Chipper Plans Comeback After Knee Surgery

Larry Wayne Jones, Junior ((or "Chipper" to the rest of us)) says he is not retiring without trying to come back from the knee surgery that will end his 2010 season.

Jones tore his left anterior cruciate ligament on the play below Tuesday in Houston, and will have surgery on the knee Saturday.

Chipper says now is not the right time to "make a decision to quit." He says he will go through rehab before making that final decision.

He said earlier this season he would think about retirement after the season after a slow start offensively, combined with nagging injuries, but he has hit over .300 recently to bring his average around the .260 mark.

The expected recovery time is about six months, which would put him ready to participate in spring training in 2011.

Here's the injury again, thanks to our friends at MyFoxAtlanta and WAGA-TV


And here's Chipper's presser in the AuxBox...
FOSG Buck Lanford was present and accounted for...

BREAKING: Chipper Jones tears ACL

Chipper Jones//Courtesy: sportige.com

Reports are starting to come out of the Atlanta area that Braves lynchpin Chipper Jones is done for 2010 after hurting his knee in Tuesday's game against the Houston Astros.

According published reports, Chipper's agent is telling everyone that his ACL was "Torn and needed to be fixed".

Here is more from the AJC Braves Beat Writer David O'Brien RIGHT HERE

To say that this will have a big impact on the Braves the rest of the season would be a huge understatement. Though no longer the best hitter on the team, Chipper was one of the best and considered a threat by everyone the Braves played.

He had struggled early in the year, but had begun to straighten things out, hitting .307 in the past 44 games. Good enough to make the Braves dangerous the rest of the year.

There are two questions sitting out there now: One, what do the Braves do, they have nobody who can jump into Chipper's role. They have had injury trouble and the team has already been struggling to score runs.

The other; what happens for Chipper? A no-question hall of famer, he's already 38 and had been threatening retirement. Is this something he can come back from? Time will, we suppose, tell.

More on this story as the day develops.

Here's the injury... thanks to our friends at MyFoxAtlanta...


In the meantime, enjoy some Chipper Highlights. Thanks YouTube:

BREAKING NEWS:Chipper Jones may be done....((with update))

((update at the bottom))

It looks like sure-fire Hall of Famer and career Atlanta Brave Chipper Jones may be hanging it up after the season.

Check out the details from ajc.com and their excellent Braves Blog RIGHT HERE

Chipper had gone on record saying that after his struggles in 2009, he'd hang 'em up if 2010 wasn't any better. So far, it hasn't been.

He's struggled with minor injuries and the inability to hit the pitches he drilled in previous years. Always a somewhat streaky hitter, it's been going on 2-seasons since he was in one of his "Zones".

((Chipper Jones//Courtesy: redsoxgirl46.mlblogs.com))

The HQ and in particular, me, are sad to see this happen. He is one of the last of the "Throwback", old school type of ball players. A guy who worked at his craft and played the game the traditional way, the way it was supposed to be played. And most importantly, he stayed with and loyal to the Braves throughout his career. There are oh so few players with that kind of loyalty in baseball or in professional sports period anymore.

I can remember covering him as far back as 1990-91 when he was a rising senior at the Bolles school in Jacksonville, Florida. He was the prototypical kid from the deep south who wanted nothing more than to play baseball, hunt, fish and golf. Really, he hasn't changed much from that nor would I ever expect him to.

He's taken some heat on and off for the past 10-years with Braves fans and a lot of them got to see him grow into a strong leader and more importantly a strong man. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the guy, he was always a professional in and out of the locker room when our paths crossed. If he said that he would do an interview, he did it. If he had to do something else first, he always came back and found you. How can you not respect that?

According to today's report, he's going to meet with Manager Bobby Cox, who is also retiring after the season and the teams GM, Frank Wren. Afterwards, he is supposed to either do a formal press conference or his usual holding court on the picnic table in the middle of the Braves locker room and announce that he's done after this season.

((Updated 1:20pm//Per MLB.com's Braves writer Mark Bowman's Twitter feed/"After talking to Braves management, Chipper does not plan to address the media. Believes it is premature to talk about his potential retirement))

All well and good, but the question we have is how do you avoid it? He's not going to hide form the next 100 games. Someone will ask.))

Here is some video of Chip going yard earlier this season. Thanks You Tube:

A Slow Day...Let's Post a Johnny Damon story

Yes, today is a slow day, but in the quest to stay kinda sort of topical, we'll pull something out to report just so we don't become a Junior Hockey suspension story of the week site (sorry Jon).

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Atlanta Braves, in their quest to acquire average hitting outfielders have made an offer to free agent Johnny Damon (no relation to Matt). Damon, who priced himself out of New York...mostly because Scott Boras is his agent, is now struggling to find someone who will come even remotely close to what the Yankees offered him.

The story from the most excellent Braves Beat Writer David O'Brien and AJC.com RIGHT HERE.

((Pictured/Do I or don't I???//Courtesy: babble.com))

It is interesting to note that apparently the Braves asked Chipper Jones, their de-facto Captain and team leader to call and talk to Damon. Of course management denied the interest, however O'Brien's source (probably Chipper himself) said that it was true. Allegedly the offer was somewhere in the $5 million dollar for one season mark, though it isn't a stone cold lock.

Signing Damon could in some ways help the Braves, a team that desperately needs some hitting help. However, after trading for Melky Cabrera in an odd trade in the fall, signing Damon would give them a rather large pile of left-handed hitting 280 or so with 15 Home Run outfielders. It would however, allow the Braves to keep future star Jason Heyward at Triple-A to start the season.

Keep an eye on this, the Detroit Tigers and Tampa Bay Rays are also said to be involved.

That is all....until we can find something better to report on.

Well, there is always this job that Damon can fall back on. Courtesy: You Tube

True Fans

You know, after all my years of doing stories, working for a TV station and reporting on things I guess has made me sometimes a bit jaded. After so many years of going to Spring Training and doing basically the same story you feel a bit robotic. Most in my business do the same stories: “Oh, look, here’s the team, it’s the first day of Spring Training”. “Here are the guys who are playing on your team.”

Chipper Jones (Courtesy Brother Phil)

Someone New...

On February 21, 2007, I got the pleasure of meeting a 5th Grade Student from Peachtree City, Georgia who really put things in perspective.

Cami Kelly is her name is she traveled to Orlando with her mom, her cousins and brother. They came because Cami is special, she is mildly autistic and has an incredible talent. She can name each player on the Braves team, their birthday and the name of their pets.

Over Here...

Cami and her mom, Jenny decided on this trip they would let the Braves know that they were there. They stayed up late on Tuesday night creating a sign, a sign wishing Brian McCann and Ryan Langerhans a Happy Belated Birthday.

They arrived at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex early on Wednesday, we met them around 8:30am. They were hanging out down the first baseline, just sitting, waiting for the team to take the field. Sign in hand and held at various times by Mom, Aunt, Cousin and Brothers, they finally got their first wish around 10, when the team finally took the field.

Cami, like any other kid was fidgeting all morning long. She and her cousins moved from behind the dugout, to right field, to first base and back again…the whole time waiting, waiting for McCann and Langerhans to see their sign.

A Little Help...

Sports Anchor Mark Harmon and I had already talked to Cami, spoken to her mom and had decided to do a feature on them for the day. We also had to do our other work of the day... stockpiling stories on the team, the players and what to expect this year…just like we do every year.

One of the players we spoke to was McCann. McCann, one of the “Baby Braves,” is also one of the nicest, down to earth 22-year old Major League Baseball players that you will ever meet. When Mark and I got finished talking to Brian, we told him Cami’s story and he said he saw the sign earlier in the day. He told us “That’s cool, I’ll go over there after we are finished.”

True to his Word...

It took awhile…this being the first day of Spring Training, the Braves practiced a little longer than normal. They finally finished around 1pm.

No sooner had they finished when Mark pointed down the 1st Base Line, where McCann was signing autographs. I quickly ran over there and got there about the time that Cami did. She held true, stood her ground and when McCann got over to her, she shyly handed him the small bat that she had been holding all day long. Brian looked up, smiled, signed the bat and handed it back to a beaming Cami.

Priceless...

The look on her face was priceless; she grinned ear to ear. I saw her walking away, down towards the right field corner. I don’t know if she realized it, but she looked right at me…smiled real big, then turned and kept walking. I couldn’t help but smile back…seeing the look on her face makes you really think about things, think about what you do, why you do it and what makes you happy.

Meeting people like that, making them happy does nothing but make you even happier. It really made me think back to my days as a kid, think back to what it meant to be around your heroes and to have them acknowledge you - that moment will live forever.

--Phil Cantor

“The time has come, my song is over…thought I’d something more to say” Time (Pink Floyd)