Bonus pod: Braves Legend Chipper Jones with Foul Territory

00:00:00
Speaker 1: What's happening? Guys? How are we? How you doing?

00:00:03
Speaker 2: Can't complain getting ready for this Christmas with the all seven of my boys. So it's kind of a stick around here are.

00:00:10
Speaker 3: They being rich?

00:00:11
Speaker 4: Dude?

00:00:11
Speaker 3: You're so rich it doesn't even matter. Just just be like, just what do you guys want. We'll just take you the mall. Here's a gift card for like ten thousand. Just get whatever you'll want kids. I'll see all afterwards.

00:00:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's that's kind of what my gift list kind of consists of. I grab a envelope and throw a couple of hundred bucks and they can go get what they want.

00:00:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you know you ain't making them all happy if you try to. You try to go through the list the whole time you're like, all right, he wants this chick, and then you're like, damn the other man, you want kids.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: I feel like there's a lot of repeats.

00:00:46
Speaker 2: Instead of, you know, going through the whole list, I'll just buy a whole bunch of one thing and throw it in a you know, throw it in a stocking for everybody.

00:00:53
Speaker 5: So well, Chipper, you know, obviously you were well paid during your career, but are you like, damn so I was playing just a little bit later in life where the money was how it looked right now because you know, Alex Bragman, okay, third base's been in the game for a minute. It's not even like, you know, so does a different situation because he got called up so early on in his career. But you know, even looking at someone like Bragman, his zunis thirt he's already playing third base, He's made a lot of money, and it sounds like you might get another two hundred million dollars ated to his bank account.

00:01:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's uh, you know, I think all three of us major leaguers here probably wish we were born about twenty or thirty years later. But uh, you know, the fact of the matter is is, you know, the price keeps going up, and these guys, you know, they have free agencies. They're right, you know, to go out there and as long as somebody is willing to pay them, what they feel is the is the going rate for their position, for their statistics that are you know, on the back of their baseball card, More power to them. That's why they Players Association is one of the strongest unions in professional sports, And yeah, I mean there's a lot of money being thrown around, but the owners are making a ton of money because baseball's putting a lot of butts in the seats. Does this mean?

00:02:17
Speaker 4: Does this mean that will never be another player that plays in the same team because of where the prices are at, Because you know, once she once everybody wants to hit free agency, and now it's like, oh, once he hits free agency and its current team ors his long lasting team doesn't want to negotiate with us.

00:02:34
Speaker 2: That's a good question. I think every you know, every player is different. You know, I was one that kind of wanted to stay in one place and maybe take a little less so that, you know, maybe my team could spend some money elsewhere. You know, it's really hard to fathom that, you know, a player is making forty or fifty million dollars and taking up, you know, twenty twenty five sometimes thirty percent of a given team's salary in a given year. When you spend that much on one person, you're gonna have some holes in some other areas of your ball club. And you know, whether it's you know, roster depth or you know, bullpen depth, stuff like that.

00:03:22
Speaker 1: So to each his own.

00:03:23
Speaker 2: I mean, uh, these guys are you know, they're like you said, Max Fried and Bregman.

00:03:30
Speaker 1: There this is their you know.

00:03:33
Speaker 2: First real shot at going out and seeing what the what the market offers them, you know, more power to.

00:03:40
Speaker 1: Them to get what they can.

00:03:44
Speaker 2: I was just of the belief that, hey, well we'll take a little less just so we, you know, can assure ourselves that here in Atlanta, were staying competitive.

00:03:54
Speaker 3: Would you've taken less?

00:03:55
Speaker 4: Did you take less?

00:03:56
Speaker 3: Maybe it's a better question before in your brave's career to stay brave? Did you take a deal that you know, Hey, I want to bring back Andrew or I want to bring back smallcy In Maddox and Glavin. I'm willing to take less in order to help the team do that.

00:04:11
Speaker 2: Well, I was lucky that I never got to a spring training of a free agent year that I wasn't extended. So I guess the the logic behind the team wanting to extend me was to not let me get to free agency where I probably.

00:04:28
Speaker 1: Could have made a little more money.

00:04:30
Speaker 2: The fact of the matter is is that, you know, I'm a firm believer that the grass is not always greener on the other side, I feel like whoever leaves the Braves clubhouse for free agency is not coming back because it's you know.

00:04:47
Speaker 1: Once you're courted by all the.

00:04:51
Speaker 2: All the pretty girls in free agency, meaning big market teams, and guys realize how much more money they can make in some of these big market teams. The Braves cannot compete probably nine times out of ten with the big market clubs once our guys leave the clubhouse.

00:05:10
Speaker 1: So once they leave the.

00:05:10
Speaker 2: Clubhouse, I pretty much have them marked off as going somewhere else. So I did not want to even have that temptation. I had Bobby Cox, I had John Shirholtz, I had a great roster throughout my whole career. I knew we were going to be competitive, and I would have done anything, especially take a little less money to assure you know, my future, and that we were going to be competitive here. And so to answer your question, probably I don't know that for a fact, but I probably took less than I would have made on the free agent market.

00:05:49
Speaker 3: Was there a team though, come on, be honest, was there a team where you're looking at me, you're likes the Mets play in Shea Stadium every single day I wonder if they got some good spread, like if they fly on a nice plane, because you never know, you never know.

00:06:08
Speaker 2: Well see, I grew up a huge Dodger fan. My dad was from Vero Beach where they used to train. So the year that I that I retired, I actually had stand cast and call me up and say, hey, come on out. Well, you know you can play whenever you want. We just need somebody to kind of police the clubhouse. We got a lot of good young kids, and I'm like, Stan, if I wear any other uniform other than a Braves uniform, they will burn my house down in Atlanta. So you know, at that point, I was forty years old and a ton of mileage, a ton of tread on the tires, and my body was telling me it was time to go. I had made some promises to the to the kids and just didn't want to. But to answer your question, obviously wanting to know what other teams and what are the people how they feel about you, It's always those those those thoughts are always going to creep in there. But again this, you know, Atlanta is my speed. It's my kind of town. I'm from the South, close to home where parents and friends can come watch me play, And it was just, you know, I was born into this organization, grew up in it, and I wanted to stay in it.

00:07:25
Speaker 5: That's a really cool story about the Dodgers there too. All right, So let me ask you about what's going on with the Braves right now, because we've seen you, you know, and everyone can give Chip or a follow if you don't already, kind of weigh in with your two cents on the work that Alex Anthopolis has done for several years now running Atlanta. So here's one.

00:07:43
Speaker 1: Trust the man.

00:07:44
Speaker 5: He's done goodbye so far. Part of being a GM is adhering to the cries from the fan base, hearing to the guidelines by management.

00:07:50
Speaker 1: You talk to him often. He's passionate about winning.

00:07:53
Speaker 5: So what have you guys spoken about this offseason? Alex is usually super aggressive early, but this time around they've had to be a little bit more patient.

00:08:03
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:08:03
Speaker 2: I think whenever you have certain limitations to your purse strings, you have to weigh each and every deal. And I think you saw last year with the myriad of injuries that the Braves had throughout their everyday lineup, throughout their starting staff. You really saw how maybe thin they were with depth at.

00:08:31
Speaker 1: You know, the higher levels and whatnot.

00:08:33
Speaker 2: And I think you saw the Dela Cruz move yesterday or the day before, uh, And that's that's one of those depths moves. Not saying he couldn't you know, crack the starting lineup coming out of spring training, but you know he signs of non guaranteed deals.

00:08:48
Speaker 1: That's that's for depth.

00:08:49
Speaker 2: You know, and in case we do have another rash of injuries and you know, he's probably not done. But the fact of the matter is is, you know, race fans would have loved to have seen Alex get in on some of these you know, high price free agents in one I at least be in the in the discussion for it. But the you know, the fact of the matter is is he's been given guidelines and he has to abide by those.

00:09:16
Speaker 1: There's no due, no doubt that.

00:09:18
Speaker 2: You know, the Braves could use a good corner starting outfielder, they could use another starting pitcher, they could use some high leverage guys in the bullpen. But the right situation has to come to pass for for Alex to put a move on it.

00:09:37
Speaker 3: Chevar, I love how active you are on social media. It's pretty it's pretty refreshing, actually, someone of your caliber to you answer a lot of people not only on Instagram but on Twitter. But do you realize that if you would have swung like this instead of hitting three h three, you might have hit like five hundred and fifty homers and hit like two fifty. I'm just saying, if you would have gone like this with your first move, just think how good you could have.

00:09:59
Speaker 1: Well, I think we are.

00:10:00
Speaker 2: I agree that the barrel dump right off, the right off the get go is you know, the primo primo. Uh, just it's really what you want to accomplish is Hey, let's let's immediately loop.

00:10:12
Speaker 1: Our bat barrel to one hundred.

00:10:14
Speaker 2: Miles an hour and we'll see, we'll see how often we can catch up. It's it's fun, really trying to teach seventy year old plumbers from New York how to how to hit. But it's I'm glad that some people have have gotten a giggle out of some of the stuff that myself and joath at Lucroy and UH and Jeff Fry have been discussing on social media the last few days.

00:10:39
Speaker 3: Hey, he came after me once because I said something about him. I'm not going to say his name, but he came after me and he happened to be in Orlando, where I lived, and I said, hey, let's meet up, like I'll come meet you, you can show me in person. And you know, then he got all like, oh, well, you know you won't be able to do the drill that I and I'm like, let's slow down here, right, like I'm not talking about doing drills. Let's just have a conversation about like what it was like to stand in the box.

00:11:00
Speaker 1: And you know, then of.

00:11:01
Speaker 3: Course he got too busy, but that's a whole different story. I just I find it funny that, you know, it takes a lot of people to gang up on one part, you know' listen, I'll give that guy a lot of credit. He's made a name for himself by saying completely outrageous things and getting Hall of famers to clip back at him. So I gotta give him a little credit for that.

00:11:18
Speaker 1: Well, I guess, I guess.

00:11:20
Speaker 2: You know, any kind of attention, whether it be positive or negative, is is good attention for him. And that's why a couple of days ago, I said, look, but I go I don't agree with you know your barrel dump.

00:11:33
Speaker 1: You don't agree with the way I hit, That's fine, that's cool.

00:11:37
Speaker 2: You know, well, we'll maybe one of these days we'll have a couple of drinks and laugh about it. I go, but we've got to let this go because I'm not gonna argue with you know, my living room wall any longer about.

00:11:51
Speaker 1: You know, how I how I hit, or how you hit?

00:11:55
Speaker 3: Who's the best player when you played besides yourself? Because I assume if you're a Hall of fam you think you're the best. Because I was barely a big leaguer and I thought I was the best. So who was the best when you played? And how does that player compare to the best player?

00:12:10
Speaker 2: Now? I will say, to the day I die, the best player that I've ever seen on a baseball uniform was Barry Bonds.

00:12:20
Speaker 1: And there's really not even anybody close.

00:12:24
Speaker 2: I can certainly throw Otani into that mix right now from the standpoint that not not solely as a hitter, but the fact that he could he hits at the top of the.

00:12:39
Speaker 1: Lineup, in the middle of the lineup, wherever you want to.

00:12:41
Speaker 2: Put him, but he can also be a top of the rotation starter. So that's that's kind of a unicorn as far as I'm concerned. But as far as just a baseball player who doesn't pitch, who could go out and dominate a game.

00:12:59
Speaker 1: Any facet. He could do it on the basis, he.

00:13:04
Speaker 2: Could do it out in the outfield, he could do it with his arm, and obviously the bat is is the distinguisher of all of those, and he was above average at all of those. But yeah, Barry Bonds will always be the best player that I've ever seen. You know, you can throw some other hitters in the same breath with him. Albert Poohols playing against him, I don't think I saw him taking off balance swing for the ten or twelve years that I played against him.

00:13:35
Speaker 1: Just tremendous balance. You can tell he does his homework.

00:13:39
Speaker 2: Just as far as left and right handed hitters, those are probably the two. You know, Albert was a very good defender as well. So but you know, I will say till the day I die, Barry Bonds, and quite frankly, I don't even think it's close.

00:13:54
Speaker 3: Thank you. I've been saying that, I've been screaming that from the roof ops I played with him for a year was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. It was unbelievable. But there's two people that are going to be mad at you for who you just said. One of them, you might agree with Freddie Freeman. He's going to be calling you like, hey, Chipp or come pick me up on your ATV again, But remember I was pretty good. And then the other one's going to be Frenchie. You know, Frenchie's going to be calling you like, hey, I had a great like month or two, right, So I'm not get thrown in there.

00:14:20
Speaker 2: Well, I can make a case for for Freddie because I think I think Freddie's destined for the Hall of Fame. Obviously, you know this this past postseason was kind of the cherry on the top for for him to be able to go out and do some of the things that he did was really kind of spine tingling, and and you know, just to to have had a little bit of an influence his first couple of years on him, you know, in the batting cages and whatnot, was it was kind of a big brother moment, big brother, little brother moment for me just texting him through throughout the World series and whatnot. Couldn't be happier for him. Frenchie, Yeah, Frenchy Captain cave Man as.

00:15:09
Speaker 1: I like to call him.

00:15:11
Speaker 2: He's certainly a much better announcer talking about hitting than he was as a student of hitting. I've never seen a guy with a bigger arm bar than he had. You know that that wide sweeping swing that used to get eat up on fastballs.

00:15:31
Speaker 1: No matter how much you try and talk.

00:15:34
Speaker 2: To Frenchy about hitting, it was just seaball hit ball bang bang, bang bang, you know what I mean. And but loved the kid to death, and good to see he's making a name for himself.

00:15:47
Speaker 1: In the broad broadcast booth.

00:15:49
Speaker 3: The other day, Smulcy what he thought Otani would have gotten had the roles been reversed had Soto signed first, I need your guess of how much Otani would have gotten, because in my opinion, Otani is just light years, light years above what Juan Soto is. But what do you think your guess if last year Soto got his seven sixty five.

00:16:17
Speaker 1: A billion A billion? I mean, I've heard certain.

00:16:22
Speaker 2: People say that that one Soto is a generational type hitter. Wan Soto is a very very good, disciplined hitter. But we're throwing around the generational thing way too much.

00:16:37
Speaker 1: I mean, the.

00:16:38
Speaker 2: Guy that is generational was the guy who signed last year, like that is a once in a generation type of player talking about Otani. But again, you know, the value is in the eye of the beholder. And we all know how competitive the back page of the of the New York Post is, you know, and whoever resides on the back page.

00:17:04
Speaker 1: Wins the day.

00:17:05
Speaker 2: And you know, the Yankees and the mess they compete for that page non stop. And you know, Steve, Steve Cohen and the Mets decided they wanted to own.

00:17:19
Speaker 1: The back page for a little bit and they got it. So it is what it is.

00:17:24
Speaker 2: But I say, if you know, if, if, if Soto signs first and Otani comes up a year later, and Soto got seven to sixty five, and there's no doubt in my mind that that Otani gets a billion.

00:17:40
Speaker 3: All right, two quick things, real quick before before Krats has a special video for you, wants to show you. One was was she Stadium your favorite? Your favorite stadium you played in when they were chanting Larry at you, was that like your favorite place to go and play?

00:17:55
Speaker 1: It was certainly one of them.

00:17:57
Speaker 2: People ask me all the time, my favorite stadium, and from a standpoint of true adrenaline rushes, you know, I grew up in My dad raised me in the shadow of Mickey Mantle, and he always used to say, if you can be successful on that stage when the lights are the brightest, you can be successful anywhere. So it was not just a game in the middle of May or June when we went to New York to play the Mets or the Yankees. It was seventh game of the World Series. For me, I wanted to stand out. I wanted to shine. Obviously, when I was younger, I said some stuff, you know, the Mets fans didn't like very much, and you know, they let me hear about it. You know, from then on to the end of my career, we got forty thousand people yelling your given name at one time, and you make a right turn at first base or walk back to the dugout after striking out, they let you hear about it. So you want to make sure that you are motivated enough to make enough left turns to shut them out from the time during the the game. But Shay was definitely one of my favorites. Obviously, playing in Denver, where you can hit the ball, you know, five hundred feet easily. I always used to love playing in Houston, US and the Astros had a really good run there for a while. So those were three of my favorites.

00:19:19
Speaker 3: Okay, well, I mean Denver doesn't count because I mean that was like every hitter loved Denver, So.

00:19:23
Speaker 4: That was okay.

00:19:24
Speaker 3: Now, before before Kraft gets to his video, we mentioned Freddy Freeman. I played with Freddy after he retired, and so I think you started him and then I hope that I finished him off as a product and got him to where he was. I mean, I wasn't near the influence you were on him. But listen, every day he wore a shirt and it was the Old battle Axe and it was a Chipper Jones and it said the Old battle Axe. How did he carry that over to LA And where the heck did that nickname come from?

00:19:46
Speaker 2: You?

00:19:47
Speaker 3: Because no one I never heard anyone calling. And then Freddie every day had the Old battle Axe. Sure did he'd wear.

00:19:53
Speaker 2: Well, I think it was just just a nickname that they give the old guys. You know, I came right there at the end. We had a we had a bunch of young guys and you know, I would try and you know, throw my cloud around every once in a while and be like, shut up, you old battle axe, you know, like you're on the way out anyway.

00:20:14
Speaker 1: So it just it kind of stuck.

00:20:16
Speaker 2: But uh yeah, Freddy had that that uniform that had or that shirt that had my all my stats, my career stats on the back of it, and I really think that he kind of used it, uses it for motivation. He's like, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna eclipse all those numbers. So if I can be an influence, either directly or indirectly, that.

00:20:39
Speaker 1: Helps him, you know, have something to shoot for. Then I think he's he's uh, he said it in the right direction.

00:20:47
Speaker 3: All right. Obviously you're gonna have some commentary as we go over this video because this video is no no audio, so we can talk about it. But your battle axe face was cut, was going out, you were going out, You're at second, there's two outs here, and this is what happens.

00:21:04
Speaker 1: Oh oh my goodness. Yes, that was.

00:21:14
Speaker 2: The last thing that I wanted to see when I was rounding third, was you know, six', five.

00:21:20
Speaker 1: What are you right? There about two fifty to sixty right? THERE i, mean and And.

00:21:27
Speaker 2: I'm thinking to, myself, MAN i hope this throat doesn't take him up the, line.

00:21:32
Speaker 1: And sure's you, know crap it sure.

00:21:35
Speaker 2: Did took him right up the, line AND i Had you can SEE i have nowhere to, go LIKE i can't if IF i go around him looking at busting up my knee. Again and trust, ME i did not want contact was with a freight train like. That BUT i you, KNOW i did the BEST i. Could kudos to ek for for hanging onto. IT i Know halliday wasn't happy with me WHEN i WHEN i bowled over his, catcher but he.

00:22:04
Speaker 3: Was he was cussing up a storm at. You he was cussing up a storm at. You but this is WHAT i tell everybody. About people are always, like, oh, MAN i remember when you got crushed By chip or not like not big home RUN i hit or anything like. That they're, like remember you got hit My. Chipper AND i always, said they're, like what do you remember from? US i remember the fact that you played the next. Day the next day was a day, game and you, played and at forty years, old we talk about load. Management to, me that's all you need to know About.

00:22:30
Speaker 1: Chipper. Jones, well thank, you. BUDDY i appreciate. THAT i know my shoulder hurt for like.

00:22:35
Speaker 2: Sometime, luckily luckily you, know played through. It but obviously just one of those. Moments i've seen it come up on my timeline every once in a while AND i get a chuckle BECAUSE i couldn't even see home.

00:22:48
Speaker 1: Plate, man it was like covered.

00:22:49
Speaker 3: Up so, wait was that the same game you hit the home run OFF pap with cratch? Catching is that like the same game you were, like man, too just on the.

00:22:59
Speaker 1: Split it was a different, one different. Game that's the good.

00:23:04
Speaker 3: Stuff that's when you know you have a lot of memories when you're, like oh, no that was a different. One, sorry another different walk off.

00:23:11
Speaker 4: Home we're sorry.

00:23:12
Speaker 5: Deal uh, Well, timber this was. Awesome really glad we got some time with. You thank you for joining. Us enjoying the holidays with the big, family.

00:23:19
Speaker 1: Right thanks, guys enjoyed talking to. You same to. Y'all