Back to the Future
Back to the Future
West Palm Beach, Florida -- They share a surname, a blue-chip pedigree and some socks. Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones both dress the part: Uniform pants worn knee-high and blue sock stirrups ankle-low, just like players of long ago. They look like throwbacks, modern-day ballplayers in old-time hose.
Chipper, of course, is a certified throwback. In the way he talks, moves, plays the game. In an uncanny resemblance to the young Mickey Mantle, especially when he leans slightly left on his home run trot, just as the Mick once did. "I get ragged about that all the time," Chipper said, laughing.
With Andruw, it's way too soon to tell. So far, the only thing throwback about him is his socks. Yet this spring, the Joneses are throwbacks of another ilk.
Throwbacks to the future.
Two young guys who harken back to the mid-50s, when the Braves were in Milwaukee and the club's long-range future seemed assured with a sweet-swinging third baseman starting his third big-league season and a gifted, all-around kid outfielder.
Eddie Mathews. Hank Aaron. Both future Hall of Famers, together the game's most potent home run-hitting tandem. Mathews was 20 when he took over at third in 1952, the Braves' last season in Boston. In '54, Aaron was a 20-year-old rookie left fielder before shifting to right in '55.
Sound familiar? Chipper's in his third year as the Braves third baseman. Andruw, who won't start barring a trade, turns 20 on April 23. Of course, this isn't yet a case of old Milwaukee revisited. Still, there are some intriguing similarities.
Manager Bobby Cox on Chipper and Andruw: "You didn't have to be a great scout to project them as major-leaguers."
"Hank and Eddie were both great talents. You could just look at them and see," said Ernie Johnson, the long-time Braves announcer who pitched on those Aaron-Mathews teams. "After two or three years, I think everyone realized, 'Hey we've got two guys that might hit as many homers as Gehrig and Ruth."
They hit more. Before they were done, Aaron and Mathews won two pennants and the 1957 World Series. They combined for 1,267 home runs, Aaron surpassing Babe Ruth with 755, Mathews hitting 512.
Fast forward to the future. As a rookie, Chipper helped Atlanta win the '95 World Series. Last year, he was the NL's starting third baseman in the All-Star Game. Last season, Andruw jumped from Class A to the major leagues in two months. In October, he supplanted Mantle as the youngest player to homer in a World Series.
"Chipper looks like a young Eddie Mathews to me," Cox said. "Very similar face, just his mannerisms. Both strong as heck."
Chipper also shares Mathews' passion to play and eagerness to lead. "Eddie was a team leader," Johnson said. "He played every day. And by God, you'd better. If you were out of the lineup, he'd confront you. So you had to have a good reason."
So far, Andruw is quiet and reserved in the clubhouse, understandable for a teenager from Curacao. And much like a young Aaron. "Aaron didn't say much," Johnson said. "You couldn't tell whether he went 4-for-4 or 0-for-4. He showed very little emotion, a man of few words. But he could make spectacular plays and make them look routine. He glided around, ran very effortlessly. I'm trying to think who runs like him. Maybe Andruw."
The 6-foot Aaron played at 180 pounds. Much of his power emanated from extraordinary strong wrists. Here's Braves hitting coach Clarence Jones on the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Andruw's power source: "He's got great hands, strong wrists. Great bat speed. You don't have to be a big guy to hit for power...He's blessed with power to all fields. You see lots of guys with power who can't use the whole field. He can."
So could Aaron, particularly in Milwaukee. "Few people remember that," Johnson said. "When he came down to Atlanta, he started pulling the ball more."
Fast forward to this spring, where Chipper is nursing a sore left quadricep and Andruw has struggled at times. Not to worry. "He's a five-star player," Chipper said. "He can hit, hit for average, run, field and throw with the best in the business. It remains to be seen how he's going to handle the pressure. He's 19; he's going to make some mistakes. But from what I've seen so far, he looks like he's ready."
He looks...familiar. They both do. Throwbacks to the future.
Diamonds from the rough
They come from different worlds, one a tiny island in the Caribbean, the other a hamlet in rural Florida. Yet, in many significant ways, Andruw Jones and Chipper Jones are similar. Both are blessed with rare natural ability. Both have fathers who played baseball and passed a love of the game along to sons who idolized and emulated their dads. Both come from strong, nuturing families. Both are proud, driven men. And, with all due respect to baseball's best pitching rotation, both are the long-range future of the Atlanta Braves.
By Jack Wilkinson, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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