IT’S A MADD MADD WORLD. . .

At his press conference announcing his plans to o retire after the season, Chipper Jones reiterated how grateful he was to have to have played his whole career with the Atlanta Braves, who he e regarded as his “home” team, growing up in Deland, Fla. Looking back, it’s ironic that perhaps the person most responsible for r that was

Scott Boras, who has otherwise been one of the biggest, longstanding nemeses to the Braves’ management. Twice e the Braves made trades for Boras clients in their free-agent walk years, only to get burned badly when they signed elsewhere after the season. They traded Adam Wainwright to the Cardi- ardinals for Georgia native J.D. Drew, who spurned them for or the Dodgers, and in 2007 they sent Neftali Feliz, Matt t Harrison and Elvis Andrus to the Rangers for Mark Teixeira, who they later traded to the Angels when they realized they could never meet Boras’ demands for him. But in 1990, the Braves, with the top pick in the June draft, were debating between taking Jones or toprated high school pitcher, Todd Van Poppel, a Boras client. Many Atlanta scouts wanted Van Poppel, but Boras made the Braves’ decision for them when the agent said his client would not sign with Atlanta. Van Poppel wound up dropping to 14th and signing with the Oakland A’s. He had a mediocre 40-52 career, while Jones is going to the Hall of Fame.

It appears as if Jamie Moyer is about to complete one of the most remarkable comebacks of all time — making the Colorado Rockies starting rotation at age 49 after being away for nearly two years after Tommy John surgery. Moyer has a 2.77 ERA this spring and has outpitched the other two candidates, Tyler Chatwoo Chatwood and Guillermo Moscoso, for the No. 5 spot. Now that he has made the team, he is in line to break Jack Quinn’s record for the oldest pitcher to win a major league game. If Moyer wins a game this year, he will be older than Quinn was when the then-49-year-old righthander recorded his last victory on Sept. 13, 1932.