Even With Bum Knee, Chipper Jones Will Keep Playing Mickey Mantle

ATLANTA -- He'll return next spring for an 18th season with the Atlanta Braves, and he should. Not only that, Chipper Jones will prosper in the aftermath. For one, doctors have the right stuff these days to heal everything that ails this future Hall of Fame third baseman. For another, he has the right attitude to make everything work.

Consider that a strikingly cheerful and reflective Jones huddled with a bunch of inquiring minds on Friday in a back room of Turner Field three days after he ripped the ACL in his 38-year-old left knee. The injury occurred in Houston on what otherwise was the best defensive play of his life. Said Jones, while pausing and smiling along the way, "It's shocking. It's something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, having to go through all of this rehab. It's so extensive, but it is what it is."

Then, with surgery slated for early Saturday morning, Jones (shown at right on Friday with Braves' GM Frank Wren) formed one of his crooked yet infectious grins before adding, "I've made up my mind that I'm going to go through the rehab process like I'm trying to get ready for spring training. I'll just spend another half hour or hour more (at spring training) trying to rehab a bum knee.

"It's not that big of a deal."

Actually, it is, because we're talking about Larry Jones Jr., the most underrated great player of our time.

Here's all you need to know: Right down to his various leg and feet issues through the years, Jones is Mickey Mantle in so many ways, but mostly in baseball ways. As Braves manager Bobby Cox often says, "Chipper always has reminded me of the Mick, you know?"

Cox knows. In 1968, during the last of Mantle's seasons of yore with the New York Yankees, Cox was a rookie infielder. Now, while moving through his 29th and last season as a manager in the major leagues, Cox cherishes the memory of spending the last stretch of them watching Jones up close and personal -- with Mantle's ghost in the background. Cox once told me, "They both are switch hitters, and they both look alike. And I've always thought that Chipper sort of walks like Mickey."

There's more. There's Larry Jones Sr., the father who raised and coached the son to become a significant force in baseball during Chipper's youth in Jacksonville, Fla.

There's more about the father. For just about forever, the father hugged all things Mantle. In fact, the father had everything you could name associated with the Yankee slugger. Baseballs. Cards. But he never had an audience with Mantle until the father had just that (well, indirectly) through his son in 1992 during a card show in Atlanta.

Chipper was a minor leaguer back then, and the way Jones remembered it during one of our conversations in the past, he was "scared to death." He even was nervous while practicing what he would say to Mantle the night before in front of a mirror.

Recalled Jones during that conversation, "It was the first time I'd ever been tongue tied in my entire life."

When Mantle asked Jones how he was doing, the wide-eyed admirer couldn't speak. Recalled Jones, "I just kind of nodded, because I couldn't get anything out. He probably thought I was a goober."

A goober who eventually fulfilled his lifetime goal. Which brings us back to Friday's news conference, when Jones eased into another one of those crooked smiles before saying, "When I was growing up, I wanted to be mentioned with only two people -- (switch-hitters) Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray. And I think it's safe to say that I've achieved that."

Uh, yes. Only Mickey Mantle (536) and Eddie Murray (504) slammed more home runs as switch hitters than Jones' 436, but only Hall of Famer Frankie Frisch's career batting average of .316 tops that of Jones' .306 among switch hitters. Plus, Jones is the only switch hitter ever to own a .300 batting average and hit at least 300 home runs.

None of that kept Jones from nearly bolting for good through the Braves clubhouse door in mid-June despite two years and $28 million left on his contract, and despite playing for a resilient team with its first chance to reach the postseason in five years. He was hitting .228 following his ugly free fall to .264 the previous season. Remember, too, that he roared to the National League batting title in 2008 at .364.

So Jones hastily called a meeting with Braves officials -- president John Schuerholz, general manager Frank Wren and Cox -- to discuss a possible exit strategy.

Like sooner than later.

"I think Frank (Wren) would be the first to address that I was in a very different spot mentally two months ago," Jones said. "But the fact of the matter is that I've made some pretty significant strides since then, and I've turned things around, and I've got my confidence back, and some swagger back, and really have felt dangerous up there at the plate."

This dangerous: Jones spent the next 44 games hitting .307 (about his career average) with seven home runs. He also was prolific in the field. "I read a stat last night online where my range this year is better than it was last year," Jones said. "I'm getting to more balls. Little things like that make me go, 'Come on. Maybe I'm gaining a step in my old age.' "

"She goes, 'I love you.' After that, she says, 'Now get your head out of your butt and get it done. Don't feel sorry for yourself. You've got the world by its tail. Go and get better and know that we're in your corner.' "
- Chipper Jones on his Mother, Lynne There was Tuesday night in Houston, for instance, when the Astros' Hunter Pence ripped a shot down the third base line. Jones backhanded the ball, twisted in the air while leaping toward the farthest star and hurled a strike toward first base. Somehow, with everybody gasping, he nailed the moderately quick Hunter by two steps.

"John (Schuerholz) and I kidded. It was a Brooks Robinson-type play," said Wren, nodding, with Jones at his side. Later, Cox added, "It was the best play that I ever saw Chipper make."

It's just that between the grab, the plant, the leap and the throw, Jones damaged parts of the same ACL that he did in 1994. He was a 21-year-old rookie back then, which means you would think his healing would be rougher as a baseball senior citizen.

Jones has it about right, though.

"Obviously, a lot of improvements have been done over the last 16, 17 years, since the last time I had the procedure," Jones said. "So I'm hoping that I'll have a little easier time with the rehab process than I did the last time. I'm trying to get this surgery over so the rehab can start."

In other words, this doesn't sound like a guy on the verge of leaving during the next few weeks or months.

His parents won't let him. Said Jones, while referring to mom and dad, who also go by Larry. Sr. and Lynne, "They always give me perspective by telling me to never make a decision when you're down in the dumps or when you're up in the clouds. And mom (chuckling), she sent me a text this morning, and this was typical mom.

"She goes, 'I love you.' (More chuckling). After that, she said, 'Now get your head out of your butt and get it done. Don't feel sorry for yourself. You've got the world by its tail. Go and get better, and know that we're in your corner.'

"If it's up to them, I'll never take off this Braves uniform. So much of their lives revolve around 7:07 p.m., game time."

Yes, he's coming back.