Ballparks – 13 – Sun Trust Park, Atlanta, GA

8/10/18

Before I throw in a few more extinct ballparks you youngsters can no longer visit, let’s report on the newest park and one that was just visited…a few months ago.

We were in Atlanta for a wedding. Fortunately, so were the Milwaukee Brewers. This was our chance to get into Sun Trust Park and root for the visitors. Turns out we sat behind a couple who grew up in suburban Milwaukee…also there to root for the visitors.

The history of the Atlanta Braves goes all the way back to the founding of the game. In 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first openly, all-professional team in the game. After the team dissolved in 1870, the core players moved to Boston to join the Boston Red Stockings who then became a dominant team in the old National League. When the American League was formed in 1901, the team lost much of its talent. They floundered until they changed their name to the Boston Braves in 1912. They won their first World Series in 1914.

The team moved to Milwaukee in 1953. The Milwaukee Braves played in County Stadium until they moved to Atlanta in 1965. During that time, they won their second championship in 1957 beating my beloved (at the time) New York Yankees. I reported on County Stadium here in August 2017.

Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium (From Google Images)

I never made it there.

Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was built to attract a major league ball club and it did just that when the Milwaukee Braves moved there after the 1965 season. They played there until the end of the 1996 season. The site is now a parking lot.

Turner Field (foreground; from Google Images)

I never made it there, either.

Centennial Olympic Stadium was built for the 1996 Summer Olympics and the following season, became Turner Field and the home of the Braves until 2017 when Sun Trust Park opened. It has been reconfigured and is now Georgia State Stadium and hosts football games. So, in the span of 21 years, the Atlanta Braves have played in three new ballparks. Take that, Fenway and Wrigley.

The date above is a link to the box score. You will see that the home team jumped out to a three-run lead in the first inning and it only got worse from there. The Braves’ fans were happy as the game ended 10-1 in their favor.

Chipper Jones Greets the Fans (10 August 2018)

A pre-game highlight for the locals was an appearance by former All-Star Chipper Jones, who had recently been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Home Depot Tool Race, Sun Trust Park (10 August 2018)

I’ve noted that the Milwaukee Brewers began between-innings mascot races with sausage characters in the 1990’s. Our Washington Nationals have their racing presidents. I had no idea racing mascots was such a widespread ballpark phenomenon. With Atlanta being the headquarters of Home Depot, these fans have to see racing tools every game. When you think about it, that’s no weirder than racing sausages.

Former Braves Signing Autographs (10 August 2018)

In addition to Chipper Jones’ Hall of Fame commemoration, the team brought back many former players who were staged in various places on the concourse to sign memorabilia for the fans.

Looking out From the Upper Deck, Sun Trust Park (10 August 2018)

“If you build it, they will come.” Sun Trust Park has followed the modern model that makes the ballpark the center of a greater development. The place is surrounded by new housing, hotels, restaurants and other entertainment venues.

As one might guess, Atlanta is pretty hot in August. The announced 84-degree temperature at game time felt more like 94. The Brewers never made a game of it and we departed before the contest ended.
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Congratulations to the Braves for making the post-season. The Brewers also made the playoffs after beating the Cubs in a tie-breaking game to capture their division. They then swept the Colorado Rockies but lost their chance to appear in the World Series when they were eliminated by the L.A. Dodgers – who lost the Series to the Bahston Red Sawx…a good season for the Brew Crew.

Hitting the Big Time

Broadway Magnolia After Katrina (2 February 2009)

I had the good fortune to have my humble blog noticed by a major player in the journalism field. Jacqui Banaszynski won the 1988 Pulitzer for Feature Writing and retired as the Knight Chair of Editing at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She now edits the Nieman Storyboard, a publication of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard that showcases exceptional narrative journalism and explores the future of nonfiction storytelling.

She thought my trilogy on where to look for images (behind you, up and down) could serve as an example for journalists to expand their perspectives and approaches to telling their stories. She took the blog’s text (and images) and annotated them to illustrate and instruct the Nieman readers.

I am proud and grateful to have been showcased on this important site. I think any of us who aspire to put words to our images might find the post interesting.

https://niemanstoryboard.org/stories/learning-to-see-look-down-up-and-behind/

Ballparks - 12 - Guaranteed Rate Field, Chicago, IL

12 September 1993

It’s Springtime (in some places) and Spring Training is under way in the South. Time to return to my quest to build a reputable life list of Major League ballparks. Today, we have one visited 25 years ago when it was new.

The Chicago White Sox are among the American League’s eight charter franchises. They played in old Comiskey Park from 1910 to 1990 and have enjoyed a storied past. Penny-pinching owner Charlie Comiskey was such a tightwad, his players took gambler’s money to throw the 1919 World Series. It is forever known as the Black Sox Scandal. The team hosted the first All-Star game in 1933 and installed the first fireworks-exploding score board in 1960.

Late summer is a good time to visit Chicago. You still might get a scorcher of a day but you’re more likely to experience pleasant days and cool nights. Beck had work there and we went together the weekend before so we could do some Chicago things. On Sunday, we took in a day game at the Sox brand-new ballpark.

I did not bring a camera so there are no personal shots of the stadium. I wasn’t collecting ballparks at the time. I do recall NOT being impressed by the layout. A year before Camden Yards forever changed the way ballparks are designed, it appears they still were thinking symmetrical, colorless and bland. When we reviewed the Washington Nationals stadium, I referenced the Washington Post’s guide that ranked the thirty Major League parks and this one rated 29th. Only the sad Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg ranks lower. At least this field has real grass.

What I do remember about this game was Chicago living up to its ‘Windy City’ nickname. ‘The Hawk’ was flying that day. We had seats in the upper deck on the third base side. The wind was blowing so hard that infield pop-ups became outfield catches and routine outfield flies would have been home runs if the batters got hold of one.

(From Google Images)

There was a moment when someone’s big homemade sign was flying through the air…at upper deck level…like a magic carpet. I guess that’s why stadiums no longer allow signs to be brought in. They can turn into missiles. Between the wind and the hitting, it was a wild first inning, at the end of which, the Detroit Tigers were up 6-3. We left in the middle of the game so I could return to Baltimore and work the next day. Since the final score was 6-3, we didn’t miss much.

The box score can be found with the link that is the date at the beginning of this post. Fans will see Detroit’s lineup included stars like Cecil Fielder, Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson and future Hall of Famer Alan Trammel. The Sox lineup included the league MVP that year and Hall of Famer Frank Thomas and Tim Raines, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017.

In 2005, the ‘Pale Hose’ won their first World Series in 88 years.

The new park, called ‘Comiskey Park II,’ opened in 1991. In 2003, it jumped on the ‘naming rights’ bandwagon (U.S. Cellular Field) and again in 2016 (Guaranteed Rate Field). The added income has been put toward improvements that make it more aesthetic and fan-friendly…and still the Post thinks it’s the second-worst park in the game.

Sorry this exposure to one of the classic franchises was memorable in ways other than my photography, but it’s still another addition to the life list. Moving on.