You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we'll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history.
ON THIS DATE IN 2008, Chipper Jones hit his 400th home run.
Minutes before that game, Jones was playing computer solitaire because that's what he did to relax. He didn't need to memorize scouting reports or inhale video because ex-Braves teammate Mark Teixeira said, "Chipper is the smartest hitter I've ever played with.''
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That baseball intelligence is one reason he is, I believe, one of the five best third basemen and one of the five best switch-hitters in history. He said his goal every game was to at least score a run or drive in a run; in eight seasons, including six in a row, he drove in 100 runs and scored 100. He had five seasons in which he hit .300 with 30 homers and 100 RBIs for a first-place team. He hit in the middle of the order every day for a team that won 14 consecutive division titles. His left-handed and right-handed swings looked very similar, which is unusual. For his career, he hit .304 left-handed, .303 right-handed.
None of this surprised the Braves. In high school in Deland, Florida, Jones was also a basketball and football star. When his father, Larry, saw he got preferential treatment from teachers because of the state championships he could help bring in multiple sports, he transferred his son to a private school, the Bolles School, about 90 miles away. Chipper told me 10 years later, "There are still people in my town that won't talk to my dad because of that.'' The Braves made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 1990 draft. The pre-draft meeting with the Braves lasted only 30 minutes. Larry Jones was the "agent'' for his son. Chipper took the first offer. His dad took him upstairs and told him he could get much more, and Chipper said, "I know. But I want to be the No. 1 pick. I want to play NOW. And I'm going to make so much money playing this game, I don't need to get it all right away.''
I asked Braves manager Bobby Cox the first time he knew Jones would be a star.
"First time I met him,'' he said. "Oh, that face. Great face.''
What does that mean?
"Sometimes you can just tell by a guy's face,'' Cox said. "Great face.''
Great face, great player right away. Jones had a terrific rookie season. After it was over, he received an autographed baseball from one of his idols, Cal Ripken. The inscription said: "Congratulations on a great rookie season. Now comes the hard part.'' Twenty-five years later, Chipper told me, "I still keep that ball on my desk today ... as a daily reminder.''
Other baseball notes for June 5
In 1989, Skydome opened in Toronto. Soon after, during his first visit there, Orioles club president Larry Lucchino told me, "We're building this nice little ballpark in Baltimore. They've built the eighth wonder of the world.''
In 1957, the Dodgers' Don Drysdale threw the first of his 49 shutouts, six of which came in succession in 1968 when he set the major league record with 58⅔ consecutive scoreless innings. Drysdale won 209 games, 23% of them were by shutout. Rube Waddell and Big Ed Walsh are the only pitchers to have fewer victories and more shutouts than Drysdale.
In 1941, catcher Duke Sims was born. I was told by a former teammate that he could vomit on command.
In 1966, shortstop Bill Spiers was born. We once discussed the coldest he had ever been in a baseball game in Milwaukee. He said Opening Day 1994. It was 31 degrees at game time, with a 29 mph wind, which dropped the wind chill to 19 degrees. His pitcher, Cal Eldred, had control issues that day; he gave up five runs in the top of the first inning, which took 34 minutes. "My glove was frozen solid, my hand was in my pocket,'' Spiers said. "It's the only time in my career that I ever thought to myself, 'Please, don't hit it to me.'''