Larry Wayne 'Chipper' Jones, Jr. has told the Atlanta Braves the 2012 season will be his last.  Jones, who turns 40 next month, has spent his entire career in the Braves organization.

Jones was the top overall pick of the 1990 draft and made his major league debut in 1993.  However, Chipper Jones really burst on the scene in 1995.  In his true rookie season he hit 23 homers and led all rookies with 86 RBI.  He finished second to Hideo Nomo in rookie of the year voting.  1995 was also the year Jones won his lone world series ring.

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As a switch hitting third baseman, Jones is a lock for Cooperstown.  In seventeen seasons he has racked up 454 homers, 2,615 hits, 1,561 RBI with a lifetime .304 batting average.  Jones's best season was his MVP campaign of 1999.  That year he hit .319 with 45 homers and 110 RBI.

However, injuries have also plagued him for most of his career.  In addition to two major knee operations, Jones has had to deal with nagging ailments since 2004.  The injures led to his short lived retirement in 2010.

Jones hopes to remain with the Braves after his playing career but maintains he has no aspirations to be a manager.

For those of us who came of age in the 1990s, this is the end of an era

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