Who's at Third?

This is a question that I have almost never had to ask in my entire life since I have been watching baseball as a Braves fan.  Other than the instances when he was injured or playing left field, since the time I came to know what baseball was, there has been one man to occupy the hot corner for the Atlanta Braves, Chipper Jones.  However, today I find myself having to ask this question because today, my favorite player of all-time will not be in the line-up for the Braves.  After a magnificent career, this is the first time in 18 years the Chipper Jones is not in a braves uniform.  My love for the game and its beauty is something that I cannot describe, but I know tonight as the Braves take the field, as thrilled as I am to have baseball back, it will be a bitter sweet moment for me.

Ever since I was little Chipper Jones was my favorite play and whatever team I played on I tried my best to wear #10.  I admired the skill and toughness that he played with day in and day out.  Many of my best memories as a young boy are spending summer nights with my granddad as we watched the Braves play.  Often times they played well, other times they played terrible, but no matter what we always had Chipper to look to.  He is arguably the best 3rd baseman to ever put on a uniform and is surely a first-ballot Hall of Famer.  

The Braves will move on though and eventually the #10 will hang from the top of Turner Field along with the other greats in Braves history.  Whenever someone brings up the position of third base though, for the rest of my life, my mind will go to one number and one name, #10 Chipper Jones.

"Chipper just looks like a ballplayer, acts like a ballplayer, plays like a ballplayer; He is a ballplayer!"-Derek Jeter

-H.M. Mathis