I went to the opening series at SunTrust. Didn’t want to be the guy at the New Atlanta ballpark wearing a Red Sox hat.
A visit to SunTrust Park in Atlanta. Bucket List Once Again Complete
I had to top it off in Atlanta.
I started my Bucket List of seeing games at every Major League Ballpark back in 1989 when I read Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks by Bob Wood. He mostly was rating the ballparks of the time based on the food. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles came in first, Fenway Park, Boston came in last. As he said about Fenway, “How could such a great place have such awful food?” This embarrassed the Sox ownership, still the Yawkey family then. As a result, Colonial Provisions lost the contract for Fenway food and Aramark has had it since then.
My ranking is based on the ballpark experience.
In 1989 I had already been to four parks: Fenway and Griffith Stadium, Washington DC back in the 50s, plus Memorial Stadium, Baltimore and The Big A, Anaheim CA in the late 80s.
I knocked off six more in the 90s (including the brand new Turner Field,Atlanta during the Inaugural Season), 5 more in 2000 alone, and by 2005 I had my daughter Kara as my Ballpark Buddy going on road trips with me. By 2010 I was up to 35, and in 2014 we went to Busch Stadium, St. Louis and Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati. At that point I had been to games at 41 ballparks: all 30 of the current ones and 11 more that are gone or no longer used for baseball. That completed the Bucket List. For a while.
Atlanta decided to get rid of Turner Field, only 20 years old.
That seems like a pretty quick turnaround, but the majority of ballparks – 16 of other 29 – are actually newer than Turner. Only 13 are older. Only 6 were opened before 1990.
In Atlanta they remember where the team came from.
The 2021 World Series Champion Braves have a patch on the sleeve that says “150” representing 150 years of play. That’s because they are the longest-running franchise in all of baseball. Actually, in all of pro sports. The team has been in Atlanta since 1966, but began play in Boston in 1871 and spent 82 seasons there. Note the B, M and A in the patch.
Many of the food concession stands are named 1871 Grille in honor of that.
Why’d they leave?
In the final week of spring training in 1953 Braves owner Lou Perini, who lived in my hometown, Wellesley MA, got tired of his team Braves being badly outdrawn by the Red Sox every year since 1901. In the final week of spring training he decided to blow town and go Milwaukee where his AAA team played. The Braves stayed there for only 13 years, so Turner Field, which opened in 1997 and SunTrust replaced, outlived the Milwaukee Braves.
It’s the only MLB franchise to win the World Series playing in three different cities: Boston in 1914, Milwaukee in 1957, Atlanta in 1995 and again in 2021. Also the only MLB franchise to lose the World Series in three different cities.
Warren Spahn was a pitcher for the Boston Braves from 1942-1952 and the Milwaukee Braves from 1953-1964. Spahn and Johnny Sain were the star pitchers for the Boston Braves in the 1948 World Series. The popular slogan was “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain” because they really didn’t have quality #3 starter. Or #4 or #5. SunTrust Park has this statute of Warren Spahn with his famous high leg kick at the entrance even though he retired before the Braves moved to Atlanta.
These are Boston Braves uniforms. The age goes from right to left.
Babe Ruth played for the Boston Braves in 1935, his final season. For a good story on this, go to the Braves Field page.
This shirt is supposed to be a replica of Babe Ruth’s Braves uniform…but the #3 shown here is in the Boson Red Sox font. They probably couldn’t find an action shot of the Babe where his Braves number shows.
Okay, tell me about Atlanta today.
The new ballpark is about 10 miles north of downtown, where the last two ballparks were located. If there’s public transportation heading that way I didn’t see any evidence of it. But there’s plenty of parking. Lots of lots.
The Opening Day flag was held horizontally across the outfield. Only Fenway has a wall big enough to hang a huge flag.
I wearing my SunTrust Inaugural Season hat.
How’s the park itself?
Really nice. They all are, except for Oakland and Tampa Bay. But seeing a game at those places is still fun. With the Raiders getting out of Dodge for a second time, Oakland will either get a new ballpark or lose the A’s as well.
RA Dickey strikes out the first batter.
The beer guy has a cooler with a built-in umbrella. They don’t call it “Hot-Lanna” for nothing.
They put some little Christmas trees in the batter’s eye in center field, but they weren’t spaced that well.
In case you were looking at your phone and missed a hit, the jumbotron reminds you.
Do they have a stupid 6th inning race you can bet on? Of course. It’s a little hard to make out because they’re at the center field wall, but SunTrust followed suit with almost every other MLB park. Home Depot is the sponsor, so we get a plastic bucket, a paint brush and a hammer racing around the warning track. The hammer won, I think.
A Braves home run gets fireworks. I saw this happen indoors once at Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
What’s unique?
Well, the Tomahawk Chop, of course. There’s no PC issue about it there at all. It’s the “Sweet Caroline” of Atlanta. Ludacris lead the crowd for the first chop.
Do they do a stupid 5th inning race?
Sure. Everywhere but Fenway does that. Milwaukee has a sausage, a brat and a hot dog racing. In DC it’s George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy always loses. At SunTrust it’s sponsored by Home Depot and they have a hammer, an orange bucket and a paint brush racing. I won’t bore you with a picture. A couple of musical tidbits: RA Dickey‘s walkup music is “Game of Thrones“…and you know how every park (except Fenway) has an organ playing “If You’re Happy and You Know It” or “Charge” or that sort of thing between batters? They had the organ play “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” In Atlanta? Surprised me.
Who won?
The Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 4-2. Both teams hit back-to-back HR’s. The leadoff guy forSan Diego was Manuel Margot, traded by the Red Sox to get Craig Kimbrel.
But my Bucket List was once again complete…until 2020, anyway. The Texas Rangers retired the Ballpark at Arlington/Ameriquest Field/Globe Life Park after 25 years (it lasted longer than Turner Field, but not by much) and replaced it with a new ballpark called Globe Life Field next door. It has a roof, but no fans have been allowed in yet due to Covid. Maybe in 2021.
One more thing…the Braves have already renamed SunTrust Park. It’s now Truist Park. This was caused by a bank merger. The logo, in the middle of the Jumbotron shot below, looks like HH. It’s really a stylized T.
