All-Diamond Team: Chipper Jones
In 2025, The Diamond hosts its 40th and final season of professional baseball in Richmond. Between the Richmond Braves from 1985-2008 and the Richmond Flying Squirrels since 2010, countless future major leaguers have taken the steps from the first base dugout onto The Diamond’s playing surface. Prior to the season,
In 2025, The Diamond hosts its 40th and final season of professional baseball in Richmond. Between the Richmond Braves from 1985-2008 and the Richmond Flying Squirrels since 2010, countless future major leaguers have taken the steps from the first base dugout onto The Diamond’s playing surface.
Prior to the season, fans voted for The All-Diamond Team, selecting one manager as well as 14 of their favorite players who have gone on to MLB stardom after suiting up for the R-Braves and Flying Squirrels.
We continue the announcement of the All-Diamond Team with the fans’ choice for third baseman, Chipper Jones.
Manager: Grady Little
Starting Pitcher: John Smoltz
Starting Pitcher: Tom Glavine
Starting Pitcher: Logan Webb
Relief Pitcher: Mike Stanton
Relief Pitcher: Hunter Strickland
Utility Player: Mark DeRosa
Catcher: Javy Lopez
First Baseman: Ryan Klesko
Second Baseman: Joe Panik
Third Baseman: Chipper Jones
Shortstop: TBA
Outfielder: TBA
Outfielder: TBA
Outfielder: TBA
Yes, Chipper Jones played shortstop when he was with the Richmond Braves. But for this list, primary major league positions were used.
Jones was the No. 1 overall pick by the Braves in the 1990 MLB Draft out of high school. Since the first MLB Draft in 1965, Jones is the only No. 1-overall pick to play for Richmond. The Braves only other first pick in the draft was Bob Horner in 1978 and he went straight to the majors.
After the draft, Jones spent the 1990 summer with Atlanta’s rookie-level Gulf Coast League team. After all of 1991 with Single-A Macon, he began 1992 with High-A Durham before a mid-season promotion to Double-A Greenville, a team that finished the year with 100 regular-season wins.
Entering 1993, Jones had climbed to the top spot on Baseball America’s prospect list.
With new manager Grady Little, the 1993 Richmond Braves were considered to be one of the best collections of prospects for a minor league team in a long time. The group was dubbed “The Great Eight,” and featured future major leaguers at every position on the field, including Jones, catcher Javy López, first baseman Ryan Klesko, second baseman Ramon Caraballo, third baseman José Oliva and outfielders Tony Tarasco, Melvin Nieves and Mike Kelly.
Jones started the season at 20 years old before turning 21 in April.
The 1993 R-Braves opened the season at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and powered their way to a 9-0 win on April 8.
Jones made his Triple-A debut batting third and playing short. Facing Brad Brink, he struck out his first at-bat. He reached base on a fielder’s choice in the sixth and scored on a homer by Klesko.
He picked up his first hit in the seventh inning with an infield single.
Richmond’s home opener was rained out that Saturday, so Jones made his official The Diamond debut in a doubleheader on Sunday, April 11. He went hitless in the first game, but worked a sixth-inning walk before scoring and brought in a run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth. He went 0-for-3 in the second game.
The R-Braves struggled through the first couple weeks of the season. Jones committed four errors at shortstop through the team’s first 10 games.
Before a game on April 16 at The Diamond, Jones and Nieves reportedly got into a fight in the dugout, leaving Jones with a knot on his forehead.
That same night, Jones hit his first Triple-A homer, a solo shot in the third inning.
Later in the month, Jones reportedly chipped his two front teeth when he threw his bat into the bat rack after a strikeout and the knob flew up and hit him in the mouth.
The night after a 90-minute procedure to fix his teeth, he had four hits and clubbed his second homer of the season in a win.
Jones surged at the plate as the season rolled into the middle of May, bumping his batting average to .336 with another four-hit game on May 17.
Defensively, Jones made highlight plays at shortstop, but also struggled with consistency. He committed 19 errors in his first 50 games, including three costly errors in a loss to the Tides on June 2.
After making nine errors in a 20-game stretch from the end of May through mid-June, he went more than 20 consecutive games without committing an error before being charged with three again in a loss to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on June 27.
At the plate, he kept hitting. By the end of June, Jones had seven homers and 30 RBIs in his first 140 at-bats.
On June 30, he was announced as one of Richmond’s four players selected for the Triple-A All-Star Game, along with Klesko, Lopez and reliever Bill Taylor. The Triple-A All-Star Game was held on July 14 at Albuquerque. Jones started at shortstop and hit an RBI single.
Right before the All-Star Break, Jones and the R-Braves faced rehabbing pitcher Roger Clemens in Pawtucket, who pitched two outs into the fourth inning and struck out eight batters.
Only two R-Braves put a ball in play fair against Clemens. Klesko flied out to the warning track. Jones hit a double off the center field wall.
When play resumed after the All-Star Break, Jones continued hitting. He hit a homer in each of his first two games back, his fourth and fifth of the season. He hit .413 with three homers over a 13-game hit streak in July.
On August 18 at Columbus, Jones hit a homer off the “I” in his name on the scoreboard, his 10th of the season. He hit his 11th the following day.
On August 23, Jones pitched up his 160th hit of the season with a first-inning single, passing the former franchise season record of 159 hits set by Bill Robinson in 1966.
Jones was named the International League Rookie of the Year and was given the Tommie Aaron Memorial Award as Richmond’s most valuable player.
The R-Braves met the Charlotte Knights in the opening round of the International League postseason. Richmond and Charlotte were the two best teams in the International League that year and had a heated rivalry.
On June 17, the two teams cleared the benches at The Diamond after a pitcher threw behind Klesko.
In that brawl, Jones tangled with Charlotte’s Jim Thome up against the backstop netting behind home plate, a story he told when they were both inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.
Richmond and Charlotte cleared the benches again near the end of the regular season, this time after Oliva was hit by a pitch.
The Knights ended up winning the series, ending the R-Braves’ season.
Jones finished the 1993 season batting .325 with 13 homers and 89 RBIs. At shortstop, he committed 43 errors in 129 games.
He was called up by Atlanta for the first time and made his MLB debut for Atlanta in San Diego on Sept. 11. After missing the 1994 season with an injury, Jones became a regular in the big leagues in 1995, playing third base for the Braves.
Jones went on to be selected as a National League All-Star eight times and was the 1999 NL MVP. He was inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.