By John Clark
Bally Sports invited Hall of Famers Chipper Jones and John Smoltz to join Hall of Famer Tom Glavine and former Braves player and color commentator Jeff Francoeur in the broadcast booth for Thursday night’s game with the New York Mets and the results were epic.
Not only did the Braves battle back from deficits of 6-3, 9-5 and 10-6 to win on Ozzie Albies walk-off 3-run home run in the 10th inning, but the interaction and good-hearted needling, the old stories shared, and the insight into the game from men who played it at the highest level made it ‘Must See TV’.
Now I am biased because I bought a large satellite dish in the early 1980’s and have watched the Braves ever since. So, getting to watch these guys who I have followed for years talk baseball was tremendous.
Chipper is now a hitting instructor with the Braves and talked about how he was working with Austin Riley about staying inside the baseball and driving the ball to right-center field. Riley launched a 2-run homer to right-center in the 1st and batted 4-for-5 in the game. Another of his pupils, Marcel Ozuna, stayed behind the baseball and homered in the 5th inning.
Another Braves Hall of Famer, Greg Maddox, called into the booth in the 4th inning, and a video was played from Chipper’s 1st big league game in 1994 when the 6-foot-5 Jones plowed into the 6-foot Maddox chasing a pop-up that first baseman Fred McGriff was camped under. “I called my Dad and told him I was going back to Triple-A,” chuckled Jones. “I ran over the $10 million dollar man.”
Other highlights included the old Nike ‘Chicks dig the Long Ball’ commercial that featured Glavine and Maddox lifting weights and working out. Smoltz whined about not being in it, but he wasn’t under contract with Nike.
Chipper who always played well against the Mets, credited the abuse he received from New York fans for his success saying, “You listen to that before every game. They will get you focused,”
A video of Smoltz fielding a swinging bunt and tripping, tumbling and rolling trying to get to 1st base was another highlight. Smoltz brought his Silver Slugger Award trophy to the booth, and Glavine asked, “How many of those do you have John?” “One,” answered Smoltz. Chipper jumped in, “And you have how many Tom?” Four was the answer.
With no play-by-play man in the booth, the stars rotated innings on who would do the call on a home run. Francoeur had the call on 3 of the 5 homers, and imitated retired White Sox announcer ‘Hawk’ Harrelson’s “Put it on the Board.” Chipper had the call on Travis D’Arnaud’s homer in the 8th inning and imitated the Yankees’ John Sterling’s, “It is high, it is far, it is gone.”
Smoltz had the best home run call of the night on Albies’ game-winner saying simply, “That’ll do it! Start the buses.”
With the response that Bally Sports received for the broadcast, there is already talk of another one, possibly in August. Wouldn’t be surprised if some other teams didn’t try the same thing using some of there past stars.
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