Chipper, The Mick and... Freddy ?

Not long ago there was a heckuva lot of speculation on whether Chipper Jones would even play this season. With his longtime Manager and mentor, Bobby Cox, retiring... Chipper on the heal from a host of nagging injuries and all.. most fans were wondering. Well, he's playing and off to a fabulous beginning for the 2011 campaign.

Chipper has already reached a couple of very cool milestones in his career and has provided a steady thump to the middle of the Braves batting order, batting a solid .327 and ranking among the NL Leaders in RBIs with 12. He led Atlanta to a Double Header sweep over NL East rivals NY Mets yesterday. The Brave Nation couldn't be prouder of the future Hall of Famer.

Bet ya didn't know that Today marks the Anniversary of Mickey Mantle's very first game in the Major Leagues. Yep, 'Ol No. 7 notched a hit way back in 1951 and helped the Yankees beat their Boston Red Sox rivals 5-0.

Of course, the Mick went on to do some pretty great things! Funny, Chipper and Mickey, 2 of the Greatest Switch Hitters in History with a couple of cartoon like names : ) There was nothing funny about Mickey's legendary Home Run that also occurred on this date in 1953. He blasted a cartoon like moon shot that cleared the bleachers in old Griffith Stadium that measured... 565 feet!

Ok, back to the present. The YH for today is none other than former NL Batting Champ Freddy Sanchez. Freddy is Mr. Steady for the SF Giants and is slowly pulling his team back toward the top in the NL West. This guy is a real throwback player that knows how to get the ball in play when you need it.

Freddy tied the game in the sixth inning with a double and then sent the Diamondbacks back to their locker room with an "L" when he iced the game in the seventh with a 2 run single. The Giants won 5-3. Nice Job Freddy!

What's a Walk Off Worth....

A Crazy day in baseball yesterday with a host of Walk Off's, an extra inning rally and... one for the ages. California teams were in the spotlight with late game heroics by 4 of the 5 Cali teams. In and of itself, that's pretty amazing.

Let's kick it off in San Diego where the "O Dog", stroked a Walk Off single that lifted the Padres over Cincinnati 3-2. Orlando Hudson's scrappy style of play and mindset was just what the Pads needed at the dish in the bottom of the 9th. San Diego had posted a single run in the 7th and 8th innings to tie the game and were desperately trying to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Reds.

Enter Orlando. He ripped a bases loaded, opposite field missile into left field to notch a much needed win for San Diego. I loved his statement when asked about his game winning single - "I just wanted to have a Quality At Bat". Beautiful. You certainly did "O Dog". Watch it Here!

The Oakland A's were just as impressive, if not more so, in their late game heroics vs. the White Sox. Down by 3 in the 9th the A's put together a terrific rally that tied the game and sent it into extra innings for the third game in a row. Having every game in a 3 game series go "extra" had not happened to the A's in over 23 years! Incredible stuff.

More Mindset stuff for you hitters out there. . . with two out in the 9th Cliff Pennington came to the plate with ducks on the pond. What was he thinking when he was facing a fireballing pitcher? "With Thornton on the mound throwing 97 miles an hour," Pennington said, "I was just looking for a fastball I could hit."

He got it. First Pitch too! Tie game. The game winners came in the 10th when Oakland posted 3 more runs to walk away with a series win against Chicago. Not exactly a Walk Off.. but pretty cool, just the same.

In Anaheim it was another extra inning tilt AND a Walk Off win! The Angels' billion dollar baby (jus kiddin'),Vernon Wells, earned a few of his dollars by delivering a base knock in the 12th that clinched the win over the Indians. A huge hit for Vernon's confidence as he was mired in 0 for 16 slump when he stepped in the box. His single off the shortstop started the rally. Wells eventually scored the winning run on a Sac Fly by Jeff Mathis with the bases juiced. I'll bet the Rally Monkey was going bonkers in Anaheim ; )

The Fans in Atlanta got to see something pretty special on Wednesday. Yes, their team got dumped by the Marlins and there were plenty of long faces in the crowd. That is until the 9th inning when Braves super hero Chipper Jones came to the dish.

Chipper launched a deep drive that cleared the center field wall for a Solo Home Run. Yea, yea.. so what you say? Well, that Home Run gave Chipper 1,500 RBIs for his career! In the History of baseball there is only one other switch hitter to have amassed 2,500+ hits and notched 1,500+ RBIs (Eddie Murray). That put a smile on the face of alot of Atlanta fans last night. Check it out by Clicking Here

Yesterday's Hitter honors has to go to our scrappy little throwback dude in Detroit. . . Brandon Inge. The Tigers have a couple of these guys I really like, but last night it was all Brandon. He tied the game in the 6th inning with a Sacrifice Fly. Great hitters do what has to be done to get that run home in close games and Brandon is a great hitter.

Not exactly satisfied with his 6th inning success, Brandon came to the plate in the 9th inning with one out and the game still knotted at 2-2. He had to be looking for something with a little 'wrinkle' to it because... on the very first pitch (one with some wrinkle) he Belted a Blast to deep Left Field. It was one of those - Crack! It's Gone! kind of shots. A real No Doubter that gave Detroit it's 2nd straight Walk Off win vs. the Rangers. Watch Yesterday's Hitter by clicking Here!