The year was 1995. It all started in 5th grade, when someone in the Longleaf Elementary school cafeteria showed me a baseball card of David Justice, right fielder for the Atlanta Braves. I then went home and noticed that there was a Braves game on TBS, so I looked for David Justice. Found him. It was the greatest thing to put two and two together. And then it happened. A pop fly on the infield and the third baseman and the pitcher were going for it. They then ran into each other, missed the catch, and both fell on their butts. After the pitcher gave the third baseman a tongue lashing, they put a close up of the third baseman - Chipper Jones, rookie - and I was IN LOVE.
Yeah, I was in 5th grade. But the Braves won the World Series that year, hooking me in even further. This did not last a year, or even two years, this lasted up until the time I realized this could affect my real life "boyfriend/girlfriend" situation. LOL. I kept handwritten stats, pictures, baseball cards, news articles, tshirts, receipts from the tshirts, "love" books that I made myself, I even cut words out of magazines that REMINDED me of Chipper and the Braves. I kept peanuts off a Delta plane (Braves charter Delta and I thought "he has bound to have these same peanuts before." When games were on, I refused to go shopping or out to dinner with my parents. I literally cried when we went on vacation because I knew I would miss games. When TBS did not have the game on, I would listen to it on the radio. I KNEW every detail of Chipper's life and I shared the knowledge with my family. I was sick I tell you, SICK! Like with a fever maybe. My parents took us to a game and at that point in my life, I imagined THAT was what heaven was like.
Eventually I knew it was time to give it up a bit. I remember crying when I started to realize I needed to back off a bit. I eventually stopped watching EVERY GAME, although I did keep up and made sure they won. I started to show more interest in guys my age and in my same city.... lol. I was in high school and it was time to let it go a little bit and be a part of things in high school. I have never ever stopped loving the Braves though, or Chipper. Never have! I am still a huge fan. I am still going to cry when he retires. It still hurts when the Braves lose. Some things... well... they never change. I am super excited about baseball season starting soon. And I am sooo excited that I married a man that can "play along" and watches all the games with me. He really gets into it and is ready to go to some games this year.
I thought I would share this story because at times, it is a story I try to deny. It is kinda embarrassing to think about how freakin wrapped up I was with this craziness. And no matter what TJ says, I am not even close to being as bad as I was (he did not know me then). My parents and brother can vouch for that. With baseball season looming, and me keeping a blog, I might as well give this story up, that way everybody knows where I am coming from when I post things.
PS- Chipper was on the sidelines of a couple of Falcons games this year (Ravens and Saints). My brother said he thought about talking to him, but he had his family there with him and did not know what to say to him since he knew so much about him. He weirded out his pals because of how much he knew about Chipper. lmbo!!!! Mission Accomplished!
Omg, too freaking weird! I, too, was obsessed with Chipper!!! Good thing we didn't know each other then. LoL! I was actually set to interview chipper when I was in 8th grade, but he cancelled last minute and I got to interview Ryan Klesko. I was so over Chipper that day and onto Ryan... Hahaha!!! Kevin actually played baseball at Stetson and Chippers dad was his coach.
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