A day after Dave O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Chipper Jones had said “I don’t know if I can make it through this year,” Jones has said he has no immediate intentions of hanging it up.
On Tuesday, Chipper told Mark Bowman of MLB.com that “it was tongue and cheek. I was kidding. I just got done playing eight innings with three at-bats. I was a little tired. I wasn’t by any means suggesting I couldn’t make it through the season. If I didn’t think that I could, I wouldn’t be out there.”
Jones apparently did not make his comments directly to the Braves beat writer and says that, though O’Brien has his direct number, he never called to confirm the quotes or look further into the issue. This according to a series of tweets by Chris Dimino (@chrisdimino), who covers the Braves for Atlanta’s 790 The Zone and has a close working relationship with Chipper.
Chipper also told Mark Bowman that “if there was any question about whether I could make it through the season or not, I would not have come back [to play this year]. I will not only make it through tomorrow, I will make it through this season with no problem.”
The surefire Hall of Famer has had nagging injuries his entire career and has missed significant time throughout his time with the Braves. As he nears his 40th birthday and occupies a significant portion of the Braves’ payroll, it is easy to see how such a quote, joke or not, could be taken out of context.
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