They met in the World Series in 1995, when the Atlanta Braves faced the Cleveland Indians and Chipper Jones and his Braves got the best of Jim Thome and the Indians that time…..
Jim Thome got the best of Chipper Jones when they got into a bench-clearing brawl back in 1993….Jones was with the Richmond Braves at the time and Thome was playing for the Cleveland Indians Triple A affiliate, the Charlotte Knights….
The fight broke out at the Braves home park, ‘The Diamond’, in Richmond, Virginia….Thome, at 6’4/250 pounds pinned Chipper Jones up against the backstop and went after him….Thome pressed Jones’ face up against that backstop fence and Thome wasn’t backing down…..
Now these days things are much different and after several years, cooler heads now prevail and Chipper Jones is one of Jim Thome’s best friends, at least from a distance and that distance might be very limited, as they could end up entering the Baseball Hall of Fame, stride-for-stride next Summer…
*****When voters receive their ballots for the 2018 Hall of Fame class, Chipper Jones and Jim Thome will be on it for the first time.*****
“We’ve been rivals all along,” Jones said. “He played (with the Philadelphia Phillies/Cleveland Indians) for quite some time, and there’s not a nicer dude on the planet. I’m pulling for him. To be standing up there with him next year would be pretty darn cool as far as we’ve come since 1993.”
Read more about all of the fights and the baseball battles involving Chipper Jones and Jim Thome, when you CLICK HERE….
This Click On piece coming in from Pat James, at the Charlotte Observer….