Third baseman Chipper Jones has never been shy about speaking his mind, which sometimes put him at odds with former teammate John Smoltz. Smoltz, who virtually never stopped talking -- unless he was miffed at the press -- was the caller of team meetings. (That's one reason, by the way, why he preferred starting to relieving; he felt he had more standing with the club when he had more control over his position.)
But as soon as Smoltz decamped to Boston, Jones took over his old head-of-the-clubhouse locker -- lefty Tom Glavine has the other one -- and with it, the mantle of team meeting-caller. There would have been a meeting before the May 15 game with the Diamondbacks in any case, that being the first time the Braves had seen them. But Jones took the floor to let his teammates know that the disparity between their home record and road record had to cease.
"The guys know that we're on a roll right now and we've played differently on the road," he said. "We've played better, with more intensity, on the road than we have here."
At Turner Field, "It's been more of a relaxed atmosphere, guys just sitting back and thinking we're just going to throw out the bats and the gloves and win ball games. And that's not the case. You've got to go out and prepare yourself every day and bring it to the table. Every day.
"If you can't keep the home-field advantage and have it be an advantage for you, it's going to be a long year. We've got to win ball games here."
The success of the Braves' recent 6-2 road trip was particularly significant because the eight games were against division opponents, the Marlins, Phillies and Mets.
"It was just a different feel than when we were here," Jones said of the team's attitude and approach. "It's hard to explain. Everybody was focused when we were on that road trip. Every game. We had the one stinker the first game in Philly, but other than that, we were focused. I really wanted people to come in here with a 10-game homestand right here and get focused."
