'I've messed up royally'
Braves' Jones admits fathering out-of-wedlock child
Posted: Friday October 23, 1998 11:23 AM
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Jones has reportedly admitted to having several affairs during 1997 Tom Hauck/Allsport |
ATLANTA (AP) -- Atlanta Braves third
baseman Chipper
Jones, perhaps the team's most recognizable star, has acknowledged
publicly that he fathered an illegitimate child born seven months ago.
"I've messed up royally," Jones said Wednesday during an interview
with Morris News Service at his Atlanta home. "I've messed up just
about as bad as a man can mess up without killing somebody. I've committed
adultery and I'll pay for that the rest of my life. "I want to
take this opportunity to publicly apologize to my wife, to the fans and to
the Braves organization for not representing myself very well and not doing
the things all those people expect me to do. I ask for forgiveness."
Jones sat with his wife, Karin, and described the pain he caused
when he told her about an affair he began with a Michigan woman 18 months
ago, the news service said. "It was the worst day of my life. It
was terrible," he said. "Just seeing how much pain I can inflict on another
human being without putting my hands on them is just unbelievable. I'll
never do it again." The affair was one of several Jones had
following the 1996 World Series, the news service said. During the Braves'
final spring training in West Palm Beach, Florida, in March 1997, he met a
waitress at Hooter's and the woman, who has returned to her Michigan home,
gave birth to a boy in March. Jones said he will support the
child, although details have not been worked out. "I was going
through a pretty rebellious period where it didn't matter what Karin said,
I was going to do the opposite," Jones said. "I was really
self-absorbed." Jones met his wife while he played at Class A
Macon in 1991. They were married after the 1992 season. They
sought counseling last winter, and Jones said he has turned away from the
bar scene. "You keep getting temptation thrown in your face and
eventually you're going to slip up," he said. "I had to make a decision on
what the most important thing in my life was. The most important thing was
Karin." Mrs. Jones said her Christian background had helped her
through the troubled time. Asked why she stayed with Jones after he
admitted his affairs, she admitted, "I almost didn't. Honestly, it was
faith, pure and full. I didn't stay because of the ballplayer, that's for
darn sure, because I hated the ballplayer at that point. "It was
because of all I had invested in the relationship. I got on my knees,
fought with God, ran, went to counselors, called my friends in the wee
hours of the morning and went through a severe depression about leaving for
good," she said. The two said their relationship is
improving. "The most important thing to me is not baseball, it's
not image, it's reconciling; it's getting my priorities straight again,"
Jones said. "I'm kind of throwing myself into my relationship with my wife
right now, trying to make things work." With his all-American
image, Jones is a spokesman for the Braves' Big League Lunch Program for
area schoolchildren and devotes much of his free time during the season to
baseball clinics for kids. "I want to be a better role model,"
he said. "I've gone out to schools and I've been on TV and I've said all
the right things and it appears like I've done all the right things, but I
was really leading kind of a hypocritical life. "It's time I
started practicing what I'm preaching," Jones said.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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