Sports Page Atlanta

Chipper Jones hit his 14th home run of the season last night which was also his 400th of his career. He is the 43rd player in major league history to reach that number.

This season he is tied for 8th place in home runs in the national league. That is strange for him because even though he has 400 career home runs, he rarely ranks in the top-10 in the category for a season.

Here are his best finishes…

1999: 45 home runs (3rd)

2001: 38 home runs (9th)

1998: 34 home runs (10th)

Well Chipper Jones did it again.  A 3-run home run in the first gives Chipper 399 of his career.  One more and he will become the 43rd player in major league history to reach 400.

One man that never did it was Braves legend Dale Murphy.  He finished his career with 398.  One of Chipper’s former teammates, Andres Galarraga finished his career with 399.

This made me think of other greats that just missed home run milestones…

Like Andres, Hall of Famer Al Kaline finished with 399 

Ken Griffey Jr. is currently at 599 (he should get 600 real soon) 

Another former Brave Fred McGriff finished at 493 as did the Iron Horse Lou Gherig

Former Angel Tim Salmon had 299 and finishing with 297 was Rickey being Rickey Henderson.

What happened to Chipper last night??? OK we have seen him make an error before, but not that many recently. Going 0-5 is something we haven’t seen too much this year. Here is how many times Larry Wayne Jones has done that in his career….

2008: twice (the other being on April 28th at Washington)

2007: 2 times

2006: 2 times

2005: 2 times

2004: 3 times

2003: 2 times

2002: 4 times (he was 0-6 vs the Mets on April 15th)

2001: 0 times

2000: 8 times

1999: 4 times

1998: 2 times

1997: 7 times

1996: 4 times

1995: 7 times

Once again Chipper Jones comes through with the go-ahead rbi single in the 7th inning to help lead the Atlanta Braves to a 4-2 victory over the New York Mets.

Chipper went 2-for-4 in the game to raise his average to .412.

If you are a baseball fan you probably already know that Ted Williams was the last player to hit .400 in a season way back in 1941.

But here is a breakdown decade by decade of the top 3 highest averages in a season that qualified for the batting title since the 1940’s (ok I will count the 40’s).  There is a former Atlanta Brave on the list.

1940’s - Ted Williams .406 in 1941, Stan Musial .376 in 1948, Ted Williams .369 in 1948

1950’s - Ted Williams .388 in 1957, Mickey Mantle .365 in 1957, Stan Musial .355 in 1951

1960’s - Norm Cash .361 in 1961, Roberto Clemente .357 in 1967, Roberto Clemente .351 in 1961

1970’s -Rod Carew .388 in 1977, Rico Carty .366 in 1970, Rod Carew .364 in 1974

1980’s - George Brett .390 in 1980, Tony Gwynn .370 in 1987, Wade Boggs .368 in 1985

1990’s - Tony Gwynn .394 in 1994, Larry Walker .379 in 1999, Tony Gwynn .372 in 1997

2000’s - Nomar Garciaparra .372 in 2000, Todd Helton .372 in 2000, Ichiro Suzuki .372 in 2004

If you were watching the Braves game yesterday, besides yelling at the TV, you might have noticed Dale Murphy in the crowd.

Dale Murphy finished his career with 398 career home runs (371 with the Braves)

Chipper Jones has currently 397 in his career

both players had exactly six 30-home run seasons and one 40-home run season

Chipper’s most was 45 back in 1999… Murph’s most was 44 back in 1987

Murph does have one more MVP award than Chipper (maybe that will change this year)

Everyone knows how great of a start Chipper Jones is doing. But hitting .418 is a little ridiculous. Chipper’s best batting average season was last year when he hit .337. He is also looking for his first batting title. He has come close a few times as we see below…

• 2007 - batted .337 - finished 2nd behind Matt Holliday at .340
• 2002 - batted .327 - finished 5th behind Barry Bonds at .370
• 2001 - batted .330 - finished 5th behind Larry Walker at .350
• 1999 - batted .319 - finished 10th behind Larry Walker at .379

Chipper Jones went hitless last night for just the 4th time all season… pretty incredible. Right now he has a .413 batting average. In the last 40 years, 2 Braves have actually done better than that through the team’s first 34 games. Some of the names on the top-5 might surprise you…

Highest Brave batting average through 34 games over last 40 years

1959: Hank Aaron .468 (ended up at .355 and won NL batting title)

1970: Rico Carty .419 (ended up at .366 and won NL batting title)

2008: Chipper Jones .413

1997: Jeff Blauser .410 (ended up at .308 and was 12th in NL in batting)

1971: Ralph Garr .397 (ended up at .343 and was 2nd in NL batting behind Joe Torre)

Even though the Atlanta Braves did not win last night, Chipper Jones added another home run to his total. He has 387 career home runs and is in 49th place all-time. That might not be a super-impressive number, but if he hits 29 like he did last season, he will move to 41st. On the way to the #41 spot he will pass some hall of famers and some former Atlanta Braves… here is the list 40-49…

40 Billy Williams - 426

41 Darrell Evans - 414 (in ATL from 1969-76 and 1989)

42 Duke Snider - 407

43 Andres Galarraga - 399 (in ATL from 1998-2000)

Al Kaline - 399

45 Dale Murphy - 398 (in ATL from 1976-1990)

46 Joe Carter - 396

47 Graig Nettles - 390 (in ATL in 1987)

48 Johnny Bench - 389

49 Chipper Jones - 387

Peter Gammons’ Spring Training Report

This video isn’t entirely about the Atlanta Braves, but starting at the 2:42 mark Gammons talks about the chances for the Braves to do well in 2008, even saying that the, “Braves can be really good”. He had some very positive things to say about Chipper Jones, Mike Hampton and Jeff Francoeur.