Braves legend Chipper Jones joined the For The Win podcast on Monday morning on behalf of Delta and the airline’s season-long Delta Dugout fan-loyalty initiative. Audio from the full podcast is embedded below.
Jones weighed in on the on-field brawl between the Rangers and Blue Jays on Sunday, the escalation of a feud that started with Jose Bautista’s emphatic bat-flip in Game 5 of the ALDS. In what looked certain to be Bautista’s last plate appearance in his club’s seven regular-season contest against Texas this season, Rangers reliever Matt Bush plunked the slugger with an up-and-in fastball. Bautista then slid hard into Texas infielder Rougned Odor on an ensuing play at second base. Odor objected, and the two got into a fistfight highlighted by Odor landing a clean right cross to Bautista’s face and both benches clearing.
“I certainly see both sides of the fight here,” Jones told USA TODAY Sports. “I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought the bat-flip was excessive. There are people who enjoy homers that don’t tend to ruffle feathers. I kind of felt the same way Texas did, that the bat-flip was sort of excessive. People don’t forget. I can certainly attest to bad blood bleeding over into the next year… and baseball’s going to police itself. You can sit here and try to legislate slides, slides at second, collisions at home plate, levy fines on people and what not, but baseball’s going to police itself.
“I don’t have a problem with the Rangers waiting until the last at-bat to do it, just for the simple fact that if I’m a manager, I don’t want it to mar seven games… and potentially hurt a bunch of people over the course of seven games. Obviously Bautista didn’t like it, slid hard into second — I don’t have a problem with the slide, but in this day and age, where people try to legislate the game down to the point of tee-ball rules, it’s against the rules. Because it was Bautista, because it was an illegal slide, apparently he tried to slide into the wrong second baseman. To his credit, Odor landed, Bautista staggered, but he didn’t go down.”
Jones also spoke about his own experiences in bench-clearing brawls and some of the typical protocol inside scrums. And he maintained that, though he understands players enjoying home runs in big spots, Bautista went too far in October.
“There are tons of instances where guys have enjoyed a home run, where they have been excited, where they have showed exuberance without showing up the other club,” Jones said. “And, you know, this was emphatic, it was in-your-face, it was excessive. The people who have never played the game, the people who merely sit and watch, it’s entertaining — yes, I understand it. But the people who play it, and the people who respect the game know that was excessive. And everybody who has played the game knew that at some point, the game was going to police itself. It happened yesterday. Unfortunately, you know, it was something you don’t want to see happen, but when the players police the game it’s going to happen from time to time.”
Jones, a future Hall of Famer, retired after the 2012 season, before Major League Baseball implemented rules to protect catchers from home-plate collisions and middle infielders from hard take-out slides on potential double plays. And the seven-time All-Star said the type of vitriol embodied by the Rangers and Blue Jays on Sunday, even if it went over the line, is ultimately good for baseball.
“I think it was kind of a shock to everybody, because we’re not used to seeing this anymore,” he said. “Quite frankly, I like it. I think the game is good and the game is fun when the players are levying the legislature and not the people up in the commissioner’s office.”
The podcast is available on Soundcloud and iTunes. Jones, now a special advisor to the Atlanta Braves, also discussed the team’s future and the bright spots on the roster during the club’s miserable 9-27 start to the 2016 season.
