Column published in last week's issue of the Madison County Journal. www.mainstreetnews.com
By Dallas Bordon
Just the other day while going through some old VHS tapes, I came across an old recording from 1996 of the closing ceremonies of Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.
Just the other day while going through some old VHS tapes, I came across an old recording from 1996 of the closing ceremonies of Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.
On the recording of that night, the Braves said farewell to their home by bringing back retired players from different years.
As I pushed the old VHS tape in a VCR that I haven’t used in years, I sat and watched as former players like Phil Niekro, Gene Garber, Bob Horner, Dale Murphy, Earl Williams, and more entered the field from behind the left field wall while the theme song from the movie Field Of Dreams played in the background.
For me it was a touching scene that immediately put my mind through flashbacks of the good old Braves’ days. I’m not talking about the winning days, because wins didn’t come often for the Braves back in the 70s and 80s. Instead, I flashed back to the days from games and the memories from when I was able to go to Fulton County Stadium or ones I would watch on TV. I remembered the days of watching with my grandfather, who was a big fan, at home with both of us glued to the tube. I remembered my first visit to the stadium when I was just 12 years old and how I was overwhelmed by actually being there for the first time.
Finally I was there in person and as I walked in to find my seat in the right field pavilion area, I saw familiar faces down on the field such as Murphy, Glenn Hubbard, and even Lou Brock who was playing for the visiting St. Louis Cardinals that night. The familiar voice of public address announcer Marshall Mann sounded off in the background with that old greeting, “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.” I was like a kid in a candy store, but the store was in a shape of my field of dreams — Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium.
For a stadium that took just under one year to build and only 30 seconds to demolish, this old cookie cutter shaped stadium held many years of memories.
For the Braves historians reading this column you probably already know these facts about the home of the Braves. The stadium was built in 1965 and hosted its first major league game on April 12, 1966 against Pittsburgh. A sellout crowd saw the Braves lose 3-2 in 13 innings. Felipe Alou was the first Brave to bat in the old stadium, and his son Moises Alou of Montreal was the last player to bat in the final regular season game in 1996. Fulton County Stadium was known as the “Launching Pad” and was a hitter’s paradise for homeruns.
On April 8, 1974, a crowd of 53,775 saw Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth’s home run record with homer number 715. A monument was built where the home run landed beyond the left field wall and that monument still stands today in what is now the parking lot of Turner Field. Fulton County Stadium hosted its final baseball game on October 24, 1996 and was imploded on August 2, 1997.
I can remember going to games there and seeing Chief Noc-A-Homa do his dance on the mound before sprinting off the field towards his teepee prior to the Braves taking the field. Of course my memories of Fulton County Stadium also included the World Series title and pennant runs of the 90’s when the Braves went from worst to first and started a winning tradition that will never be forgotten. That winning run in the 90s featured Cy Young winners like John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine.
We can also remember many years of Falcon football in the old stadium. The Falcons vacated the stadium for better digs in a brand new Georgia Dome in 1991.
The Braves however, moved into luxury themselves in 1997. Turner Field, former home of the 1996 Olympic Games would become the new chop shop for the Braves. With all its new state-of-the art technology and entertainment, nostalgia and atmosphere of the “old-time” ball parts that Turner field offers now, it still can’t beat the memories I have of the old Fulton County Stadium.
As I pushed the old VHS tape in a VCR that I haven’t used in years, I sat and watched as former players like Phil Niekro, Gene Garber, Bob Horner, Dale Murphy, Earl Williams, and more entered the field from behind the left field wall while the theme song from the movie Field Of Dreams played in the background.
For me it was a touching scene that immediately put my mind through flashbacks of the good old Braves’ days. I’m not talking about the winning days, because wins didn’t come often for the Braves back in the 70s and 80s. Instead, I flashed back to the days from games and the memories from when I was able to go to Fulton County Stadium or ones I would watch on TV. I remembered the days of watching with my grandfather, who was a big fan, at home with both of us glued to the tube. I remembered my first visit to the stadium when I was just 12 years old and how I was overwhelmed by actually being there for the first time.
Finally I was there in person and as I walked in to find my seat in the right field pavilion area, I saw familiar faces down on the field such as Murphy, Glenn Hubbard, and even Lou Brock who was playing for the visiting St. Louis Cardinals that night. The familiar voice of public address announcer Marshall Mann sounded off in the background with that old greeting, “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.” I was like a kid in a candy store, but the store was in a shape of my field of dreams — Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium.
For a stadium that took just under one year to build and only 30 seconds to demolish, this old cookie cutter shaped stadium held many years of memories.
For the Braves historians reading this column you probably already know these facts about the home of the Braves. The stadium was built in 1965 and hosted its first major league game on April 12, 1966 against Pittsburgh. A sellout crowd saw the Braves lose 3-2 in 13 innings. Felipe Alou was the first Brave to bat in the old stadium, and his son Moises Alou of Montreal was the last player to bat in the final regular season game in 1996. Fulton County Stadium was known as the “Launching Pad” and was a hitter’s paradise for homeruns.
On April 8, 1974, a crowd of 53,775 saw Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth’s home run record with homer number 715. A monument was built where the home run landed beyond the left field wall and that monument still stands today in what is now the parking lot of Turner Field. Fulton County Stadium hosted its final baseball game on October 24, 1996 and was imploded on August 2, 1997.
I can remember going to games there and seeing Chief Noc-A-Homa do his dance on the mound before sprinting off the field towards his teepee prior to the Braves taking the field. Of course my memories of Fulton County Stadium also included the World Series title and pennant runs of the 90’s when the Braves went from worst to first and started a winning tradition that will never be forgotten. That winning run in the 90s featured Cy Young winners like John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, and Tom Glavine.
We can also remember many years of Falcon football in the old stadium. The Falcons vacated the stadium for better digs in a brand new Georgia Dome in 1991.
The Braves however, moved into luxury themselves in 1997. Turner Field, former home of the 1996 Olympic Games would become the new chop shop for the Braves. With all its new state-of-the art technology and entertainment, nostalgia and atmosphere of the “old-time” ball parts that Turner field offers now, it still can’t beat the memories I have of the old Fulton County Stadium.
