Jun 09 2009 07:41 AM
...about anything Chipper Jones has to say.
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CHIPPER SLAMS INTO CITI FIELD
By BART HUBBUCH
June 9, 2009 --
Longtime Mets nemesis Chipper Jones did so much damage to the Mets' old ballpark that he named one of his sons "Shea" in honor of it.
It's safe to say the Atlanta slugger won't be making any similar tributes to Citi Field. Jones ripped the Mets' new park in a recent radio interview, blasting the decision to make it play so big.
"It is the biggest park that I have ever played in in my life," Jones told the show "Ripken Baseball" on Sirius XM Radio. "It is a huge ballpark to center and right center and right field. You know, I actually feel sort of sorry for some of the guys out there because their power numbers are really going to take a hit; guys like David Wright, [Carlos] Beltran, [Carlos] Delgado. The days of them hitting 35, 40 homers -- they're over."
Jones also recalled a telling moment from his first visit to Citi Field last month, when the Braves took two of three.
"I juiced the ball just right of center field, as hard as The Good Lord can let me hit a ball, and it hit midways up the center-field wall for a double," he said. "And every time there was a long fly-out or a double that hit off the wall or something, David Wright would run by me and go, 'Nice park.'
"[Wright] is a little frustrated with it, but on the flip side of that, you got a guy like Jose Reyes who's liable to hit, in a healthy year, 25, 30 triples in that ballpark, because if you split a gap you can run forever." |
I like the big park. I like that a homerun becomes an event rather than a frequent occurence. I like the triples and I like that the Mets will have to be built on pitching, speed and defense.