I remember the last time I attended an Atlanta Braves game. It was July 25, 1992. Most of the game was uneventful and, quite frankly, boring…but the final two innings were electric, featuring one of the greatest catches in Braves — some say Major League — history: a catch that is still played on highlight reels today.
The Braves were one win away from a record-setting 13-game winning streak. The game was Braves vs. Pirates, and The Braves were up 1 – 0. It was the bottom of the 8th inning, and the Pirates had one man on base. Andy van Slyke was up to bat, representing the winning Pittsburg run, and he smacked a mile-high fly ball into deep right-center, headed for the fence. Braves center fielder Otis Nixon ran backwards, tracking the ball all the way to the wall. Not even looking back when he reached the warning track, he planted his foot halfway up the wall and lept into the air. The entire stadium was silent as Nixon’s glove went over the wall. No one said a word after Otis landed. But when he pulled the ball from his glove, the place erupted like a volcano. From then until the end of the game, the big screen replayed his stunning catch over and over again. The crowd cheered until Otis took off his hat and waved to the fans.
And then they cheered louder.
That was exactly one month shy of 15 years ago.
Last Saturday, June 25, I attended my first Braves game at Turner Field. The stadium had been the Braves home stadium since 1996, when it was constructed for the Summer Olympics. Fulton County Stadium, the Braves original home, was demolished; Turner Field’s parking lot replaces it. Gone but not forgotten, the outlines of Fulton County Stadium’s diamond and outfield walls are painted on the parking lot. A fence surrounds a small car-sized area overlapping the outline of the left-field wall, marking the landing spot of Hank Aaron’s record-breaking 715th home run.
The pride and joy of Turner Field is the BravesVision screen: a Mitsubishi-made 71-by-79-foot high-definition screen consisting of 5.2 million LEDs — unofficially the largest high-def screen in the world. This thing has to be seen to be believed:
Saturday’s game pitted the Braves against the Baltimore Orioles. Much like the game I saw in 1992, most of this game was fairly boring. The game remained 0-0 until a Braves rally in the bottom of the 7th inning put 4 runs on the board. The Orioles managed to score a single run in the 8th, but all was looking well until the top of the ninth inning. Baltimore broke loose and scored 3 runs, tying the game.
It was starting to look like we were in for extra innings. Of course there’s nothing wrong with free baseball, but I’d rather have a solid 9th-inning win than a rocky 12th-inning win.
It was the bottom of the 9th inning, and Andruw Jones was up to bat. Luckily for the Braves, Andruw was leading the league in home runs. Unluckily for the Braves, I was watching, and when I watch, the Braves never win; and they especially never win spectacularly. Orioles pitcher Todd Williams threw the first pitch, and Andruw let it fly by for called strike one. Things were not looking good. Pitch number two was fouled away into the seats for the second strike. Andruw let the 3rd pitch breeze by him for ball one. My girlfriend turned to me and said, “It’s time for Andruw to hit one out.” My response was something like, “Yeah. But that never happens when you want it to, and especially not when you’re actually at the game.” No sooner had the words left my mouth when Andruw belted pitch number 4 deep into left field. Back in 1992, when the tens of thousands of fans watched the ball soar towards the fence, they held their collective breaths. This time, however, the ball rode on a wave of cheers. As soon as the ball left Andruw’s bat, everyone knew it had a chance. They seemed to cheer as if the ball could hear them, as if they could actually encourage it to fly higher and further. By only inches, the ball cleared the fence.
And then they cheered louder.