Chipper Jones may have played his last game in the major leagues after tearing up his left knee while fielding a ground ball.

The Atlanta Braves said Thursday that the 38-year-old third baseman tore his anterior cruciate ligament and will need surgery. The estimated recovery time is six months, short enough to be ready for the next opening day – if Jones decides to return in 2011.

– Paul Newberry, Associated Press.

Well — and I say this without irony — that’s a shame. There were many different embarrassing and hilarious ways I fantasized about Chipper’s career ending, so this one seems anti-climactic. If he’s really done, I hate that he won’t be around for one last trip through Flushing and one last “Lar-ry,” chant.

Chipper Jones was an all-time great player and, to Mets fans, an all-time great villain. He deserves better and we deserve better than for it to end like this. So now I’m left actually rooting for Chipper Jones to recover from his injury so he can return in 2011 only to be humiliated in some grand fashion.

Also — and this is the most f@#$-up part — the injury makes the Braves’ road to October baseball a bit bumpier, and that’s actually a bad thing. The Phillies are somehow more loathsome, and the Mets appear so far out of it that a blow to the Braves might only open the door for the stupid Phillies to take the division. Oh lord, what has it come to?