Chipper grew up in Pierson, Florida on 11 acres.
Him and his father,Larry, enjoy deer hunting and fishing
together. His dad taught him to hit by throwing tennis
balls to him and Chipper bat with PVC piping. Chipper
learned to switch hit by imitating Mickey Mantle. Chipper's
mom really likes horses, and teaches Equestrienne dressage.
Chipper started off high school at Taylor High, but was
getting special treatment there, so his parents shipped him
off to The Bolles University in Jacksonville. He struuggled
at first, but graduated with a 3.25 grade average. Chipper
played baseball and football in highschool and got many
scholarship offers from colleges for both baseball and football but he decided not to go to college when he was
the first overall draft pick in the '91 draft.
Chipper tore his ACL ligament during Spring training
and had to sit out the entire '94 strike-shortened season. He had surgery and worked out with weights, and came back at full blast to later win the World Series!
Chipper had some personal problems this off-season
because of his affair with Jennifer Rutledge a Hooters waitress. It was after the 1997 NLCS championships, and it produced a son, Matthew Jacob Jones. Chipper and Karin went public with this and filed for divorce a few weeks later. This allowed Chipper to visit his one-year-old son in Michigan. Now Matt lives near his dad in Alpharetta.
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