Mark WiedmerThe story came fairly early in Chipper Jones’ 21-minute speech Sunday afternoon during his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Recalling the close of a very unsatisfactory first season in the minors, Jones told of meeting with former Pittsburgh Pirates great Willie Stargell, the slugger who had become a minor league hitting instructor for the Braves.
“He took one look at my bat and said, ‘Son, I’ve picked my teeth with bigger pieces of wood than this,'” Jones said. “He then suggested I swing the biggest bat I could get around on against 90 mph (pitches). I swung that heavy bat until the day I retired.”
Did he ever. In what were unquestionably first-ballot Hall of Fame numbers, he wound up with a career batting average of .303, 468 home runs, 1,623 RBIs and 1,619 runs. He and Frankie Frisch are the only two men in MLB history with at least 5,000 at-bats to have hit .300 or better from both sides of the plate for their careers. He and Mickey Mantle – his father’s biggest baseball hero – are the only two switch-hitters in history to have an on-base percentage of at least .400, a slugging percentage of at least .500 and 400 or more homers.
Said former Braves teammate and fellow Hall of Famer John Smoltz during a video prior to Chipper’s speech: “He had that long, easy swing. It was just easier for him.”