Sunday, April 06, 2008
Sports

Still chipping away

Eighteen years after he almost didn't make the cut, life's still chipper for Jones

CREDIT: J. Meric/Getty Images
By Michael Mahan

If they ever really had a choice, the decision was brilliant. It was, says Chipper Jones, “just a matter of the right team having the first pick that year.” But at the time, the Atlanta Braves were faced with a dilemma. Well, maybe. It depends on who you ask.

Perennial doormats in the National League, the Braves held the No. 1 overall pick in the 1990 amateur draft. The consensus top prospect that year was Todd Van Poppel, a towering, hard-throwing pitcher from Texas. The high-schooler appeared to be an ideal candidate. Tom Glavine and John Smoltz were a combined 10 games under .500 at that point in their young careers, and the hapless Braves were starved for pitchers.

There was just one problem—Van Poppel didn’t want the Braves. The youngster announced that he would play at the University of Texas, choosing college over the pros, but word traveled quickly around baseball circles that what Van Poppel was really choosing was to not play for Atlanta. Van Poppel reportedly warned Braves management that they couldn’t meet his asking price if they did draft him.

According to manager Bobby Cox, the Braves never considered it. “Van Poppel wouldn’t sign with anybody,” Cox explains to The Sunday Paper. “So there was never even talk about [drafting him].”

Instead, the Braves selected a thin but talented shortstop from Florida who went by the name “Chipper.” Although he was clearly a gifted player, the selection of Jones carried risk. The Braves already had Jeff Blauser, a young and able shortstop. Why draft another—with the first overall pick, no less? The need for pitching was far more urgent. Besides, Chipper Jones wasn’t a “can’t-miss” prospect like Van Poppel.

“Luckily for me, everything fell just right,” Jones tells SP today. “I know that the teams with the second through fifth picks, they knew who they wanted. None of them wanted me. I was second on [the Braves’ list], Van Poppel didn’t want to go, so I did.”

Despite his “decision” to go to college, Van Poppel did get drafted, and also in the first round. The Oakland Athletics, who played in three consecutive World Series between 1988 and 1990, took him with the 14th overall pick. Given a chance to play for the behemoth of the American League, Van Poppel decided he would rather get paid for his services, and his contract seemed to assure the juggernaut A’s of at least a few more trips to the October classic.

The Braves, on the other hand, were just lousy. Did Jones feel the same way as Van Poppel about the organization? “No,” Jones explains from the clubhouse at Turner Field. “This was the only team in the Southeast, which is where I’m from. The first Major League Baseball game I ever saw was right across the street at Fulton County Stadium. The Braves played on the Superstation [TBS], so my family and my friends, everybody could watch me play. And I had the confidence and the belief that when I got here, things would turn around.”

RACKING UP THE STATS

Indeed they did. The turnaround for the Braves came quickly and ferociously. The team miraculously won the National League pennant the next season, and went on to win 14 consecutive division titles, five League Championships and one World Championship.

Jones made his Major League debut in 1993, and after missing the following season due to injury, finished second in the N.L. Rookie of the Year voting in the Braves’ world championship season of 1995. A five-time All-Star, he was the senior circuit’s MVP in 1999.

Only two switch-hitters in baseball history (Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray) have clubbed more homers than Jones. And no switch-hitter has ever finished his career with a .300 batting average and at least 300 home runs. But Chipper entered the 2008 season with a career batting average of .307, and already the Atlanta Braves all-time home run leader, he entered the season with 386 circuit clouts.

Jones added to that total on opening night, hitting the first-ever dong at the newly opened Nationals Park in a loss to the Washington Nationals. He also began the 2008 campaign needing 32 games to pass Dale Murphy’s Atlanta record of 1,926 games played. Always a fan favorite, Jones has emerged in recent years as a bona fide team leader, and is highly regarded in the clubhouse. 

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

Eighteen years after the draft, Jones recognizes that opportunity doesn’t always come knocking in the way you expect. “I was lucky enough to go to a team that could afford to let me mature within the organization,” he says. “Not only that, but they could afford me later on down the road. A lot of small-market clubs, you play there for the first six years of your career, and then they won’t be able to afford you, and that’s when they let you go to a bigger market team. So I may have played for two or three other teams … like Van Poppel did.”

Jones’ rival bounced around baseball before retiring a few seasons back with a career mark of 40-52 and an ERA of 5.78, traveling a winding road that led to stops in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Texas and Cincinnati, never winning more than seven games in a season. And the team that drafted him, Oakland, hasn’t returned to the Fall Classic since.

Chipper Jones, meanwhile, has settled into cruise control on the highway to Cooperstown. One of the best switch-hitters in baseball history, he remains the bedrock to which the Braves’ success is anchored. Older and more mature these days, he remarks on his success with a bit of understatement. “A lot depends on what organization you get drafted into,” he says.

The same can be said for the Braves: A lot depends on what player you draft. And to their credit, with Chipper Jones, they made the right choice. If they ever really had one. SP

Posted by Denise McLemore on Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 9:36 AM:

Michael,
This was a great story; an interesting and well written article on Chipper Jones. I look forward to reading more of your sport stories!