Chipper Jones tears ACL, out for season
The Atlanta Braves have received some bad news as Chipper Jones’ illustrious career may have ended a couple of months sooner than expected. The 38-year old had been considering retirement at the end of the season. Jones has torn his anterior cruciate ligament and is likely out for the season. Recovery time from this type of injury usually is about six months and the third baseman will have to undergo surgery.
Jones tore up his knee while fielding a routine ground ball in Tuesday’s game against the Houston Astros. Jones scooped up the grounder, jumped in the air while throwing to first, then collapsed to the ground for several minutes before being limping off the field.
Jones underwent an MRI and received the bad news. Unless Jones decides to return in 2011, he has probably played his last game in the majors. This season may truly be the end of an era for the Braves with long time manager Bobby Cox already retiring at the end of the season and now another long time Brave, Jones has probably played his last game.
"Obviously, he's very, very disappointed. I would almost describe it as numb," his agent, BB Abbott said. "He knows this will be a big blow to the team. Obviously, he has been going very well recently and felt like he was really contributing to the team's success. This is real disappointing for him. There's certainly a part of him that feels like he's let Bobby down, and let his teammates down," Abbott said. "He's really distraught about it."
Jones had feared something was seriously wrong when he collapsed to the ground: "I heard a distinct pop," he said in Houston. "It sounded like the whole stadium could hear it pop."
The timing could not be worse for both Jones and the Braves, who are leading the NL East by only 2 ½ games with the Philadelphia Phillies beginning to catch fire. Jones was also starting to really contribute after a slow start to his season. The team will now look to Omar Infante and Brooks Conrad to take Jones’ spot at third, but Jones is truly irreplaceable.
Jones has had a wonderful career, with six All-Star appearances, winning the NL MVP award in 1999 and winning the NL Batting title in 2008. After a terrible 2009 season and a slow start this year, Jones considered retirement in June, but decided to wait until the end of the season to decide in order to quell media speculation. If Jones returns, he is due to make $28 million in the next two seasons. This is also the second time he’s torn his ACL in his left knee. The last time was in 1994, his rookie season, but recovering from this type of injury at 38-years old is much tougher.
"I'm sure as the next couple of days go by, those are things we'll discuss and he'll discuss with his family," Abbott said. "It's not something he'll decide immediately. He's going to need to hear everything about the injury and rehabilitative process. He'll probably make his decision from there. I can assure you it's not something that's going to be a knee-jerk decision."
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