On Sunday, longtime Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Chipper will join pitchers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz in the Hall as the 4th member of the Braves mini-dynasty of the 1990’s. The Braves won 14 straight division titles from 1991 to 2005 and Jones was an integral part of the last 11 of those teams.
Jones was the first overall pick in the 1990 player draft. Surprisingly, he’s only the second player picked #1 overall to make the Hall of Fame, following two years after Ken Griffey Jr., who was the first pick in the 1987 draft and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016.
Cooperstown Cred: Chipper Jones
- Career: .303 BA, 468 HR, 1,623 RBI
- 3rd most HR (Mantle, Murray) & 2nd most RBI (Murray) all-time for a switch hitter
- .529 career slugging percentage and .930 OPS (best ever for 3B) (minimum 5,000 PA)
- 141 career OPS+, 3rd best all-time for 3B (Schmidt, Matthews) (minimum 5000 PA)
- 85.2 career WAR, 6th best all-time for 3B
- 1999 MVP (.319 BA, 45 HR, 110 RBI, 169 OPS+)
- 8-time All-Star
- 9 times in top 15 for NL MVP voting
- Played entire career with Atlanta Braves
(Cover photo: myajc.com)
In this piece, we’ll take a look at 10 moments that define the Hall of Fame career of Larry Wayne “Chipper” Jones. For a complete look at Chipper’s career, including his place in history as one of the greatest switch-hitters of all time, I invite you to look at the piece Chipper Jones Joins Braves’ Hall of Fame Dyansty.
In the meantime, he are the 10 Chipper Jones moments that help define his Hall of Fame career.
#10. May 9, 1995: Braves v Mets
1995 was Chipper Jones’ highly anticipated rookie campaign. In the 13th game of the season, the Braves were at Shea Stadium to take on the New York Mets. The score was tied at 2 in the top of the 9th inning when the Braves rookie (playing left field in this game) walked up to the plate.
On a 2-0 pitch from Mets’ reliever Josias Manzanillo, Chipper smacked a solo home run to deep right field. It as the first of his 468 career home runs and gave the Braves a 3-2 lead and, ultimately, the win. It also was the first salvo of many in his career that would break the hearts of the fans of the Mets.
#9. July 11, 2000: All-Star Game
The 2000 All-Star Game was played at Turner Field, the Braves’ home ballpark since 1999. Among the members of the Hall of Fame Class of 2018, Chipper Jones was joined on the N.L. All-Star roster by Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman.
Jones delighted the hometown fans with a 3-for-3 performance, including a solo home run off James Baldwin in the bottom of the third inning to tie the score at 1. Waiting to greet Chipper at the plate was none other than the Expos’ Guerrero.
The A.L. would eventually prevail in the contest but Chipper had his hometown Mid-Summer Classic moment.
#8. September 21-23, 1999: Braves v Mets
In a three game series late in 1999, Chipper cemented his legacy as official torturer of the New York Mets by hitting 4 home runs with 7 RBI in the Braves 3-game sweep. You can see the last of those 4 taters by clicking here. 1999 was the pinnacle of the Mets-Braves rivalry in the N.L. East.
Overall, during the ’99 regular season, Jones crushed the Mets, hitting .400 with 7 home runs, 16 RBI and a whopping 1.510 OPS in 12 games.
The performance on this late September weekend was the capstone of Chipper’s MVP campaign, in which he finished with 45 HR, 110 RBI, a .319 batting average and 169 OPS+. The Braves won 103 games in 1999. They defeated the Houston Astros in the National League Division Series and the Mets in the N.L. Championship Series before falling to the New York Yankees in the World Series.
#7. May 20, 1995: Marlins v Braves
As we’ve seen, on May 9th, Chipper Jones hit his first career home run at Shea Stadium in New York. The game-winning tater started a home run surge for the highly touted rookie switch-hitter. In the seven games after his first, Chipper hit four more long-balls.
On May 20th, the Braves had a Saturday night contest against the Florida Marlins. The Braves had won the first game of this three-game set by a score of 4-0 on a walk-off grand slam by pinch-hitter Dwight Smith. On Saturday, the Braves scored first, in the bottom of the 1st inning, on a RBI single by Jones. The lead changed three times until the 8th, when the Braves scored twice to tie the score at 7.
In the bottom of the 9th inning, Chipper broke the tie with a solo home run off the Florida Marlins’ Robb Nen to give the Braves a 8-7 victory. It was the first of 8 career walk-off home runs for the future Hall of Famer.
#6. August 14, 2006: Braves v Nationals
In this game, Jones went 4 for 5 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI against the Nationals at RFK Stadium in Washington. It was Chipper’s lone career three home run game.
Chipper’s first home run, in the top of the 5th, was a two-run blast that broke a 3-3 tie. He followed up with a solo shot in the 6th and a two-run tater in the 8th. The Braves won easily 10-4.
#5. October 9, 2001: NLDS Game 1 (Braves v Astros)
The 2001 edition of the Atlanta Braves won the N.L. East but not in the same dominating fashion as they had become accustomed to. The Braves won the ’01 N.L. East title with just 88 wins, the fewest for the franchise since 1990 (with the exclusion of the ’94 strike-shortened season).
The Braves entered the N.L.D.S as underdogs to the 93-win Houston Astros, a team they had dominated in two previous LDS matchups. In Game 1 of the N.L. Division Series, even with Maddux on the hill, the Braves found themselves down 3-2 entering the top of the 8th inning. On a double by Keith Lockhart and a RBI single by Marcus Giles, the Braves tied the score off set-up man Michael Jackson.
With one out and two runners on, Astros manager Larry Dierker summoned his closer, flame-throwing lefty Billy Wagner. On the first offering from Billy the Kid, Chipper broke the 3-3 tie with a 3-run home run to left field that barely cleared the wall. It was the key blow in the Braves’ 7-4 win.
Atlanta would go on to dash the Astros World Series dreams once again, sweeping them in 3 games, with Jones hitting another home run in the decisive Game 3 victory.
#4. October 4, 2003: NLDS Game 4 (Braves at Cubs)
With the Braves on the brink of elimination in the N.L. Division Series, Chipper hit two 2-run home runs (from each side of the plate) to lead Atlanta to a 6-4 Game 4 win. The first long-ball was a two-run shot off Chicago Cubs starter Matt Clement which broke a 1-1 tie.
In the top of the 8th, with the Braves leading 4-2, Jones added two insurance runs with a two-run tater off reliever Mark Guthrie.
Ultimately, the Braves would fall to the Cubs in Game 5.
#3. October 3, 1995: NLDS Game 1 (Braves v Rockies)
After a superb rookie campaign, Chipper Jones appeared in his first post-season game, Game 1 of the National League Division Series. The Braves were playing the Colorado Rockies, a third-year franchise appearing in the post-season for the first time in their jewel of a ballpark, Coors Field.
Chipper hit a solo home run in the top of the 6th inning off starter Kevin Ritz to cut the score to 3-2 and then another solo shot in the top of the 9th inning off Curtis Leskanic to break a 4-4 tie and lead the Braves to victory. You can see both taters by clicking here.
The Braves defeated the Rockies in 4 games and eventually went on to win the World Series.
#2. October 1, 1998: NLDS Game 2 (Cubs v Braves)
In the first round of the 1998 playoffs, the Braves were hosting the Chicago Cubs in the N.L. Division Series. With the score tied at 1 in the bottom of the 10th inning, Jones stroked a long walk-off single down the left field line which easily scored Walt Weiss from 2nd base. The game-winning hit came off Cubs reliever Terry Mulholland, a 35-year old journeyman lefty who would become Jones’ teammate with the Braves in 1999 and 2000.
The Braves won 2-1, going up 2 games to none in the series, a series in which they would eventually complete a 3-game sweep.
#1. September 2, 2012: Phillies v Braves
2012 was the final MLB season for the 40-year old Chipper Jones. The Braves, in a multi-team race to nab one of the N.L.’s Wild Card spots, were hosting the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Braves entered the bottom of the 9th inning four runs behind the Phillies. Thanks to an error by third baseman Kevin Fransden that could have ended the game, Chipper came to the plate with two outs, runners on 2nd and 3rd and the Braves trailing 7-5.
Facing All-Star closer Jonathan Papelbon, Jones blasted a 1-1 pitch to deep right-center field for a walk-off home run. The three-run tater gave the Braves a 8-7 victory. It was the 468th and final home run of Chipper’s career.
Although they lost in the N.L. Wild Card game, the Braves did make the playoffs in Chipper’s final season. Even though it was one game, it was Atlanta’s first post-season appearance since 2005.
There you have it. 10 great moments for the great Chipper Jones.
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