Life without Chipper Jones for Atlanta Braves’ fans starts - MLB Part 2
Transition to life of a normal person will be interesting for Jones. It is easy to get curious about which activities will keep Jones busy from now onward. A man who has nothing but baseball for the last 19-years will go through a drastic change before he
gets used to his new life.
Who knows, maybe Jones is planning to explore precious gifts he received throughout the season as his team completed their series in different cities. Understandably, first and foremost thing that Jones will more probably do after retirement is making use
of the presents.
For example during the season he tweeted that he did not know how to surf after getting a surfboard as a gift from the San Diego Padres. As he was playing matches and thus did not have enough time back then, he can experiment with the surfboard now.
Since Jones does not know how to surf, he will be wondering why that gift was rated high and considered the best among all the presents.
Perhaps this very paradox in his mind may lead him becoming expert in surfboarding after going through trials and errors.
Jones cited the desire to spend the rest of his life with family as the reason behind his retirement. He could have played for a couple of more years. He is still very capable of producing runs, it was not difficult.
Chipper is the kind of person who grew up under the close supervision of his father. His father taught him the basic hitting techniques. Jones considers himself as extremely lucky for being able to enjoy the love of his father and spend a greater part of
his young life with him.
When he analyses his own role as a father of four kids, he believes he has not done justice completely.
The consciousness of not having fulfilled responsibilities of being father of four sons has forced Jones to leave baseball early.
Otherwise departing the sport for someone whose whole life revolves around it is not easy. Look at Jim Thome who is older than Jones and yet wants to contribute as much as he can.
Thome seems to believe that he just cannot be anything but a baseball player. The thought of saying goodbye to the game is like an emergence of pain in the body. No wonder he continues playing despite the fact that he is almost past his playing age.
Similarly, one can expect Jones to show penchant for playing baseball without giving an impression to quit anytime soon.
Actually Jones made up his mind before the season after considering all the factors. Thus, as he completed his last game, he was not emotional while he expressed views regarding retirement.
“This is a lot easier than I thought it would be than five years ago when I thought this moment would come,” Jones said. “That lets me know that I’m ready. I think if I were in here sobbing uncontrollably that it would be painfully apparent that I wasn’t
ready to walk out the door, but I’m ready.”
Departure of Jones has left the Braves scratching their heads and looking for an appropriate replacement so that their offence can easily absorb the setback.
They have the whole offseason and Spring Training to find his successor and to come up with an equally solid offence in the next season.
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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