lar-ry

A Possible Good-bye to Chipper Jones

After tearing his ACL on a difficult play at third base a couple of days ago, Braves third-baseman Chipper Jones may be out for the season. Considering Jones had already toyed with the idea of retiring after this season, it’s possible this is it for Jones. This is sad, not just because the Braves are also saying good-bye to Bobby Cox this year and have a chance to make the playoffs, but also because Chipper Jones is the last link to when the Braves and Mets had a legitimate rivalry. “LAR-RY! LAR-RY!” Jones has, as the WSJ pointed out, hit against the Mets as well as he’s hit against anybody, and he famously loved playing at Shea Stadium so much that he named his son Shea. (Which, when you think about it, is completely bizarre and insane.) If he’s really done, it’s the end of an era, and the end of a time when 50,000-strong could be booing Chipper Jones and John Rocker and everything else that was awful and horrible and dominant. The Phillies-Mets rivalry of the last few years never matched up to Braves-Mets in its prime, and the loss of Chipper, perhaps for good, marks the official end of that. Booing Jason Heyward and Tommy Hanson won’t be nearly as much fun.

A Possible Good-bye to Chipper Jones