Let's retire Chipper's number..... During the season!

by BigMac1 on Mar 22, 2026 11:30 AM EDT

Just think about it.. When was the last time a player ever had his number retired while he was still playing? It'll be unique. right? Well Chipper's career is unique. Staying so loyal to an organization is unheard of in modern day Baseball. The Braves need to reward him. So instead of the old cliche, (Retiring his number, Ceremony, the eventual statue), why don't we just do all of it during the season? It'll be the first time I could ever recall, in any sport, that that would happen. So let's start a trend! Chipper definitely deserves it.. Frank Wren.. Get on it!

This FanPost does not express the views or opinions of Talking Chop.

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I thought you were going to suggest that none of our posts include “10” this year.

by VivaLosBravos on Mar 22, 2026 12:21 PM EDT reply actions

Hah!

That’d be something.. Thinking outside the box!

Follow me @TwoShotsAnd1 and feel my pain as an Atlanta sports fan.

by BigMac1 on Mar 22, 2026 12:52 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm all for it

This would be a great way to send off the best Atlanta Brave ever.

by Bedhead514 on Mar 22, 2026 12:47 PM EDT reply actions

Doubt it would happen

Most of us have an idea of Chipper’s personality to likely guess that he would be the first one to object to this idea. Why should he get any special treatment that Maddux, Glavine or Smoltz didn’t get? Wouldn’t it be somewhat aggrandizing, while he’s still active? Wouldn’t it be a distraction to his teammates, who need to focus on the team, instead of one man’s career?

Thoughtful idea, but I’d have to object. Although you can pretty much bank on Chipper Jones night in 2013.

No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.

by royhobbs on Mar 22, 2026 1:10 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah, knowing Chipper, he’d hate the attention (hate is probably an understatement), but it’ll have to happen eventually, why not this season? I don’t know, just something special, ya know? Although I’d agree that Chipper would strongly object, maybe FW and Co. can ease him into it?

It’s different than Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltzy.. Chipper Jones is the arguably greatest Brave of all-time, so he should get a different treatment IMO.

Follow me @TwoShotsAnd1 and feel my pain as an Atlanta sports fan.

by BigMac1 on Mar 22, 2026 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions

Chipper is certainly the greatest exclusively Braves player of all-time

When you talk about THE greatest Braves player of all-time covering all positions it is very, very close….but I think Maddux or Aaron takes the cake in that one over Chipper, but it is very, very close.

Maddux is one of the top 3 greatest pitchers in the history of baseball and he played for the Braves for 10 years. Aaron likewise I think is one of the top 3 greatest position players (of any non-pitching position) in the history of the game and he played for the Braves for 20 years. Chipper is certainly in the top 3 3rd Basemen of all time, and I think he is THE greatest switch-hitter of all-time - but those are kind of qualifiers. However, it is hard to say that Chipper is in the top 3 of position players in the entire history of the game like you could of Maddux and Aaron - and even Aaron is debateable on that (Ruth, Williams, Aaron, Mays, Cobb - could go really in any order).

All while Fredi is surrounded by a bunch of orangutans, trying to teach them how to bunt the rocks and coconuts that angry 300 lb gorillas are throwing at them,

by royhobbs on Jul 29, 2025 11:20 AM PDT

Strong Side / Weak Side: Chipper Jones

http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/chipper-jones,8431/

by Santaklose11 on Mar 22, 2026 6:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Damn! Let's please not start parsing Chipper's greatness.

I started thinking about this earlier, after reading this article by Mark Bowman, which served up this absolute gem:

Jones has hit .304 with 454 homers, 526 doubles, 1,455 walks, a .402 on-base percentage and a .533 slugging percentage.

Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Stan Musial and Lou Gehrig are the only other players in Major League history to record a career .300 batting average with at least 450 homers, 500 doubles, 1,400 walks, a .400 on-base percentage and .500 slugging percentage.

Obviously, a precise historical measuring and comparing of Chipper’s illustrious career to the likes of Ruth, Williams, Musial and Gehrig is folly, but jeezza marizza we should at least be able to agree he has been a very truly great player and an immearurably important figure in the long and storied history of the Braves.

by fandave on Mar 22, 2026 11:12 PM EDT up reply actions

ABSOLUTELY!!

Chipper is one of the greatest players I have witnessed in my lifetime on any team. He has no weakness and can punish pitchers with average AND power EQUALLY from both sides of the plate (I can’t think of any other notable switch hitter who has had equal identical ability from both sides of the plate). He also has perhaps the best eye for balls and strikes that I have ever witnessed a player having. Until recently I almost never saw him swing at a bad pitch, and I still can’t think of the last time I saw him completely fooled by a pitch.

One thing that makes him stand alone in the history of the game (besides switch hitting) is the exceptional ability in all hitting abilities. He hits for power, average, to the gaps, place hits….he can literally do it all at a HOF caliber level. It seems like Chipper has been in the top 10 in the game every year in nearly every single hitting category (until recently) and in most categories he is in the top 5. Very few other players in history did that (they had 2 or three exceptional categories…but not all of them).

Here’s to you Chipper…

Without a doubt Chipper is the greatest exclusively Braves player ever.

All while Fredi is surrounded by a bunch of orangutans, trying to teach them how to bunt the rocks and coconuts that angry 300 lb gorillas are throwing at them,

by royhobbs on Jul 29, 2025 11:20 AM PDT

Strong Side / Weak Side: Chipper Jones

http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/chipper-jones,8431/

by Santaklose11 on Mar 23, 2026 10:51 AM EDT up reply actions

I hate the superlatives

He’s a great player. Why have to add “greatest exclusively Braves player”? Does that somehow demean Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews, or Hank Aaron because they played years way beyond their prime with another team?

Hey! I’m new.
by ChopMaster on Jul 7, 2025 10:24 PM CDT (joined Jul 19, 2025)

Twitter: @biggentleben

by biggentleben on Mar 23, 2026 12:23 PM EDT up reply actions

Because BigMac1 made this statement:

Chipper Jones is the arguably greatest Brave of all-time, so he should get a different treatment IMO.

So I said, that in my opinion, Chipper was not thegreatest Brave of all time (personally I think it is close to a tie between Aaron and Maddux), but since both of those players did play on other teams…Chipper is the greatest exclusively Braves player ever. Again those are just my humble opinions..

All while Fredi is surrounded by a bunch of orangutans, trying to teach them how to bunt the rocks and coconuts that angry 300 lb gorillas are throwing at them,

by royhobbs on Jul 29, 2025 11:20 AM PDT

Strong Side / Weak Side: Chipper Jones

http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/chipper-jones,8431/

by Santaklose11 on Mar 23, 2026 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm not just talking you

…and I apologize that it came off like I was.

Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Eddie Mathews, Dale Murphy

All those guys played the majority of their long careers with the Braves and there’s no way they wouldn’t end up in a top ten Braves of the live-ball era list. Yet, I keep seeing idiotic comments on message boards and Twitter about Chipper being the best “true” Braves, using his exclusivity as a Brave.

If Chipper has the burn 2 years from now to play again and plays two summers for the Kansas City Royals as their hitting coach/DH, does his spot in Braves history change at all? Not a chance.

Hey! I’m new.
by ChopMaster on Jul 7, 2025 10:24 PM CDT (joined Jul 19, 2025)

Twitter: @biggentleben

by biggentleben on Mar 23, 2026 2:09 PM EDT up reply actions

I think we are both saying the exact same thing

I agree with everything you just said. My point was not to point out Chipper as a “true Brave” to the exclusion of other….not at all. My point was that he, while one of the best, was not the single greatest player to ever don a Braves jersey (though he is top 3). In terms of players who have only ever donned a Braves jersey though, Chipper is by far the greatest in that category - which, again, is not to undermine him as one of the greatest players ever either.

All while Fredi is surrounded by a bunch of orangutans, trying to teach them how to bunt the rocks and coconuts that angry 300 lb gorillas are throwing at them,

by royhobbs on Jul 29, 2025 11:20 AM PDT

Strong Side / Weak Side: Chipper Jones

http://www.onionsportsnetwork.com/articles/chipper-jones,8431/

by Santaklose11 on Mar 23, 2026 3:32 PM EDT up reply actions

I think it goes Aaron, Spahn, Maddux, Chipper

We forget how great Warren Spahn was sometimes.

by Broccoman on Mar 23, 2026 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions

Maddux was really good but Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, good ol’ Cy Young and Lefty Grove were all probably better.

by Zontar on Mar 23, 2026 10:33 AM EDT up reply actions

Not sure about Cy Young...

…he was very good for a long, long time, but not the level of the others you mentioned. Of course, those guys all had the dead ball era advantage (at least for part of Johnson’s career). I think an underrated all-time great in that level is another Brave, Kid Nichols. He pitched primarily in the high-scoring 1890’s, so his ERA doesn’t look as pretty, but he was really on that same level.

by cavebird on Mar 23, 2026 11:00 AM EDT up reply actions

None of those 3 were career Braves

and only 1 of the 3 was drafted by us. So career means every pro moment.

http://sportsandgrits.com/

by Mr. Sanchez on Mar 22, 2026 9:31 PM EDT up reply actions

They should just have a Chipper Jones day...

…near the end of the season and retire his number next year. If they retired his number this year, what would he wear?

by cavebird on Mar 22, 2026 2:37 PM EDT reply actions

He doesn’t have to put the number away.. the idea of retiring someones number is that it’s that player’s number, no one else’s

Follow me @TwoShotsAnd1 and feel my pain as an Atlanta sports fan.

by BigMac1 on Mar 22, 2026 2:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Given Chipper's injury issues...

…I wouldn’t want to retire his number with him still in it; his body might join it!

by cavebird on Mar 23, 2026 11:01 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

Rec'd

GATA!

by Jman781 on Mar 23, 2026 11:14 AM EDT up reply actions

I have a much better, more worthy way to honor Chipper Jones

Anyone who plans on buying tickets this season should make a donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. If you can afford to spend the money to visit the Ted, you can afford to make a $10 donation, which is searching for a cure for CF, and is also dedicated to helping patients with CF.

Chipper Jones is such a low-key player that the only thing he’s notable for, outside of baseball, is the affair he had with a Hooter’s waitress that cost him his first marriage. It’s less well known that he’s an avid hunter, where he had his own tv show for a while (maybe he still does, i don’t know). And it’s never mentioned that he has annual golf event to raise money for his charity foundation, which supports The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, as well as several youth baseball leagues. His lack of celebrity, nation-wide, is actually a disservice to the man he’s become.

Bobby Cox was most flattered by teams that made donations to his favorite charity. I think Chipper should get the same response.

Braves will be fine. I'm not worried.

by Bronn on Sep 18, 2025 4:26 PM EDT

by Bronn on Mar 22, 2026 8:45 PM EDT reply actions 8 recs

Thanks for making me feel like crap, Bronn.

Follow me @TwoShotsAnd1 and feel my pain as an Atlanta sports fan.

by BigMac1 on Mar 22, 2026 9:07 PM EDT up reply actions

While I am not Bronn

I don’t think he was disparaging your suggestion, for the two are not mutually exclusive.

As you mention, Chipper’s getting a ceremony, the only question is when. Thus, your suggestion, while unlikely, is not a bad one.

That said, Bronn’s suggestion is great, too, for different reasons.

There are many, many ways we can celebrate the career of Mr. Jones. Why limit it to just one?

GATA!

by Jman781 on Mar 23, 2026 11:18 AM EDT up reply actions

Oh, I wasn't

I just felt like this was a good place to mention, on a day when we’re remembering Chipper Jones, to remind everyone of the good charity work he’s done. He’s earned a lot of honors, and will have his number retired eventually, and then his face enshrined among the all time greats.

Just good to remember that he’s good human being, also, despite what Phillies fans might believe.

Braves will be fine. I'm not worried.

by Bronn on Sep 18, 2025 4:26 PM EDT

by Bronn on Mar 23, 2026 11:37 AM EDT up reply actions