As I sit here watching the Braves-Tigers game, I see more than baseball. I see twenty years of history sitting in one stadium. I see millions of fans memories, including mine floating around in the air. While I knew it, it didn’t hit me until this morning that the final game at Turner Field was going to be played today. And so, as I try to avoid the inevitable final out, let’s take a look back at Turner Field’s best features.
Starting off with the best features takes us straight to the quality of affordability. Although it was probably because of how bad the Braves were this season, tickets at Turner Field were always extremely cheap. Of course that is ignoring the extremely expensive, Hank Aaron Club seats, which ranged at about $500 a piece. But normal seats, with views as great as the dugout, usually would sell for about $60 a piece, giving a great view to fans for a low price. And while staying on the topic of affordability, Turner Field always had cheap food. With Waffle House as a venue for food, fans never found themselves without options.
Then we need to move on to the point of views. There truly wasn’t a bad view in Turner Field. Sure, you may have been 450 feet away from the action in the upper deck, but still you had beautiful views of the sky, and no seats in the upper deck had an obstructed view. And even if you wanted to be close to the action, but didn’t want to sit in the infield, you could find plenty of seats by the bullpens in the outfield, which were accessible for fans to view. And of course who could forget the giant Coke bottle, which sat on top of the left field upper deck. Even if you had to sit up there, away from the sun, when the players hit a home-run and fireworks exploded from inside the bottle, you felt as if you were a part of the game.
But what made Turner Field so special wasn’t the architecture or the money that went into going to games. It was the people who made Turner Field Special. The friendly staff, the players and of course, you. Everybody made Turner Field the best stadium in baseball. Sure we didn’t have fans as crazy as the Bleacher Creatures, but we did have sellout crowds for Chipper’s retirement ceremony. And sure we don’t have beer vendors like those in Colorado, but we do have the nicest staff in all of sports. And that’s what made Turner Field special.
And as I finish writing this, three innings of baseball have passed. It has taken me nearly an hour and a half to write this, because writing about the end of Turner Field, is just too hard to do. And so as the Braves move on to SunTrust Park next year, remember, the atmosphere will be different, but one thing will be constant. The Braves fans who made Turner Field so special will be there.
