Chipper Jones Thinking About Retirement
September 17, 2009 by Stephen Kersey
Filed under Baseball
Last season, Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves surprised many by posting one of the best seasons of his big league career. He hit .364 to lead the National League and set career-highs in batting average and on-base percentage.
However, this season hasn’t been as kind to the 37-year-old third baseman. He’s hitting .269 with 16 homers, 64 RBIs and 70 runs. Since the All-Star break, Jones is hitting just .237 in 173 at-bats.
When talking to the Associated Press, Jones strongly hinted that he’d retire after next season if he doesn’t start to play better.
Said Jones to the AP: “If I back up this year with the same kind of year next year, I don’t want to play the game. The game is not fun to me when I’m not playing up to my standards.”
Dealing with nagging injuries, Jones has only one at-bat in the last three games for the Braves. Despite missing arguably their best player, Atlanta has won seven games in a row and now stand just 4.5 games back in the NL Wild Card race. If the Braves can get a strong finish from Jones, that will help their cause this season and for a few years to come.
Is Chipper Jones headed toward retirement (Image: Zuma Press)
