It appeared as if the baseball gods were smiling on Chipper Jones’ final season in major league baseball. The future Hall of Fame third baseman and face of the Atlanta Braves franchise for nearly 20 years was getting one final shot at winning the World Series.
Looking back, it would have been a great ending for Chipper’s last run. A World Series Championship ring would have been the final token in a season that had already rewarded Atlanta’s switch hitting all-star so much. In almost every road series the Atlanta Braves played, Chipper was greeted with a final goodbye from fans and some memento from each team. He had been given everything from a surfboard to a cowboy hat. This is how Chipper Jones wanted his final year in a baseball uniform to go and, for the most part, he probably deserved it.
The only obstacle left was a one-game wildcard playoff at Turner Field against the St. Louis Cardinals, a team that had denied Jones’ Braves several opportunities to compete in the World Series. This game was a perfect chance for Jones to get revenge on the redbirds for all those years of denying his team glory.
The Atlanta Braves headed into the game predicted as the winner. It was the best defensive team in the National League and the fourth best defensive team in baseball, according to Major League Baseball statistics. Also, the Braves were putting Kris Medlen on the mound, a pitcher who owned the record for the most consecutive wins for a pitcher for any team in baseball history. Yes, it appeared as if the baseball gods were smiling on Chipper Jones and the Atlanta Braves.
“I think it’s more fair from a standpoint that anything can happen in one game,” Jones said in a CBS Sports interview on Sept. 21, potentially foreseeing the flaws in the one-game playoff format.
As the contest progressed and the Braves lost an early lead, the hopes for this game and the 2012 season dissolved in one fell swoop. Some might argue that the umpires were to blame with horrible calls throughout but highlighted by an “infield fly” ruling for a pop-up in left field. Some might feel forced to think the Braves stole this game from themselves by committing three uncharacteristic errors that handed the St. Louis team the lead. Despite all of these reasons that could be viewed as what ended Chipper Jones’ final chance to win a World Series, these are just the scapegoats.
What really ended everything for the former first-round pick? Himself. It was his throwing error, on what should have been a double play, that allowed St. Louis to get on the scoreboard. It was his atypical swing at a first pitch that ended the Braves two-out rally in the sixth inning with runners in scoring position. And, above all else, it was Chipper’s final at bat that solidified the end for Atlanta’s once promising season.
Everyone watching the game knew that when Chipper stepped into the batter’s box with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, this was probably the last at bat for one of baseball’s best switch-hitters of all time. He was given one final ovation from the fans, something Jones had grown used to in the final months of the 2012 regular season, and got in his stance waiting for his pitch. This was also a scenario Chipper Jones had been vocally fond of: When the game is on the line, Jones wants to have the bat in his hands. Could there have been a better moment for Jones to start one last rally and keep the season and his career alive?
Jones’ bat broke in his final swing, sending a slow, high-bouncing grounder up the middle. It wasn’t a solid line drive or what Chipper Jones would have wanted to end his great career on, but it was one of those unique ground balls that was going to give the defense trouble.
Daniel Descalso ranged to his right to field the ground ball and with an acrobatic leap and spin, the Cardinals’ second baseman attempted to throw to first base and end the game. It was an off-balanced, arching toss with barely enough power to make it to the intended target. It was eventually ruled as an infield hit although replays indicate that the umpire’s call was wrong.
Despite all of these details or the fact that these were Chipper Jones’ final minutes before his retirement, the Atlanta third baseman trotted slowly down the line, showing an acceptance of defeat. He was not hustling. He was not fighting for a team that had fought for him all season.
The Atlanta Braves was a team that had come from behind in the late innings so many times before, determined to win ball games that looked out of reach because they wanted to send Chipper Jones out as a champion.
Braves fans loved Chipper because of the loyalty he had for the team. He never looked outside Atlanta for money or World Series glory. Jones never gave up on the Braves in the 19 years he played for them, but in his last moment as an Atlanta Brave, he had already given up. Jones had already retired before the game ended. In that final at bat, Chipper Jones had already quit.
