It has become as rare as a week going by without some sort of story about a past pastor of an Obama attended church, and it’s becoming rarer by the minute. It’s the unusual case of a star athlete spending his entire career in one city with one team, and being the consummate professional while doing so. In many respects, Tom Glavine is about as close as you can get to such a story, and even he spent a handful of years away from his original club (with their archrival no less) before returning home. The fact that ultimately, Glavine won’t hardly even be remembered as ever having played for the Mets, but ultimately will likely be thought of as a “Braves lifer” further illustrates the rarity of a player spending his entire career on one team. What’s even less likely to occur is for that player to be a Hall of Famer. What’s even more incredibly scarce is having TWO such players on one roster. Meet John Smoltz and Chipper Jones.

Much has been made of John Smoltz’s stellar career in the past few days thanks to his 3,000^th strikeout that he recorded earlier this week. There’s not much need to delve too deeply into his accomplishments. We know, 200 wins, 150 saves, one of the greatest postseason pitchers of all-time, five times finishing 7^th or higher in Cy Young voting, five All-Star appearances and three times finishing in the top 20 of MVP voting (pretty impressive for a pitcher). He’s the ONLY member of the 3,000 strikeout / 100 save club, and he’s had all of one season since his rookie year where his E.R.A topped 4.00 (which came in 1994, when he lost most of the 2^nd half of the year, which is notable because in the early 90s Smoltz was known for his second half prowess). Not to mention there is the fact he’s taken less money to stay in Atlanta, and he’s done things that were against his personal preference because it was better for the team. He’s the ultimate professional, a sure-fire Hall of Famer, and the quintessential “Braves lifer”. Enough about him though.

Since 1995 there has been one constant in the Braves lineup, and that’s been number 10 in the middle of the order, as in Larry Wayne Jones Jr., a.k.a. Chipper. Chipper’s career certainly got off to in auspicious start. He entered spring training in 1994 ready to become the Braves primary shortstop, only to have a freak base running incident at first base in an exhibition game result in a torn ACL and delay his arrival to “The Show” for a year. Things couldn’t have worked out better for the life long Braves fan.

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