Day One - "Thou Shalt Not
Make The Last Out At Home"

The Remains of AFC Stadium

First thing Thursday morning we went down to the stadium to do some advanced scouting. As we approached Turner Field, I got a glance at what used to be Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. I had seen the demolition on TV but you don't fully realize what was done to the stadium until you see it in person. It's sad to think that the place where Dale accomplished so many feats will soon be gone.

Turner Field

But when you look over at Turner Field, you slowly begin to forget about the antique beside it. As the doors to the stadium only open three hours before game time, we were only able to see Monument Grove which featured statues of Aaron, Niekro, and Cobb (was he ever a Brave?). The first thing which caught my eye of course was the number "3", standing on the far right end of the line of retired numbers. I made my way to the end of the line of numbers and snapped a picture of it.

Pretty Cool Souvenir I Think!

We then returned to the hotel and awaited the game. A few hours before the game, we returned to 755 Hank Aaron Dr. While walking to the stadium, I stopped to take a look at a street vendor's wares. The normal boring stuff--shirts, buttons, pennants. But wait, there was a souvenir from the wreckage of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium--a salvaged, dented metal sign that read "Police Line--Do Not Cross--Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium". I thought to myself it would be neat to have a piece, any sort of piece, of the stadium to look at years from now when AFC stadium is a distant memory. I asked how much it was and he said it was $5. Sounded reasonable to me. Sold!

When we actually got inside the ballpark, I found what I had suspected to be true. Turner Field is not simply a baseball stadium, but a baseball stadium and AMUSEMENT PARK. They could charge admission during the off-season and call it "Turner Amusement Park"! There's "Tooner Park" for the kids, a live band playing in front of the "Chop House" store, a place where you can have picture taken as a participant in one of the greatest moments in Braves history, measures of the pop on your fastball, a chance to call play-by-play for a memorable moment in baseball history and last, but not least, the Braves Hall of Fame Museum where you can see Dale's 1983 All-Star Game bat, his batting helmet, and an autographed jersey of his (they put that there just to torture me because they know I've been looking for a game-used jersey of his!). Also of note in the museum is the boxcar in which Milwaukee Braves players traveled in the 60's. Cramped doesn't begin to describe it.

Scout's Alley is where the majority of these attractions are found. Also found in Scout's Alley are blown-up scouting reports on players from Hank Aaron to Rico Carty to Chipper Jones to guess-who. Two scouting reports on Murphy are on the hall wall. As we all know, scouts are never wrong, and this one was right on when he said that Murphy was lacking aggressiveness. I think Dale could have hit some homers if he really tried. :)

We then went to our seats in the Club level down the left field line. We knew there was little chance of getting a ball unless McGwire really got a hold of one. Javy Lopez almost got one to the club level but it landed just below us (Javy, by the way, was injured on the hand by a Todd Stottlemyre pitch and had to leave the game). Sure enough, towards the end of Cardinals' batting practice Mark got in a groove and rifled one to the club level in left field. I saw it coming and stood up but it hooked and landed about 10 seats away in my row. Rats!

The Braves were a little luckier as Denny Neagle was shooting for his league-leading 16th win. Chipper Jones and Ryan Klesko drove in the Braves' 3 runs. Ryan Klesko also made a great catch against the wall below us which we were obstructed from seeing (good thing for the scoreboard!).

My father wanted to leave before the 9th inning to beat the traffic. Flashback to 1992, the last time we visited Atlanta. We left a game between the Braves and the Pirates early assuming an easy Braves victory. On our way to the car, we hear Atlanta-Fulton County stadium erupt with cheers so loud it seemed the ground was shaking. We find out in the car that Otis Nixon had made one of the greatest catches in baseball history in robbing Andy Van Slyke of a home run and preserving the Brave' record-setting winning streak.

I was not about to let that happen again and stopped us on our way out so we could see the final three outs from field level. With the Braves up 3-0, Tom Lampkin doubled off Mark Wohlers. With 2 outs, the next batter singled to center and Rene Lachemann waved home CATCHER Tom Lampkin down 3 runs with the tying run coming to bat. Kenny Lofton gunned a throw on one hop to Eddie Perez who tagged Lampkin as he picked up the in-between hop.

What's the old addage? "Don't make the first out at home"? Perhaps Lachemann needs a few more spelled out for him such as "Don't make the last out of the game at home with the tying run due up next".