Wake Up With Andruw Jones Homering In His First Two At-Bats In The World Series At Age 19

Andruw Jones doesn’t get enough love from the baseball crowd. That dude was a stud. He played 17 seasons in the bigs, but is mainly known for his time spent with the Braves. He was one of the core guys on those teams, along with Chipper Jones, Greg Maddux, Tom Galvine, and John Smoltz.

The video above is from Game 1 of the the 1996 World Series vs the Yankees where he became the youngest player to ever homer in a postseason game. I can’t imagine ever homering in a World Series game, let alone in your first World Series at-bat when you are just 19 years old. Oh yeah, he homered twice that game. He only played in 31 regular season games that season for the Braves, but you knew this kid was going to be a star. The first home run he hit here was a shot too, a real no doubter.

Jones was always in the shadows of the big guys on that Braves team, but he was a very good player for them. Early in his career he was really a 5 tool player, he was stealing bases, hitting for power, average, had a great arm, and could field. I mean he was an absolute wizard with the glove, he won a Gold Glove every season from 1997 to 2007. This wasn’t the Derek Jeter Gold Gloves where he got them because of his name, he earned those.

Offensively he was a joy to watch as well in his career. Over his 17 seasons he hit 434 homers, including 51 in 2005. After 2007 his career started to trend downward, and he bounced around to a few different teams, but I still remember fearing him as DH with the Yankees as he ended his career. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he was as good a baseball player as there was.

He did play in the steroid era, but was never really mentioned with steroids. But it’s obviously hard to say who dabbled and who didn’t. Regardless, he isn’t a Cooperstown type player, but man was he good for a few years. He currently was fun to watch patrol the outfield as well.

Only thing that pissed me off about his was his name. Who spells it “Andruw”? That spelling stinks.

@RDTBarstool