Chipper Jones reflects on Bobby Cox, Triple-A brawl on 'Flippin' Bats'

By Ben Verlander
FOX Sports MLB Analyst

As a kid, I was a huge Atlanta Braves fan. I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, 15 minutes away from the Braves’ Triple-A site, and I went to games often. And when I wasn’t at that park, I was home watching the Braves every night.

My favorite player was Chipper Jones. And this week on “Flippin’ Bats,” I had the pleasure of welcoming the one-and-only, Hall of Famer Chipper Jones.

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For me, this episode stands out among the rest. The combination of my childhood memories paired with all the incredible stories he told — I was in tears laughing for the majority of the conversation.

Two of the stories he told have had me laughing ever since.

The first involved legendary manager Bobby Cox. Cox is known for a couple of things, notably being a great manager and getting ejected from games — a lot.

When I asked Jones his favorite Cox ejection story, I could see in his eyes that one immediately came to mind.

“This one involved John Smoltz,” he said. “I was playing third base, and Brett Boone came sliding into the base. He was out. He was originally safe, but he slid past the bag. Well, as the umpire slid over to make a call, Smoltz, who was backing up the throw, came charging in to say, ‘Hey, he slid off the bag.’

“Well, they stepped on each other’s feet, but it was portrayed as Smoltz bumped the umpire. He turns around and throws him out of the game. It was the first inning of the first game of the series.

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“Next thing you know, Bobby comes waddling out there, and he’s barking like an old bulldog. They exchanged barks at each other for a second, and the umpire came up with some lame excuse for why he wasn’t in position to see that he came off the bag and why he threw Smoltz out of the game.

“Bobby looks him directly in the eyes and says, ‘Hunter, you wouldn’t make a pimple on your daddy’s ass.’ That is going to get you thrown out of the game 100 times out of 100, and he and Smoltz sat next to each other for the rest of that game. Boone and I just stood there covering up our faces and laughing.”

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The next story involved a massive brawl he got into with the Richmond Braves in Triple-A. Jones set the scene for what led to the benches clearing and then took it away from there.

“Both teams cleared the benches. It spills out over into the backstop. They got some stinkin’ BIG boys on the team,” he said. “They got [Jim] Thome, they got Manny [Ramirez], they got big Sam Horn, they got some football boys on that team.

“Well, I go diving into the pile, and the next thing I know, my face is pressed up against the backstop netting. This guy has me by the throat, and I can’t even see who it is, and he whispers in my ear and says, ‘You done?’ and I replied, ‘It appears so,’ and turns out that was Jim Thome grabbing me by the neck.

“The funniest thing about it is that my parents were sitting in the third row watching all this. I looked at my mom, and if you could’ve seen the look of horror on my Mom’s face, it was priceless.”

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When a Hall of Famer starts sharing stories from days past, I could sit there and listen for hours and hours. That happened with Chipper Jones, my favorite player growing up, and I wish our conversation could’ve gone on forever.

Ben Verlander is an MLB analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the “Flippin’ Bats” podcast. Verlander was an All-American at Old Dominion University before he joined his brother, Justin, in Detroit as a 14th-round pick of the Tigers in 2013. He spent five years in the Tigers organization. Follow him on Twitter @BenVerlander.