The Chipper Jones Series | Episode 1 | The Draft

I was probably four years old when I was sitting in my living room watching the Saturday game of the week and I turned to my mom and that's the I want to play baseball on TV he was in in Little League and and I thought he was a pretty good player he hit three home runs in a championship game I kind of got a feeling that that he was a little different I was pretty focused early on on what I wanted to do where I wanted to go yes I did some other things playing football in the south you know that's gospel I didn't enjoy working at the at the game of football as much as I did the game of baseball you know I always knew where my bread was buttered comes springtime Larry Jones is better known as Chipper Jones a six foot three shortstop who can do it all field run throw and switch it might also develop into a power hitter I certainly went out and saw him when he became a senior and draft eligible and got chance to sing two or three games and you know you didn't get to see a lot really because they walked him they wouldn't pitch doing because he was that type of hitter quite honestly I don't know that I ever personally heard from the Atlanta Braves but the Braves were keeping everything pretty close to the best obviously they had the first pick in the draft that year they weren't going to be outwardly seen at practices we saw at the games but as far as being the first pick in the draft I read it and baseball America and he was playing a game as a senior and they had six or seven people there and Tipper hit a home run left-handed in the home run right-handed and I told Lynn that may have just made him in the first pick in the draft never really heard much from the Braves and so about two days before the draft which ironically was the night of my prom we're talking about a life-changing moment here you know I mean not many guys can say they were the first pick in the first round of the of the amateur draft the Braves came in to do what they called a sign ability study you know we kind of threw a figure out and they threw a figure out we went upstairs and and chipper said dad I want to be playing in two weeks I said you know you can get more money than this and he said I want to be playing in two weeks so we went downstairs and said if you guys will split the difference it's it's done and that was exactly the hey the way it happened chipper came out with no BS whatsoever that you know if I don't get the right amount of money I'm going to college and all that he says look I'm not going to college I'm gonna sign I was able to get back meet with the Braves talk to them let them know the hey if somebody else doesn't want to be your guy I'll be your dad you know I'd be more than happy to play for your ballclub [Music] Pearson is is a town of about 1,500 people and 1499 of them were in our yard everybody was waiting for the call and when it finally happened the cheers went up you could have heard it down in the land or up and in plat ger over and Daytona Beach everybody was excited was an easy easy sign for us getting one of the best ball players and any draft ever in the history of baseball ending up in the Hall of Fame I played 23 years in pro ball 19 and the big leagues all in the Atlanta Braves organization I can say pretty assuredly that's if I if the brace hadn't taken me things would have been very different I'm extremely loyal to the Atlanta Braves for giving me the opportunity to play baseball at its highest level I was born into this organization grew up in it reap the benefits of playing in this organization throughout my whole career played with three or four other Hall of Famers along the way played for a Hall of Fame coach had a great rapport with the Hall of Fame general manager and now I get to join them you know this summer so huh to say that that I'm happy that it worked out the way it did is probably the biggest understatement ever made

Channel: Atlanta Braves

Views: 37,642

Rating: 4.9911504 out of 5

Keywords: Atlanta Braves, Major League, Major League Baseball, Baseball, Chipper Jones, MLB

Id: WudugcvtxP8

Length: 5min 4sec (304 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 02 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Oldman_Dick]

I think they played this at the stadium last weekend during the rain delay. Good stuff.

[u/8686tjd]

Interesting 10 part series chronicling Chipper's career.

[u/Fall3n7s]

Even him wearing that stack of hats that included the filthies almost made me puke.