Listen closely as Dale Murphy, Chipper Jones talk hitting with the Braves

NORTH PORT, Fla. — Class was in session Thursday morning. Three NL MVP awards and 866 home runs presided.

At Braves manager Walt Weiss’ behest, legends Dale Murphy and Chipper Jones teamed up to share their collective wisdom with Braves hitters, and what any baseball fan would have given to have had a seat in the team auditorium.

Leave the PED mess of Jurickson Profar aside for a moment. This was pure spring training magic.

“It was awesome,” hitting coach Tim Hyers told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Shoot, we’re just honored they would share their wisdom with us. And I think the boys really enjoyed it.”

The session was Weiss’ brainchild, wanting to get the two greats together to talk shop with the team’s hitters. Such conversations are a rite of spring training — Jones recalled soaking up lessons during his playing career from Hank Aaron and Murphy himself — but they are typically one-on-one. This was an opportunity for the entire group to drink from the fount of knowledge gathered by two of the best to play the game.

Particularly, Weiss wanted Murphy and Jones to discuss their mental approaches to hitting more than the mechanical elements, to grant players a window into how they played cat-and-mouse with pitchers and approached key at-bats on their way to a combined 15 All-Star appearances.

“It was really good stuff,” Weiss said. “And real casual. We’re just sitting there and it’s just ball talk.”

First baseman Matt Olson asked a question about setting up pitchers or sitting on pitches. The Hall of Famer Jones merely had the example of his 400th home run in 2008 off the Marlins’ Ricky Nolasco.

Earlier in the season, the switch-hitting Jones had homered off the right-handed Nolasco in Miami on a fastball away to left center and a fastball in to right, he said.

“So I told myself going into the game that whenever I was ahead in the count, that I was going to sit off speed,” Jones told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, recounting his answer to Olson. “And I got to a 2-0 count, and he threw me a little ‘get-me-over’ breaking ball, and I hit my 400th homer off of him.”

It was a matter of playing mind games and making adjustments. After homering twice against Nolasco on fastballs, “chances are I’m not going to see a fastball for a strike,” Jones said. “So I might as well change up my approach.”

A nugget from Murphy’s cranium:

“One of the ideas I like when things aren’t going well is, you’ve got to be more aggressive, because you tend to back off if you’re not swinging well,” he said. “You get less aggressive, which prolongs the problems. Being more aggressive when you’re struggling doesn’t mean you’re swinging at everything. It means you’re ready to hit.”

The question-and-answer session lasted about 30 minutes.

“It was good,” center fielder Michael Harris II said. “We talked about what worked for them in their careers and how they go about certain situations. It’s good to hear from two players that, one’s a Hall of Famer and one should be a Hall of Famer.”

“I wish it could have went on for another couple hours,” said Hyers, the hitting coach.

While not privy to the meeting, ace Chris Sale was not immune to the aura wafting through the complex.

“These are guys that we grew up watching, Hall of Famers, should-be Hall of Famers, however you want to say it,” said Sale after his outing vs. Toronto at CoolToday Park. “It’s always fun seeing those guys come back. You have a bigger appreciation for what you’re doing and who you’re doing it for when you see these guys come back and show up.”

Jones and Murphy didn’t seem to mind it, either. After the meeting and before the day’s game, the two watched fielding and batting practice and chatted with Weiss and others. A Blue Jays player approached Jones to tell him he was the reason he became a switch hitter.

Murphy took his place behind the batting cage, propping his arms against the cage frame. He struck up a conversation with new Brave Mike Yastrzemski, sharing his memories of watching the outfielder’s Hall of Fame grandfather (Carl Yastrzemski) as a kid.

“It’s so cool to have ‘Yaz’ with us now, another Yaz,” Murphy said.

The sun shone warmly. Bats cracked. The field sparkled green.

Murphy is grayer than his playing days and turns 70 on March 12. But spring training never gets old.

“Everybody’s hopeful to get started again,” he said. “It’s a great time of year. To come down, this is awesome. I wish I could stay here the whole time.”

Murphy even pulled on a snug uniform for the occasion, feeling it obligatory since he was there as an instructor.

“I’m sucking it in tight,” he said, motioning to his slight belly.

He was wearing, he added, some sort of belt to restrict his midsection.