Turner Field

I have attended one game at Turner Field so far. I went to opening day in 1999 which was the Braves third year in the park. This was a slight remodeling of the stadium used to host the Olympics in 1996. (And of course the Paralympics later that same year.) This is a nicely designed park. During this time of ballpark construction many fields were designing concession areas that were more open to the field as opposed to having to walk through tunnels to get food. Turner Field may not have been first to do this but they set the bar for future parks. There is a kids play area in the loge section above left field. It’s not really big but you can watch the game while your kid plays. They also have a large open bar area above the seats in right-center – for kids over 21. The park has a large space in front of the park by the main entrance.
I attended the BRBL (fantasy baseball) draft in Charlotte that weekend and stopped in Atlanta for the game on my way back to San Diego. As you would expect, a Braves opening day in the late 1990’s was a full house. I had a ticket in the field level on the first base side. The way the seating is arranged, the field level seats are not contiguous with the lower outfield seats. I was only a few rows up – but in the last seat of the field level. The Braves had run away with the NL East the past year and would win their division again easily this year. They had Chipper Jones, Brian Jordan, and Andruw Jones on offense but their strength was pitching; Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and John Rocker as the closer. They were playing the Phillies who were pretty good, just not as good as the Braves. They had some great players in Bobby Abreu, Scott Rolen, and Doug Glanville (who would hit .325 with 34 SB’s that year). Their pitching was a little more suspect with Paul Byrd, Curt Schilling, and the rookie Randy Wolf. This opening day went to the visiting Phillies. Schilling had an OK outing, but better than Glavine. The Phillies scored two in the 7th and two in the 9th to win the game. Jeff Brantley got the save. Rolen had a home run and Glanville got a stolen base.
Since I was only at the park for one game, I decided to walk around the stadium about the 5th inning. As I was admiring the view of the field from the concession area behind home plate I swear a foul ball hit my empty seat.

Overall I think this is a very nice park. My only complaint is the naming of the stadium. The level of Ted Turner’s narcissism is amazing. It’s not as though there were any famous Atlanta ballplayers to name the park after like Hank Aaron. Oh wait...

UPDATE September 2016: I decided to visit Turner Field one last time before it closed. I saw two games of the first place Nationals versus the last place Braves. The first night was Max Scherzer against John Gant. Max got the best of this matchup giving up 2 ER over 7 innings. Rookie Trea Turner went 4-5 with a HR, 2 RBI, and 2 SB. The second game was Gio Gonzalez vs Josh Collmenter. The Braves ran away with this game despite Turner going 3-4 with 2 HR and a SB.

There seemed to be mixed feelings about the new ballpark. A lot of the stadium staff didn't think they would work at the new stadium. One of them has been working for the Braves for 16 years but getting to the new park is just too time consuming to make it worth it. There is really nothing wrong with this park. The video scoreboard could use some repair and there are a number of cockroaches running around the concourse. This is about moving to a white neighborhood. Shame on you Braves organization.