Subject: Turner Field Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1999 11:32:25 -0400 From: Don Dudley Organization: Sun Microsystems To: Don.Dudley@Sun.COM I had been to Fulton County Stadium several times, but Friday I had the occasion to catch the new park in Hotlanta, the converted Olympic Stadium. I don't remember seeing it, but according to the guy I sat next to at the game, they had quite a "domino" demolition of Fulton County. The site now provides convenient parking for Turner Field. The Mets were coming to town, three games behind the Braves with a legitimate shot at scaring them in the NL East, so tickets were going to be scarce. I did amicable business with the first scalper I saw, nearly four hours before scheduled game time. He had a nice variety of seats and a seating chart. I went for the best he had -- behind the Mets dugout, about 80 feet up the third base line. Face value was $33, which I believe is the highest priced, regular-season, non-luxury-box seat for a baseball game I've seen. Indeed, all the ticket office had was the 178 Skyline seats way out in center field for $1. The Turner Field plaza was open four hours before game time. There they have sculptures of Hank Aaron (which I'd seen at Fulton County), Ty Cobb (never a Brave, but, of course, "The Georgia Peach"), and Phil Neikro. In addition to Neikro and Aaron, the Braves have also retired the numbers of Warren Spahn, Eddie Mathews, Dale Murphy and the obligatory Jackie Robinson. These numbers are honored both in the plaza and in left field. The plaza especially reminds me a lot of Camden Yards. They actually have a sign indicating 717 feet from home plate. Three hours before game time, the outfield area opens and then the rest of the park two hours before game time. So, I had a full hour to check out Scouts Alley as I ate my buffalo burger (actually, they refer to them as U.S. Bison Burgers at Turner, but they're not quite as good as the Coors Field variety). In addition to arcades for kids to pitch and bat, they have brief histories and scouting reports for a dozen or so of the Braves' stars. They also had a few touch-screens with internet connections and menus to get to popular sites such as CNNSI and the Braves' home page. I was impressed with the integrity of the ratings on the scouting reports -- no grade inflation here. The ratings are relative to current major league ability and it is common to see "below average." Pitching velocity and running speed are the primary categories for pitchers and hitters respectively. On some forms, the first thing they report on is "Health," including whether the kid wears glasses or contacts. (I forgot to check what the report said for Greg Maddux in this category.) The 1952 report on Hank Aaron, when he was signed from the Negro leagues, says, "A bit small, but strong and rangy." It rated him "Good", not even :"Excellent," in every category except power, where he was only "Fair to Good." The scout saw Tom Glavine help Billerica (Mass.) win the state HS championship and play on their American Legion team. For weaknesses, it says his "CB is a slurve." (CB means curve ball, obviously.) But my favorite is Rico Carty. Rico already owns a spot in some of our hearts for his profound retort of "Now?" to the question of "What time is it?" Jimmy Brown's scouting report talks about his good power, etc., but ends with "Can run good if he has to. Has very bad feet." The game was a great one for five innings, the Mets leading 1-0 on Benny Agbayani's second inning tater. The start was delayed 45 minutes to 8:25 pm because they couldn't get the lights to come on -- thankfully we were proximate to Summer Solstice. Neither Mike Piazza nor Javy Lopez played, allowing the Braves to have a battery of Perezs -- Odalis pitching and Eddie catching. Not to mention two Joneses -- Chipper at third and Andruw in center. It's a no-brainer that Mets Manager Bobby Valentine should get the spine to move Rickey Henderson down in the lineup in favor of Roger Cedeno, who has 41 SBs hitting from the seventh position. Hey, after pitcher Rick Reed got his second hit, an RBI single in the sixth, even _his_ batting average was higher than Rickey's -- Roger's is about .060 points higher. Perez struck out nine through five innings, regularly hitting the mid-90s with his FB. Things unraveled for him in the sixth. He was spared momentarily as Andruw Jones gunned down John Olerud trying to score from 2nd (I still can't believe "Forgotten Phillie" Cookie Rojas sent him with no outs). The Mets scored nine runs in the last four innings and won, 10-2. Reed got the win, giving Prime Time 40 points in our Coors Tavern Rotiserrie League. The park is beautiful, a big improvement on Fulton County. I didn't see Hanoi Jane, but Ted was there despite the lack of a marquee pitching matchup. The Jake is next -- interleague against the Reds just before the All-Star Break. Regards, Don