BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Virginia Tech baseball team held its annual “Baseball Night in Blacksburg” Saturday night and had a guest speaker who certainly left his mark on the game of baseball.
1995 World Series champion and Atlanta Braves Hall of Famer Chipper Jones spent the evening speaking with the baseball team. His relationship with Virginia Tech baseball alum and fellow Braves teammate Brad Clontz helped get the former first round pick to Blacksburg.
“I’ve been promising him I’d come up for the last 20 years--most of the time to tailgate and go to a football game,” Jones said.
“I enjoy it. I enjoy the fact that people want to know what it’s like to win a world series, play in a world series, lose in a world series. That’s what I tried to impart to the baseball team today. It’s a trickle down effect--the seniors have to affect the juniors and so on and so on.”
“It’s a really elite level the guy played at for a long time,” said Virginia Tech baseball coach John Szefc. “It’s just nice of him to donate his day to Virginia Tech and I think his relationship with Brad Clontz had a lot to do with that which is nice obviously which is great for us and great for Virginia Tech athletics in general.”
Jones not only spent time at the baseball event but he also had a chance to checkout the Commonwealth Clash in which Virginia Tech defeated No. 6 Virginia 74-68.