By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
This past offseason, future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones released his book "Ballplayer." In that book, Jones discussed the idea of potentially switching sides of the Atlanta Braves-Philadelphia Phillies National League East rivalry.
As pointed out by Michael Baumann of The Ringer, Jones said in the book that the Phillies were among the teams in 2013 that tried to get him to end his retirement:
"I got two phone calls from GMs in 2013 trying to talk me out of retirement. Ruben Amaro gave me his best salesman's pitch to sign with the Phillies, and Stan Kasten rolled out the red carpet trying to convince me to play for the Dodgers. I couldn't fathom either one.
"Ruben, I love and respect you," I said. "But if I put on a Phillies uniform, they would burn my house down here in Atlanta."
In Jones' final season of 2012, he slashed .287/.377/.455 with 14 home runs and 62 RBIS in 112 games, while leading the Braves to the National League Wild Card game. The Phillies weren't expecting him to be the player that put together one of the great third-baseman peaks of all-time in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but then general manager Ruben Amaro still thought Jones would be more productive than Michael Young, who the team eventually acquired to play third base.
Though the idea of an infield consisting of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Chipper Jones sounds other worldly, Howard had already declined because of a series of injuries, Utley was coming off three consecutive injury-riddled seasons and Rollins was set for what turned out to be one of the worst seasons of his career. Even had the Phillies signed Jones, it likely wouldn't have had much of an impact on their season, as they went on to go 73-89.
Had Jones come out of retirement, there's no reason to think that he wouldn't have returned to the Braves, the team he spent his entire career with, who went 96-66 in 2013 and won the National League East. If for whatever reason there wasn't mutual interest in a return to the Braves, the Dodgers, who Jones also mentioned as a team that showed interest in him, would have made much more sense for Jones than the Phillies because they went 92-70 in 2013.
As well all know, Jones elected to stay retired. Ironically enough, the Phillies instead acquired Young to play third base, who they ultimately traded to the Dodgers in August of that year.
