Last weekend was full of promise as a sports fan in the State of Georgia.
On Friday the Braves, back in the postseason for the first time since 2010, were ready to go against the team that had unceremoniously knocked them out last season. Continue reading “Nightmare In Dixie: Atlanta Braves, Georgia Bulldogs Give State Of Georgia Their Worst 48-Hours In Sports History (Part 1)”
“There were times when I could have went out on the free-agent market and see if the grass was greener but I really didn’t think that it was, I never wanted to play [anywhere else]. I’m a southern kid. I wanted to play in a southern town where I felt comfortable and I felt comfortable from day one in the Braves organization. I bleed red, white and blue.” -Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves, In front of media announcing his retirement after 2012 baseball season Continue reading “Major League Baseball 2012: Chipper Jones, As Always, Makes The Right Call At The Right Time”
Chipper takes shots at drug cheaters (though he considered it)
There was a time when he considered it. Chipper Jones thought about taking a pill, sticking a needle in his arm, doing whatever it is cheaters do in hopes of gaining an edge and fooling us into believing the mutant statistics all came about from hard work and whey shakes.
“Yeah. I mean, definitely,” the Braves’ almost-40 third baseman said Monday when asked if he ever considered using performance-enhancing drugs. “You see peers doing it. You see contemporaries on other teams doing it and putting up [big] numbers. But at that point in my career, while I didn’t have kids yet, and I thought, I don’t want to jeopardize their lives [with the backlash] one day.”
Jones will go into the Hall of Fame one day. He will be in a special group of players who, as he said, “have done it right. The guys who get done with their career and make it through the so-called steroid era unscathed, that’s a huge feather in our cap.”
There have never been any allegations against Jones. No smoking syringe. No leaked grand jury testimony with his name on it. No chapter in a Jose Canseco book.
“I can just imagine what my dad would’ve said if he found out that four, five or six years out of my career he knew that I was cheating,” Jones said. “He told me as much. He said, ‘Please tell me you never did that.’ I said, ‘I never did.’ He said, ‘I can’t think of anything that would disappointment me more than finding out that you did something like that.’ I said, ‘Well, you don’t have to worry about that.’”
This season is important.
On the broad shoulders of 23-year old Jason Heyward are not just the hopes of an offense. He carries the hopes of a franchise, a city, and a race. He wowed in 2010 with a record setting rookie season. He stumbled a bit in 2011 with some “experts” going as far as saying the Braves may want to consider trading him should he fall flat again a la Jeff Francouer. Word to the wise: talent like this kid has is once in a generation, and this year he’s going to show the baseball world what they have to look forward to for years to come.
I for one can’t wait.
What if I told you there was a third basemen in 2011 that had more homers than Youkilis and Michael Young, a higher batting average than Evan Longoria, a higher on-base percentage than Beltre, and was second in all of baseball in fielding at his position; would you take him in 2012?
Apparently many fans are scoffing at the notion that Larry Wayne “Chipper” Jones would consider playing past the 2012 season. He deserves more than that; especially considering he made his seventh All-Star game in 2011 and was undoubtedly the only Brave producing down the stretch last season. I’ll take those numbers out of a corner spot anytime.
