Braves greats and analysts discuss Chipper Jones' career as the third baseman has his No. 10 retired and is inducted into the franchise's Hall of Fame.
"The names you talk about when your talk about Chipper Jones in all of baseball are pretty remarkable names. You look at some of the great switch-hitters of all time, Eddie Murray, Mickey Mantle.
"To have my number retired by the Braves is just an incredible honor and to now have a player as great as Chipper and what he's meant to the Braves organization, it's a very special moment for all of us.
"The first thing I think about is his clutch hitting, which is a remarkable thing for a player to be known as, a clutch hitter. He has knowledge of hitting and knowledge of the swing, his ability to change his when he needed to, but to help others.
"His ability to get better and better and play unit he was 40. In this day and age especially, but any time, when you're able to play past your late 30s and remain productive is just an incredible thing. ... He just got better and better and used his experience to keep his productivity at a high level.
"The thing that I think is one of the best compliments is when he was retired and clubs called him up and said ‘Hey, we're interested to see if you still want to play.' I'm sure the Braves as well said ‘Are you sure?' That's a remarkable career."
"I think obviously with Greg and John and Bobby and myself and now Chipper, I think it's pretty representative of that era and that players were to a certain extent the core of the team that helped the organization have the success that it had.
"Chipper is obviously very representative of that. He's certainly been a huge part of the success that we had in the '90s and then beyond and then being the face of the franchise for such a long time. It's pretty cool to be a part of a group of players that are having their numbers retired and after Chipper you've got to look around now and you wonder when the next one's going to be and it might be a while. I think that just speaks to the group of guys that we had and the success that we had as a team.
"(Coming up), I thought he was a good player and lived up to the billing that he had. He was obviously a No. 1 draft pick, very highly touted. A lot of people were talking about him well before he got to the big leagues and ultimately what he was going to mean to the team when he did get to the big leagues.
"I think when you're a guy who's in the big leagues and at the time and you hear about these minor league guys, you do it with a little bit of skepticism. It's kind of that ‘OK, we'll see when he gets here,' kind of thing and certainly from the get-to, Chipper showed a great ability to hit. He showed obviously athleticism and really would have and should have made the team coming out of spring training (in 1994) had he not hurt himself and blew out his knee."
"It was an incredible time (as teammates). You realize after about eight years, I would say, the special players that you were playing with and what they were capable of doing. At that point you're just trying to do as much as you can and win championships. You're going every year ... you don't have time to realize any of that other than what's at hand.
"(Jones) was wiry, obviously bat speed from both sides of the plate and originally a shortstop, they moved him over to third base pretty quickly. I remember the knee injury (in 1994), which was such a bad break and he came back from it and never looked back, really."
"When I was with the Cubs you just knew that when the game was on the line, if you were playing the Braves, you just knew that somehow, someway, it would get to him and you'd have to get him out to decide the end of the game. It seemed that way when the Braves were playing the Padres. It seemed that way with the Braves when they were playing the Mets.
"When you talk about the great guys in the game, they have a way of impacting things all the way up to the final at-bat of the ballgame and more often than not, Chipper was a guy that was going to do something that was going to give the Braves a chance to win.
"(When I) came to Atlanta, he was still in the prime of his career. He was the anchor of the lineup, he was the No. 3 hitter, the team's best hitter, the focal point of the offense and when you look at the numbers, he proved to be that.
"The Big Three (Glavine, Smoltz and Greg Maddux) were the focal point of the pitching staff, quite obviously, but Chipper was always the guy when you looked at their starting nine, you worried about ‘OK, how are we going to get guys out around him so he can't decide the game?' That was more often than not a losing proposition.
"Consistency (stood out the most). Just the steady, consistent, exceptional performance. The guy never had any bad steaks that I remember. His bad streaks were something most hitters would say ‘Hey, I'm doing OK.' I think that stands out more than anything was that he was a tough out every time he went to the plate.
"This day and age, I think (his staying in Atlanta his entire career) is very special. He was highly touted as a No. 1 pick in the draft. There were high expectations and he lived up to those expectations and eventually exceeded them. The organization and the city ought to feel great about the fact that it took him No. 1 and he proved to be a great player, a Hall of Fame player. I don't know how much more special that can be then to have that hope fulfilled. When you pick a guy first, you hope that they're a good player. He was all that and more."
"If you needed a hit, he could get it for you. You always wanted to see him come to the plate (in clutch situations) and that's what stood out for me. It wasn't just the Mets. A lot of people mention, and rightly so, that he was a Mets killer, but there were other teams too that didn't want to face Chipper with the game on the line."
