This summer I turn 21, and so do you. But for you, Ted, it will be your last. One last summer under the sun, packed with 50,000 of your closest friends. You’ve been good to us, Ted, really good to us. You’ve provided us with a second home, and a warm summer’s night get away. You’ve taught a city how to love, and more importantly, you’ve taught us to believe. You were home to some of the greats. Chipper, Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz and so many others. You’ve brought us moments that as baseball fans we will never forget. Whether it was first career at bat home runs, or a walk off home run sending aging stars one step closer to Cooperstown.

You gave us children of the ATL a chance to dream that one day we too would roam your spongy grass, your soft dirt and dig into the box that so many greats have once dug into.

You brought us the hometown heroes like Francour and McCann and even Hayward, when we “welcomed him to the show," bringing pro sports biggest fan base even closer to home.

So when I come to visit you one last time tomorrow night old friend, I won’t just be there to watch nine innings of baseball. Instead I’ll take in all your sounds, your smells and all of your elegant looks for one last time. I will admire the best view of the Atlanta skyline the city has to offer, with that metallic gold top of the capitol building shining in the background.

We’ve grown up together. You’ve been there for the good and the bad, showed us fun and miserable times, and being Braves fans, there has been a lot of those miserable time then good, but for that, we still love you Ted. They’re taking you from us too soon, old friend, but we are lucky to have had you for as many seasons as we have.

I think I speak for all baseball fans, all Atlantians and even all of the people from the Southeast when I say, Turner Field, we will miss you once the lights are shut off for that final time this September. You, Ted, will forever be the centerpiece of my childhood.