Saturday, November 19, 2005

For love of the game

It's rare these days to actually see players in professional sports actually play and conduct their careers with sportsmanship. I found the NBA's, or was it MLB's, ad campaign "I love this game" quite humorous, always feeling that "...if the money's right!" should be should be mumbled next under the player's breath.

With loyalty and sportmanship at an all-time low in sports, I am happy to see one player forget about the millions of dollars they are about to receive, and think about what's best for their team. The player I speak of is Chipper Jones. He has stated it throughout his career that he work cut his salary if the team needs more extra cash to make certain trades or deals, and now he is backing up his word by cutting a hole in his wallet. When I had first heard him make such claims a while back, I had always felt a little reserved, mostly because such loyalty is unheard of, this being the true test. "Oh sure, Right, well we will just have to wait and see about that.", figuring a few more years down the road might change his mind once he's making the big bucks, but no. He has stuck to his word and done what is best for the team.

It would be great if this trend spread throughout the league, and throughout all sports, unfortunately I believe it may be too late with the T.O./Rosenhaus generation of greed in full force. But regardless, I applaud Chipper's loyalty, and wish to see other players to follow suit.

"Grape! . . . or maybe Cherry, cause I like Cherry too, . . . but they're both favorites, only if I had to choose, I'd choose Grape, cause it's a little more favorite . . . but they're both good . . . they're both good!"

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Look a little more beneath the surface. Chipper is just doing this to throw people off.

With the new MLB drug policy going into effect this year, he needed some good headlines to act as a buffer before the hammer comes down on the Braves organization.

That or he just wanted to be in the news because he's not the top dog anymore since the other Jones stepped up. Chipper's vanity is causing him to do outrageous things with his contract just to let people know he was still on the team.

Hopefully he will keep his spot on the lineup this year and be the weak spot in the infield and on the lineup.

zachary said...

kyle the comedian.

when are you taking your act on the road?

Nathanfooism said...

it’s blasphemy to even hint that chipper is the all-time face of the braves. chipper was a good baseball player, but not as good as dale murphy. and let’s not even talk about off the field…where chipper committed adultery with more than one woman and had a child with some crackwhore who he wasnt married to. of course what do you expect when the manager of the team beats his wife. GGggoOoooO BRAVES!

zachary said...

ha, and nate could be your opening act.

murphy was a great player, but he is not the all-time face of the Braves. Neither is Chipper, I think Mr. Aaron will be holding that title for a while. But if you had to define a team by one current player, Chipper would be that player for the Braves, and everyone knows that (except for two people who pretend to thrive on being stubborn).

Chipper will be considered a great, just as Dale Murphy is, with the same status coming for Smoltz and Andruw, and probably a few others too.

Nathanfooism said...

i dont open for anyone dude. im the closing act. kyle is just decent at faking humor. you know a wannabe.