Ground Turnerfield
Ground Capacity 50,097
Turner Field is a stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, home to Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves since 1997. Turner Field was originally built as Centennial Olympic Stadium, it was completed in 1996 to serve as the centerpiece of the 1996 Summer Olympics. After the games, the stadium was converted into a baseball park to serve as the new home of the Braves .
Atlanta is also known for Coca cola hence the Coke emblems around the stadium .
Turnerfield is awesome and the views are stunning . MLB is more family orientated than football/soccer and is a great day out , eating , drinking , socialising . Its not unusual for teams to play four or more home games in a row often full to capacity . Also known as a series , tickets can vary from $1 upwards , sometimes firms/businesses give away free tickets to employers ; games tend to be around 2-3 hours long but can last double , trebble or even longer . There are no drawn games as there has to be a winner . Each match is usually decided over nine innings .
On the 7th innings , called the 'Seventh Innings Stretch , ' its traditional to sing God Bless America and ' Take Me Out To The Ball Game . ' Before the start of a game , the National Anthem , Star Spangled - Banner is belted out , often by guest artistes . Some have suggested the National Anthem ritual started at a Cubs v Red Sox game in 1918 and carried on sporadically before becomming a constant feature after the Second world war .
John Smoltz - Braves Pitcher .
Gigantic Coke bottles adorn the main stadium entrance .
If you've never experienced a live baseball game ,its definately worth a look ; can be difficult to understand the rules but most Americans are extremely friendly and will soon fill you in on the basics . They're very fond of the Brits and are intrigued by us attending baseball games
Often teams will give out free merchandise to fans at the beginning of a season or have special promotion days . On my visit i managed to get a free baseball bat .
Two Brits Abroad - Free baseball bats - Chuffed to bits !! Awesome !!
Baseball hoppers tend to call groundhopping - A Roadtrip .
The lovely Lara - met at the Braves Club store CNN and Lara , head of human resources at the Braves , sorted us out with signed Chipper Jones & Jeff Francour baseballs , Delta/Braves holdhalls and goodies .
Tickets from a later visit in May 2009 v Astros and the Cardinals
The Braves Dugout
Arriving at Turnerfield .
Peachtree Tv & Radio
Bullpen Pub ( or is it a saloon ? ) over the road from Turnerfield - Perfect for us Brits ! Opposite the Players entrance too !!
In baseball, the bullpen (or simply the pen) is the area where relief pitchers warm-up before entering a game
Atlanta Braves MLB USA 2007">
Jones debuted in 1993, and has played his entire career with the Atlanta Braves. Chipper won the 1999 National League Most Valuable Player Award, as well as the 1999 and 2000 National League Silver Slugger Award for third basemen. He currently holds the Braves team record for career on base percentage (.406), and on July 5, 2007, he passed Dale Murphy for third place on the Braves all-time career home run list.
The Legend that is Chipper Jones
In his career, through the 2011 season, Jones is a .304 hitter with 454 home runs, 1,455 walks, and 1,561 RBI in 2,387 games. He is behind only Eddie Murray on the all-time switch hitters career RBI list. He is considered one of the game's best all-around hitters, and one of the best switch hitters in the history of the game.[1][2] He is the only switch hitter in Major League Baseball history to have a .300+ career (.304 at the end of the 2011 season) batting average and 400 or more home runs.
Take a Picture Moss Meister in Braves Dugout
