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."
Or maybe he made it look that way because his father, Larry Wayne Jones Sr., and everyone else in his life - including his godfather, Pete Dunn, who was the baseball coach at Stetson University for nearly 40 years - helped groove him into something special from the time he was 7 years old.
His dad started by having Chipper swing a piece of PVC pipe at a tennis ball. He encouraged him to practice batting both left and right, just as Mantle had. Decades later, Jones found himself in the company of Mantle at a memorabilia show in Atlanta.
Though he was, in his own words, "tongue-tied" at the start of the event, Jones told the 50,000 gathered in Cooperstown that he finally got up the nerve to talk to Mantle as the show wound down.
"I finally asked him, 'Mick, you ever get tired of this?'" Jones recalled. "He gave me a little chuckle, looked at me and said, 'Chipper, I have a reoccurring dream. I'm standing at the pearly gates. I must have a worried look on my face, because God looks up and down for about 15 seconds, and says, "Don't worry Mick, I'm going to let you in. But can you sign these dozen baseballs first?'"
As anyone who attended the Times Free Press Best of Preps banquet a few years ago when Jones was the guest speaker can attest, Chipper has almost always been willing to sign balls, bats and photos and pose for pictures. He has always understood the importance of fans, especially in his beloved "Braves Country," where he spent all 19 of his major league seasons while helping lead Atlanta to 14 straight division titles and the 1995 World Series crown.
"You're the reason I never want to play anywhere else," he told the Braves fans scattered throughout the Cooperstown crowd. "I love you guys."
He also singled out former teammate Andruw Jones, saying of the 10-time Golden Glove outfielder: "So proud to call you my brother from another mother."
Given that all this calmness and coolness was on display as Chipper's very pregnant wife Taylor - whose delivery date is today - sat in the crowd with his dad and mom, Lynn, made the former third baseman's performance all the more remarkable. He handled the whole affair as easily as he always handled New York Mets pitching, which he embarrassed for 49 career homers.
"I was just a country kid from a town (Pearson, Florida) with two caution lights," Jones said.
And to some extent he was, even if he grew up to become only the second overall No. 1 draft pick in baseball history - the other being Ken Griffey Jr. - to reach the Hall of Fame.
So this is how it figures to end for the Braves and the Hall of Fame for a bit. Maybe a veterans committee might one day get Dale Murphy in there. Maybe current Braves slugger Freddie Freeman will eventually have forged Hall of Fame numbers. Maybe one of Jones' seven sons - the newest is expected to be named Cooper - will find the Hall as a Brave.
But if not, here's hoping longtime Braves manager and fellow Hall of Famer Bobby Cox's dream to load Jones and fellow Atlanta Hall of Famers Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux on a bus and barnstorm Braves Country finally comes true.
And if it does, that they make sure to stop and play at least one game in Pearson, Florida, regardless of whether the traffic lights ever turn red.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.