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by Digger

Chipper Jones connected for career homer #400 against Florida Marlins pitcher Ricky Nolasco in the sixth inning Thursday evening. Jones has enjoyed an exceptional career while wearing Atlanta Braves colors. His 15th season and could turn out to be his finest. Jones 400th homer raised his major league leading batting average to an astonishing .418 (previous career high of .337 in '07). Last month, Manny Ramirez connected for #500 and Ken Griffey, Jr. remains one short of 600.

Switch hitting Chipper has been collecting headlines all season long as he flirts with becoming baseball's first .400 hitter since Ted Williams (.406) in 1941. Jones has been a model of consistency during his 15 seasons:

Career .310 batting average
20 or more home runs every year since 1994
100+ RBI 9 times (including 8 consecutive)
100+ RS 8 times
.400+ OBA 10 seasons
.500+ SLG 11 seasons
100+ strike outs/season NEVER
1999 NL MVP
92 post season games

The quest for .400 has seldom been approached. Rod Carew (.388), George Brett (.390), Ichiro Suzuki (.372), Tony Gwynn (.394) had their shots and fell short. 2008 is still young. Chippers swing has been extremely smooth and baseball's must appear to be larger than beach balls.

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