By JohnnyG

March 13, 2008 7:52 PM | Link to this

I’d take Chipper at the plate with the winning run at third, over anyone I’ve ever seen play baseball.

By Steve Brewster

March 13, 2008 8:42 PM | Link to this

Terrance Moore still has a man crush on David Justice.

By Gene

March 13, 2008 9:04 PM | Link to this

Dave Justice was a pretty good baseball player, but he was no leader. Since he had some good years with the Braves, I will just leave it at that.

By jay

March 13, 2008 9:41 PM | Link to this

CHIPPER CANNOT WASH DAVID JUSTICE OR TERRY PENDLETON UNDERWEAR. BOTH FORMER BRAVES HEADED TO THE HALL OF FAME. CHIPPER WON’T GET THERE, NEITHER WITH YOUR HOMEBOY DALE MURPHY. THE BRAVES HAVE NOT WON ANYTHING SINCE THESE GUYS HAVE LEFT. THE STATS, CHAMPIONSHIPS & ATTENDANTS PROVES IT SO!!!

By david justice

March 13, 2008 10:50 PM | Link to this

I really do miss spring raining. But Terrance, most of all…I miss smoking crack with you after a long day at spring camp. Boy those were the days.

By ChrisfromSacramento

March 13, 2008 11:16 PM | Link to this

Great piece on Chipper. Chipper is a great player. The best since Hank. For all the Chipper haters you will choke on it when he is speaking ot Cooperstown for his induction speach. Keep it up Chip.

By Coach (Lets Go Braves in 2008)

March 14, 2008 1:04 AM | Link to this

Chipper Jones = Cooperstown. Enough said.

By mark

March 14, 2008 2:29 AM | Link to this

why so often in this blog are so many bloggers hateful..thats not what its about…try being positive…it goes a long way ask Bobby Cox

By ippississiM

March 14, 2008 4:30 AM | Link to this

It seems jay made sure that whatever he said wouldn’t be taken seriously. That’s a good thing really, since the all-caps and horrible spelling (attendants? Try attendance) distracted me from the inane non-point he was trying to make with his ravings. Sheeeeesh.

By hop

March 14, 2008 5:55 AM | Link to this

why are we surprised by TM . i would think that glavine and smotz would be included in the leadership category,but i guess not.

maybe,they are not the right color!

By Robert

March 14, 2008 6:33 AM | Link to this

“Whatever Jones is doing, he is doing it mostly right. Said manager Bobby Cox, in his 23rd season of seeing Braves leaders come and go, “Chipper is always watching, always focused. He’s like a lot of players, because he had to grow into [the leadership] role over time.”

Well dang. That is without a doubt THE single most intelligent Bobby Cox quote I have seen or heard in at least 20 years.

Then again, it may well be the ONLY intelligent Bobby Cox quote ever, period.

Goes to show ya, you pick your nose long enough, eventually you find a functioning brain cell

By Chris

March 14, 2008 7:11 AM | Link to this

Jay, I love TP and David Justice but they are not Hall of Famers. If Chipper stays healthy he will be a first ballot guy. If you want a reason the Braves have not won since Justice and TP its because of payroll not Chipper

By tp

March 14, 2008 8:49 AM | Link to this

Terrific editorial. Interesting that McCann doesn’t listen to Bobby Cox when it comes to hitting!

By Joan

March 14, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this

Good article, Terry. I am a 77-year-old woman and a vigorous Braves fan. I love what Chipper has done on the field; I wish more people in this area were kinder about their team. It doesn’t hurt anyone to be kind but to be nasty about things can hurt a lot. Players are human beings also. It’s a great team under great leadership. Amen!!

By by johnny

March 14, 2008 9:33 AM | Link to this

I must not know much about baseball because i allways thought T.M. was the leader for the Braves?

By Paul

March 14, 2008 9:46 AM | Link to this

Terrance speaks the truth about baseball, leadership, and the trials of being an aging role model. Even my boyhood hero “the mick” had his issues to deal with as his carrer neared the end.

By gtdave

March 14, 2008 10:47 AM | Link to this

I about spit out my fruit loops when I read above that David Justice was going to the hall of fame (TP isn’t going to make it either). Are you kidding me? He wasn’t a leader. He alienated himself by putting down the fans. That’s why he was let go. He was a bad seed. But the braves have to have Chipper healthy this year to have a chance this year.

By Turn2

March 14, 2008 11:33 AM | Link to this

David Justice was a leader?

Who knew?

By Ryder

March 14, 2008 11:48 AM | Link to this

Justice was a solid player during his Braves career, but he wasn’t the leader that Pendleton was in leading this franchise to the playoffs.

Chipper could be that influence now with the up and comers in Frenchy, McCann, and Escobar.

Good point Joan, unfortunately we have a lot of idiots who plague this city and this blog with their negativity/stupidity because they don’t know the first thing about how to be a fan, just a bunch of haters.

By dorothy davis

March 14, 2008 12:14 PM | Link to this

Either you are a Braves fan, or not. If not, go find yourself a team to rag on. Why not the Yankees? Or the Phillies, or someone else, as the Braves will always be a class team, inspite of some dumb bloggers.

By SAMMY THE HEAD MILLER

March 14, 2008 12:20 PM | Link to this

Hoss means business! One of the ultimate BRAVES heroes!

By Tim

March 14, 2008 12:24 PM | Link to this

Whoa, TP is and was a leader, I’m not sure about Justice. We’ll let Chipper lead on the field and not off. Our children need a better role model.

By Dennis

March 14, 2008 12:41 PM | Link to this

Justice was the biggest hot dog the Braves have had - ever.

By COACH K

March 14, 2008 12:58 PM | Link to this

whoever jay is must be a yankee. chipper will not only be in the hall of fame he will be the only one with a 300 avg from both sides of the plate. every year you can pencil in for chipper 300 avg 95 plus rbi’s and and play a above avg 3rd. he is one of the overall best players in the last 10yrs.

By Joe

March 14, 2008 1:13 PM | Link to this

David Justice a leader? How about “divider”?

By Dennis

March 14, 2008 1:30 PM | Link to this

In his day, Justice was to the Braves as MeAngelo Hall is to the Falcons now.

By PHILLIP

March 14, 2008 1:35 PM | Link to this

and it’s like clockwork terence promotes the black player and puts down the white one.i can tell the ajc is just letting him write because mlk dream got shot down

By monty

March 14, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this

Some people lead with their charisma or their personalities and then others just go out there and lead by getting it done on the field. That is what Chipper does. ALT wouldn’t have all those consecutive pennants without Chipper, period. Chipper will make the Hall of Fame without question. He is the best hitting thirdbaseman of his generation.

By RussellW

March 14, 2008 3:13 PM | Link to this

Chipper is a shoe-in first ballot for the Hall. His current stats rank against the current 3rd base hall of famers as follows: RBI-5th, Avg.- T4, HR - 3rd, & OBP - 2nd. Obviously he will improve on these stats over the remaining years in uniform.

By Steve

March 14, 2008 3:47 PM | Link to this

Chipper will be in the HOF. If we’re lucky after Bobby Cox retires either Terry Pendleton be hired as manager or Chipper will become the first player-manager since Pete Rose.

By A Chopper and a Chanter

March 14, 2008 4:53 PM | Link to this

TM, for years, I’ve been reading your Braves columns, and I still don’t get it. Once and for all, will you please fill us in? How was David Justice ever this team’s leader? Was it the one solo home run he hit to clinch the 95 Series? It’s not like he went 4-for-4 and dominated the Indians that day - he hit one solo home run. Was it because he publicly blasted the hometown fans for being apathetic in attendance? Criticizing the fans - does that make him a leader? Was it the incident in which Sports Illustrated wanted to do a cover story on him, then reneged when he refused to remove his Malcolm X cap for the photo? Foolish, stubborn pride - is that what you call leadership? Is it because he married Halle Berry? The marriage failed, Terrence. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I give him props for at least getting there. But ultimately, he blew it. The Braves traded him; maybe that was a mistake. But that was a long time ago. They have had many great players come and go since he was here. Why the great obsession? Will you please cite just one example of his profound “leadership?” If you can’t, then please, for God’s sake, let it go already.

By TERRY

March 14, 2008 4:55 PM | Link to this

I think Chipper is a selfish player. He will miss a number of games this year due to injuries. I don’t see him as a leader.

By John M

March 14, 2008 4:57 PM | Link to this

You have got to be kidding me that Justice appointed Chipper. Right now Chipper and Justice have 14 seasons in the bigs. Chipper blows justice away. Chipper has 386 homers, with 1,299 RBIs, and a lifetime .307 average. Justice has 305 homers, 1,017 RBIs, and a lifetime .279 average. Sorry I’ll take 30 HRs and 100 RBIs even in a hurt year.

By A Chopper and a Chanter

March 14, 2008 5:15 PM | Link to this

And another thing, Terrence - what about the guy David Justice replaced? Remember, the Braves traded Dale Murphy so Justice could have the right field job. Now there was a team leader. No, his stats aren’t such that he will ever make the Hall of Fame. But he was, and will always be, someone to look up to. A good, honest family man. Always smiling, positive and friendly. He worked his butt off to try to help the team win. He played hurt. He never complained. He was, and is, a role model to young players, from T-ball to the bigs. David Justice? Not. The Braves truly traded away their team leader when they traded Murph. So why do you never bemoan that trade, Terrence? Just wonderin’.

By Paddy

March 14, 2008 6:14 PM | Link to this

Jay does not have all the spots on his dice… Terry P & David J are not headed to Cooperstown. Chipper will be in the “HALL”.

By DTM

March 14, 2008 7:13 PM | Link to this

Terrance’s man crush on Justice and Ken Griffey, Jr. are sickening! They’re both arrogant hot dogs. Chipper is no rah-rah guy, but he’s definitely earned what will be his spot in Cooperstown. I’ve met him outside the ballpark realm and he was as laid back and accomodating as any star I’ve ever been around. I hope he stays that way, because he has LOT o fans who appreciate what he’s meant to the Braves and the fans…

By Overlord

March 14, 2008 8:37 PM | Link to this

TERRY, youll understand what a leader is once Chipper is gone and the team suffers his absence.

Like it or not, Justice was a leader, he had his own style, which no everybody like, but he sure was a leader. He spoke with his mouth and with his bat. He was not afraid to take a step ahead.

Only a leader is able to speak as load as he did and then back up his tongue with his bat. His ´95 WS winning HR is a clear example, just as it is what Rollins did last year.

By terry

March 14, 2008 9:20 PM | Link to this

OVERLORD, The Braves suffer every year due to Chipper’s absence. You must be expecting it again this year.

By ScottBravesfan

March 15, 2008 12:09 AM | Link to this

Jay,

What hall of fame is Terry Pendelton and David Justice going to be members of? Because it’s not the baseball hall of fame. Chipper Jones will be in the baseball hall of fame. The guy has a higher career OPS than Hank Aaron.

By Steve

March 15, 2008 11:40 AM | Link to this

Terrence Moore and another great piece of racism.

Pendleton was here for 3 and a half years yet he was the Braves leader thru “much of the 1990’s”. What a moron. Granted, Pendleton was a great find for this club, and a team leader, but this who ‘much’ thing is ridiculous.

Meanwhile, David justice was possibly the most overrated player in the history of the Braves. He hit just under .275 during his Braves years, with just over 25 home runs per year. His offense was paltry compared to other RF’s in the game, and his defense was downright horrible. Leadership? Give me a break. After he called off Lemke on a fly ball and then let it dropped he blamed Lemke publicly. A leader would have taken responsibility for his poor actions, and definitely doesn’t go public and try to pass the buck. Some leader.

Women liked Justice because of his looks. Blacks liked Justice because he was black. No one really thought much of Justice as a baseball player. At least not anyone with real baseball knowledge.

Chipper might make it into the HoF, it will be close, but Justice and TP will never even sniff the HoF.

By steve

March 15, 2008 12:19 PM | Link to this

J you are a racist

By Matt Clairmont

March 18, 2008 8:25 PM | Link to this

Now see, this is where I take issue to all these Braves fans out there. When I started watching the Braves I lived in Nova Scotia in 1989. They were a last-placed team, I never saw any of their games - only the occasional one on the radio - and I collected what little of their merchandise I could find. Back then Braves fans were few and far between. Heck, it took guts to say it in public, let alone make a sixteen-hour trek to Georgia for a ballgame. Once they made the monumental rise to glory in 1991, however, the bandwagon-jumpers came out of the woodwork, watching 150 games a year on TBS, and suddenly every Joe Schmoe thought they were a real Braves fan.

Terence Moore clearly has the kind of clubhouse insights we can’t expect from casual fans. Real Braves fans don’t forget what David Justice once meant to this ball club. Enough that they traded away one of their all-time greats - Murphy - to accommodate him. Enough that in 1991, while suffering all year long with a slipped disc, he put the team on his shoulders and ultimately sent them to the post-season with a massive shot off Rob Dibble on October 1st. He also set a record that year with 5 RBI in one game in the World Series.

That was the year that he rehabilitated in Macon in August, taking time to sit down with several Braves prospects, chief among them a young and wiry infielder named Chipper. Mr. Jones has spoken about this on many occasions and the extent to which it helped propel him to major league stardom, none more significant than when Justice was inducted to the Braves Hall of Fame last March.

What did he say about Justice then? “The one thing that David could always do was talk the talk and then walk the walk,” Jones said. “That’s the one of thing I always respected about him.”

David Justice was a legitimate slugger and a force to be reckoned with at the plate. Over his abbreviated 14-year career he missed the equivalent of three full seasons to injury, not counting his two brief call-ups in 1989. His 162-game averages and his AB/HR ratios rate among the greatest sluggers the game has ever seen. Take some time and look it up – he has one of the greatest hitting performances by a slugger with less than 1000 career strikeouts…you’ll be amazed at how good he really was when he was healthy. But anyone with real baseball knowledge understands that players playing through injury are not going to be as effective as they would be otherwise, yet there are many ways to be a great leader and David Justice just was.

Terry Pendleton was a great leader too. In fact, he and David clashed during the 1991 and 1992 seasons, when Pendleton noticed Justice taking things too seriously and becoming selfish. Pendleton has said it only took one conversation and things turned around. When Pendleton left, Justice was the absolute leader of the team as anyone in the clubhouse will attest. Most famously, during the 1995 World Series when he called out the fans, several Braves teammates admitted they all felt the same way and he was the only one to voice it. It was PR suicide, but it helped – check the tape, even Costas, McCarver and Sutton who worked Game 6 admit the fans were the loudest they were all series…

I read a column regarding Justice being enshrined in the Braves Hall of Fame last year which read in part, “I wish every Braves fan could have heard the speech by David Justice when he was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame last Friday. He cried and so did many of the 500 in attendance at Turner Field’s 755 Club. During spring training 1997, Justice was traded to Cleveland. He recalled walking up to Chipper Jones in the lockeroom in West Palm Beach, Fl., shaking his hand, and telling the budding young star that the team was now his. Leadership of the Braves had been passed on to Chipper. He concluded his wonderful speech with a great line: “When I was traded, it was like I was being taken away from my family,” Justice said. “I left here with my heart broken, but today my heart has been mended.”

It’s only been a decade. How does a real Braves fan forget what this guy meant to this team?

By Matt Clairmont

March 18, 2008 8:38 PM | Link to this

My apologies, one ammendment to the last post: if memory serves me well, it was Bob Costas, Don Sutton and Joe Morgan who did game 6 of the 1995 World Series. -MC

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