Chipper looks to say goodbye to Shea with a bang

New York — Chipper Jones strode to the plate in the first inning Tuesday night and heard the familiar chorus of boos and scattered chants of “Lar-ry, Lar-ry” from the faithful at Shea Stadium. The Braves third baseman is going miss this fading relic when the Mets move across the parking lot to the gorgeous Citi Field ballpark that’s scheduled to open next season. Oh, there will still be thousands of Mets fans eager to boo one of their team’s longstanding nemesis, but it won’t be the same for Jones.

“Obviously I named my third kid after Shea Stadium,” said Jones, who has four sons, including Shea. “I’ll be sad to see it go.”

The Braves began their second-to-last scheduled series at Shea Stadium on Tuesday. They have this three-game series and another Sept. 12-14, and then that’s it for Jones at the former multi-purpose stadium hard by the 7 Train in Flushing, Queens.

He entered Tuesday with a .310 career average, 19 home runs and 53 RBIs in 84 games at Shea, his highest homer total at any ballpark outside Atlanta and tied (with Colorado’s Coors Field) for his highest RBI total outside of Atlanta.

Unfortunately for the Braves, the injury-plagued Jones has played in only 14 of his team’s 32 games at Shea since 2005. “There’s certain parks you see the ball well in, certain parks you get pumped up to play in,” said Jones, 36. “Citi Field … you don’t know if you’ll see the ball the same way, don’t know if the ball will carry the same way.

“But every stadium gets to the point where it’s outdated, and I think Shea was probably at that point about 10 years ago. So it’s good that they’re getting a new field. They’ve got a good ballclub and a great fan base, and it’s time to put ‘em in a nice place.”

Jones has put them — the Mets and their fans — in a bad place plenty of times. He hit his first major-league homer in his first game at Shea, off Josias Manzanillo on May 9, 1995.

Then he hit another the next day.

In his 1999 National League MVP season, seven of his 45 homers and 16 of his 110 RBIs came in 12 games at Shea.

“I always enjoyed playing on the stage in New York,” said Jones, who also has a .368 average with four homers and 12 RBIs in 14 games at Yankee Stadium.

“The Mets have been a rival of ours for a long time,” he said. “Lot of great games in that ballpark. The facility itself is outdated and not one of the best in the game. But it holds a lot of sentimental value for me.”

Jones said he has always motivated by the “Lar-ry” chants at Shea, not wanting to make right turns back to the dugout, as he put it.

“To be honest with you, I’ve had a great relationship with the fans of New York,” he said. “Obviously when you’re out there between the lines, they’re pulling for their team and they want to do whatever they can to take the other guys out of their game.

“But anytime I’ve ever walked around the city of New York, everybody’s always been great — ‘Take it easy on my Mets,’ ‘Take it easy on my Yankees,’ blah blah blah.”

Jones hopes to bring son Shea, 4, up next month for a tour of his namesake ballpark, which he has not seen. Jones is also working on getting a ballpark remnant from the Mets, perhaps a seat or a sign.

“We’re Gators; we’re from Florida — orange and blue, there’s something in common there,” he said, laughing. “I don’t know, there’s certain places in the world that you just can’t explain.”

Gotay to the DL

Utility man Ruben Gotay (left hamstring) was placed on the 15-day DL to open a spot for pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes, who was recalled from Class AAA Richmond to start Tuesday against the Mets. Gotay strained his hamstring running out a double Saturday.

The move gave the Braves 13 pitchers on the 25-man roster, one more than the usual allotment.

“We really need to keep all the pitchers we can gather up,” said Cox, whose depleted pitching staff had a 5.93 ERA since the All-Star break, the highest in the NL by more than a half-run.

The Braves had the NL’s second-lowest ERA (3.69) before the break.