When you’ve played each of your 16 major league baseball seasons with the same club, when you’ve hit .307 for your possible Hall of Fame career, you deserve to exit the grand ol’ game in the manner of your choosing.
So however strange it seems for Chipper Jones to have picked Tuesday to basically announce his retirement from the Atlanta Braves, he’s earned that right.
“It’s obvious that it’s something I’ve been thinking about,” the 38-year-old Jones told The Associated Press early in the afternoon from just outside the Braves’ locker room at Turner Field.
“I need to go through the proper channels. Once those have all been taken care of, everybody’s questions will be answered.”
Those channels presumably are manager Bobby Cox, who already has announced his retirement at the close of the 2010 season, general manager Frank Wren and president John Schuerholz.
The obvious sticking point is what’s to become of the $28 million Jones was guaranteed for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. Some might think he automatically forfeits that money by retiring, but contracts are funny things. Money is often spread around for tax purposes or payroll purposes.
So while Jones may have publicly announced less than a month ago that “one thing I’ve always said is that I’ve never played this game for money,” $28 million is still $28 million.
His nickname’s Chipper, not Chumper. He may happily hand back half the money, but he’ll almost certainly want to be shown a respectable chunk of it in exchange for public-relations duties, part-time coaching or broadcasting work.
And there’s nothing wrong with that. Along with Cox, he’s the last Brave standing from the World Series champs in 1995, which was his rookie year. In the seasons since, he’s been a National League MVP (1998) and NL batting champ just two years ago.
But it’s the total package that makes Jones arguably the second most valuable Atlanta Brave ever behind Hank Aaron among non-pitchers. Ten times during his career he’s batted over .300. Eleven times he’s hit at least 23 home runs. Nine times he’s driven in 100 or more runs.
And unlike a few of his more celebrated slugging teammates through the years (Gary Sheffield and J.D. Drew, come on down), Jones also produced in the playoffs, hitting above .270 at every level of the postseason while batting .315 with three homers and 15 RBIs for his six career NLCS matchups.
“That face, he has that face,” said Cox long before Jones reached the majors, meaning he just looked like a future star, and Cox was clearly right.
But 16 years in the bigs have also taken their toll — especially the past two, when Jones has been riddled by injuries. In fact, he missed seven of 11 games on the last road trip with a hand injury, and his absence has become more the rule than the exception heading into this week’s homestand. He’s batting just .228 for the season with three home runs and 22 RBIs.
“I’m not going to stick around and hamstring this organization if I’m not playing well and not enjoying myself,” Jones said earlier this season.
Added Cox on Tuesday, “He’s been thinking about this all spring and last winter, about how this would be his last year.”
Until there’s an official announcement, there’s always a chance this could change. Even Cox seemed hopeful Jones would reconsider.
“I personally think (Chipper) can still contribute,” Jones’ only big-league manager told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “If he gets going and hits .350 the rest of the way, I think (if I were him) I’d change my mind.”
But this is also a guy who never changed his address for his entire career, who always believed a good ol’ Southern boy from northern Florida should play for a good ol’ Southern team, putting good sense over great dollars.
He also knows that by ending all doubts about his future now, the club won’t be hamstrung plotting its payroll future when it comes to possible trades or acquisitions.
So it’s unofficially all but over, this final on-field tie to all those regular-season championship seasons.
And while you could argue that Jones almost certainly wasn’t the most popular Brave — his image done in early by a sordid affair with a Hooters waitress not long after his first marriage — on the field he just might have been the best Brave of them all not named John Smoltz over the past two decades.
Or as Brooks Conrad, who often has subbed for Jones at third base this season, said, “As a team, we’re better when we have him out there.”
His career seemingly three months from the finish, the face of the franchise could have received no higher compliment.