Chipper Jones: one of the best switch-hitters Atlanta Braves ever produced - MLB Feature
As soon as reports of Chipper Jones being a financial burden on the club surfaced, news of his retirement came out just as quickly. It seems the kind of criticism writers and journalists brought up, affected him to the core. He was accused of fetching a
highest pay from the club.
Critics believed most of players in the side earn as much put together as he does alone. Elaborating their contention, they said many flaws in the team can be worked out if that money is used to buy other players. To substantiate their claim, they bring
his injury prone body as a weak-link to the club’s potential performance.
While spewing their spite however they overlooked the glitz he brings to the Braves and even more to the whole game of Baseball. Never forget Braves owe a lot to him in most of their greatest successes they have had since 1993. Two years after he was drafted,
he helped Braves in winning the World Championship title and ended up as the second best Rookie of the Year according to baseball writers.
Inspiring fans with his youthful appearance on the plate, he went off hitting 86 RBIs while facing 524 at-bats during 1995. While Braves’ management was disillusioned about his talent at then, his best had yet to be unleashed.
As his time with the Mets prolonged, his game matured as such. With every passing year neither he tantalised any fantasy of invoking free agency nor did Braves ever let him down. The result was his better understanding of the role he had to play for the
side.
Then in 1999 he displayed his best on the big stage. Becoming an only player with more than 40 home-runs along with a batting average of above .300 during the season, he had become so big a threat to opponents that as many as 18 walks he was allowed during
the season were given on-purpose by the pitchers. On every front his brilliance was visible, from hitting 110 RBIs to stealing bases and drawing doubles, he left no stone unturned in proving himself as one of the all-time greatest switch-hitters of the game.
In the later years, he kept adding to his laurels with his slugging maestro. Only one event, contrary to his personality however exposed him negatively to his fans when he was reported in a dispute with his team-mates John Rocker. Though, within few days
everything was resolved.
Having a fan-base within one’s own club is something that almost every player can enjoy, what separates Jones however from others is a kind of recognition he fetches from other teams, their officials and their fans.
"He's arguably the best switch-hitter the game has ever seen," said Tigers’ hitting coach Lloyd McClendon, while rating him as great a player as the Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray are. "And I wonder how much better he could've been without
some of those injuries."
Even going so far as suggesting him as the best all-time third baseman along with Mike Schmidt, McClendon looked as if having no reason left with him to rate Jones anywhere less than him.
"If he's not the best," McClendon said, "he's certainly very, very close to Schmidt. If I had to pick one or the other, I'd call it a tie.”
Irrespective of an outcome of the debate about an all-time third baseman in Baseball, peculiarity and elegance he bestowed to the game with his switch-hitting will be remembered for many years to come.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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