Jones grateful for mentors on path to Hall

Chipper on HOF honors NEW YORK -- As Chipper Jones sat alongside the three other newly elected Hall of Famers during a Thursday afternoon news conference in Manhattan, he reminisced and once again expressed appreciation for everyone who aided him along the path that led him from his hometown of Pierson, Fla., to Cooperstown.

"It was a pipe dream growing up in a town as small as the one I called home," said Jones, who might find the quaint nature of Cooperstown to feel a little bit like his rural central Florida hometown, which has a population of less than 2,000.

For nearly three decades, the small-town kid has been a household name throughout the baseball world, and on Wednesday night his…