Chipper Jones has a flair for the dramatic – commemorates his own bobble head night with two home runs.<\/p><\/div>\n

Last night (August 16, 2012), Chipper Jones \u2013 in his farewell season \u2013 again showed the keen sense of timing that has part of his Hall of Fame career.\u00a0\u00a0 In front of 33,157 fans, gathered for Chipper Jones Bobble Head Night, he became the thirty-eighth major leaguer to have a multi-homer game after reaching age 40, going two-for-four with three RBIs and collecting his 2,700 career hit, 466^{th<\/sup> homer and 1,614 RBI.\u00a0 It was, appropriately, also Jones\u2019 40th<\/sup> career multi-home game.<\/p>\n}

After the game, Braves manager Freddie Gonzalez indicated Jones\u2019 historic performance should not come as a surprise because Jones has the ability to \u201craise his game\u201d when the situation arises.\u00a0 In post-game interviews, Jones said he was especially motivated by his personal bobble head night, wanting to \u201cmake a splash and bring people to their feet.\u201d\u00a0 That he did, indeed.<\/p>\n

(For more on Jones\u2019 farewell season, see the BBRT posts of March 25 and April 25.)<\/p>\n

Other \u201cforty-plus\u201d players to recently join the multi-homer-game club are Jim Thome and Jason Giambi, who accomplished the feat in 2011.\u00a0 Thome, in fact, had two two-homer games last season, while Giambi joined an even more exclusive club \u2013 on May 19, 2011, he became only the fourth player past the age of forty to hit three home runs in a single game.\u00a0 Giambi joined Babe Ruth (May 25, 1935); Stan Musial (July 8, 1962); and Reggie Jackson (September 18, 1986) in this more exclusive fraternity. \u00a0Jones has a long way to match the king of the 40-year-old multi-homer club.\u00a0 Hank Sauer \u2013 who hit a total of 288 home runs (1941-59) – had eight multi-homer games after passing the forty mark.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Chipper Jones marches on to a stellar final season, hitting .315 with 12 homers and 53 RBI (in 76 games) for a Braves team that is twenty games over .500, trails NL East leader Washington by just four games and sits atop the NL wild card race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night (August 16, 2012), Chipper Jones \u2013 in his farewell season \u2013 again showed the keen sense of timing that has part of his Hall of Fame career.\u00a0\u00a0 In front of 33,157 fans, gathered for Chipper Jones Bobble Head Night, he became the thirty-eighth major leaguer to have a multi-homer game after reaching age […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n