Chipper Jones on retirement: ‘I have fulfilled everything’

Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones announced Thursday that he will retire after this season.

“I have fulfilled everything,” Jones said during a tearful news conference at the team’s spring training stadium in Kissimmee, Fla. “There’s nothing left for me to do.”

Jones, who turns 40 in April, has spent his entire 18-season career with the Braves, a phenomenon that has become somewhat of a rarity in professional sports.

“There were times when I could have went out on the free-agent market and see if the grass was greener but I really didn’t think that it was,” Jones told reporters. “I never wanted to play [anywhere else].

“I’m a Southern kid. I wanted to play in a Southern town where I felt comfortable, and I felt comfortable from Day 1 in the Braves organization. … I bleed red, white and blue.”

Jones enters his final season with the team as the franchise leader in nearly every offensive statistical category. In 2,387 games, he has a .304 career batting average, 454 home runs, 526 doubles and 1,561 RBIs.

Jones, a seven-time all-star who won the NL MVP in 1999, has battled injuries the past couple of seasons.

After his final stint with the Braves, Jones plans on becoming a full-time father to his three children.

MORE:

Bobby Abreu’s stock is sinking fast

Jerome Williams to Angels: Forget me not

Q&A: Jim Abbott, former Angels and Yankees pitcher

This will be the last season for Chipper Jones.