could hit for average like this during a season (.418 at the moment), and the only other switch-hitter with a higher career batting average than Jones’ .310 after a minimum of 6,000 at bats was Frankie Frisch, another magical name.
In case you’re wondering, Pete Rose, another switch-hitter with a magical name, finished with a career batting average of only .303. So here’s the point: Chipper Jones already has a magical name, and provided his historically aching body holds out (feet, oblique, wrist, knee, quad, hamstring, back), he’ll add more pixie dust to his resume as a 36-year-old who is just rolling through his prime. In the meantime, there was the Braves’ 7-5 victory over the Florida Marlins.
In the midst of it all, Jones went 4-for-5, and he even ignored his bad feet to steal a base. But the highlight of the night was his latest blast into history.
Or was it? Jones formed one of his crooked smiles, saying, “I don’t know what I was happier about — the home run or the stolen base. I’m a little far away from 400 [stolen bases] for my career.
He’s 265 steals away, to be exact, but who cares when you’re Jones, and your magic comes from other numbers?
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