Chipper wraps up first career batting title
HOUSTON — Chipper Jones walked in his only at-bat against Houston on Sunday and earned his first National League batting title, edging St. Louis' Albert Pujols.
Jones finished with a career-high .364 average; Pujols went 1-for-2 on Sunday to finish at .357. Jones' average was the highest for an NL batting champ since Barry Bonds won with a .370 average in 2002.
"It's a tremendous feather in the cap, from an individual standpoint," Jones said. "It's one of those things that brings instant credibility. Hopefully, I already had it around the league. But once you have the label of batting champion, you're respected and recognized by that."
Jones drew a pinch-hit walk against Jose Valverde in the ninth inning of the Braves' 3-1 loss on Sunday and fell just shy of Mickey Mantle's season record for a switch hitter. Mantle hit .365 in 1957.
"When I was growing up, there were two guys that I wanted to be mentioned with, when I was done playing — Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray," Jones said. "I'm starting to reach that kind of company now and I'm honored and humbled to be there."
The 36-year-old Jones is the oldest switch-hitting batting champion in history. Bill Mueller was 32 when he won the American League crown with Boston in 2003. Mueller was also the most recent switch hitter to win a batting title, though Jones is the first switch hitter to take the NL title since Terry Pendleton won in 1991 with Atlanta. Pendleton is now the Braves' hitting coach.
"Obviously, I would trade a batting title for being in the playoffs," Jones said. "But being in the batting race the last couple of years has given me a lot of motivation to play the season out."
The Braves also finished last season in Houston and Jones went 0-for-3 in the final game to lose the batting title to Colorado's Matt Holliday, .337 to .340.
Jones said he didn't think about the batting title as much this season and hit better as a result.
"I think it takes going through it," he said. "I put a lot of pressure on myself last year, trying to scrape out a hit every single at-bat. This year, I was a lot more relaxed."
