Chipper Jones: ‘Nobody’s going to feel bad for the Atlanta Braves’

Atlanta Braves legend Chipper Jones experienced a lot of winning during his tenure with the club. In 16 of his 19 years in the majors, the Braves reached the postseason. Because of that huge run of success that started in the mid-90s, Jones doesn’t expect much sympathy from outsiders now that the Braves are the worst team in baseball.

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“Nobody is going to feel sorry for the Atlanta Braves because of the fact we’ve had it so good for so long,” he tells Yahoo Sports.

(AP) Jones not only talks about the current state of the Braves, but also covers a wide range of topics during the latest installment of the StewPod Interview series. Jones appears on behalf of the Delta Dugout program. He is one of the new ambassadors for the project, joining current major leaguers Noah Syndergaard and Didi Gregorius.

The program, which encourages fans to engage with their clubs in order to win prizes, is giving away a chance for one fan from each participating team to play catch with a baseball superstar during 2017 spring training.

Though Jones admits the Braves have fallen on hard times, he believes the club will get back to its winning ways soon.

“I can promise you, the days of us being the bottom of the barrel aren’t going to last very long,” he says.

With that said, Jones also believes he might be able to give the Braves some better production on the field right now. When asked whether he thinks he could match current Braves’ third baseman, who have just one home run on the season, the 44-year-old expressed confidence in his abilities.

“I would like to think yes, but I’ve been away from the game for four years,” he says. “The ball still jumps off the bat pretty good.”

Don’t expect to see Jones take the field any time soon, though. While he can still hit, he has no desire to get himself into baseball shape.

(AP) “I can’t imagine going out into my weight room and embarking upon getting myself ready to play Major League Baseball again,” he says.

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Jones also discusses his preseason World Series pick of the New York Mets. His choice may have ruffled some feathers among the Atlanta faithful, but Jones says he’s more interested in being honest than being a homer.

“When I’m asked a question, if you want me to be honest, you’re going to respect my answer,” he says. “If you want me to tow the party line, you’re not going to like my answer.”

As you may have expected, he’s still sticking with New York. It’s tough to argue with that given the team’s strong top of the rotation and recent postseason success.

He also gives his take on Bryce Harper’s suspension for swearing at the ump.

“I can promise you that, probably on a nightly basis, [the umpires] hear that kind of language,” he says. “I was certainly not above doing it.”

Jones even doles out some veteran advice, suggesting Harper cover his mouth with his hand or glove next time so that the cameras don’t pick it up.

Given the youth in the organization, Braves fans hope that’s the type of veteran leadership Jones is giving to the youngsters with the club right now. He is, after all, one of the club’s special assistants.

In that sense, Jones is bit more invested in the team’s current rebuild than the normal former player turned franchise legend. While that probably means he takes the team’s losses harder than most former players, it’s tough to feel too bad for him. He did a lot of winning during his playing days.

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