If you want your son to grow up to be a professional baseball player, first go read Chipper Jones’ recent autobiography, “Ballplayer.” If nothing else, it will give you a greater appreciation for the price even the most talented and successful athletes pay.
I’ve followed baseball my entire life, but like most fans my knowledge is of the game itself. That’s gleaned from what the public sees: newspaper boxscores and TV broadcasts that create the mythical “national pastime.”
But underneath that there’s what the players really do. We have a dim understanding of that – never-ending travel, nightlife and the inevitable woes it brings, the toll of injuries – but most ballplayers live by an unwritten code not to talk about the details. Pitcher Jim Bouton broke that with 1970’s “Ball Four” and was hated by his peers for telling the truth about their womanizing and drug use.
Jones, the former National League MVP and Atlanta Braves legend, gives a modern look at those same issues. Give the self-described “redneck” credit for speaking plainly about all aspects of his life in and out of baseball, good or bad.
And his life has many lows, almost all of them self-inflicted. For example, Jones admits paying one of his mistresses to have an abortion. That’s reprehensible behavior, but how many men of wealth and power have done that in secret? Very few would bring it up in their autobiographies, which tend to gloss over their own faults and build up those of their rivals. Yet Jones doesn’t shy from mistakes, including two failed marriages, which were tabloid material back in the ‘90s. He also uses the language that ballplayers use. That makes it quite profane, so be warned, but we all know that’s how they really talk.
That frankness gives Jones credibility when he talks baseball because we know he’s shooting straight. And that’s the best part of the book. It gives insights of what a peer thinks about many of the players whom we have all watched: the Big 3 of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz, steroid-era sluggers like Barry Bonds and teammates from stars like Gary Sheffield to obscure middle relievers like Brad Clontz.
At the same time, it also chronicles what it’s like to go from a kid trained by his father, to highly recruited prospect who had legions of scouts at his high school games, to the blue collar world of sleeping on minor league buses, to The Show, to trying to stay there while battling injuries and aging. That’s a compelling story, and Jones tells it well (with the help of newspaper reporter Carroll Rogers Walton) without getting bogged down.
And at his heart, Jones seems like a likeable guy. The true son of the South, who seems to spend most of his time in retirement hunting, treats all his teammates well, despite different racial backgrounds, and there’s no doubt he loves baseball. And man could he do it well: .303 career batting average, 468 home runs and one of the sweetest swings of any switch hitter.
“Ballplayer” is worth a read, especially leading up to Chipper’s likely Hall of Fame induction in 2018.
