Ultimate Baseball Road Trip (38 page)

Aaron had finished the 1973 season one homer short of tying Babe Ruth’s lifetime mark of 714. During the off-season, he suffered threats on his life from racists who didn’t want him to break the record. Once the season began, however, he took care of business with a quiet grace and confidence, the same way he always had. He hit number 714 on his first swing of the 1974 season, taking the Reds’ Jack Billingham deep in Cincinnati on April 4. Then a few days later, with the eyes of the nation upon him, he claimed the record as his own. In a grievous omission, though, baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn chose not to attend the historic game.

Nonetheless, the moment was magical. The video clip of Aaron circling the bases still gives us goosebumps, even though we’ve seen it a zillion times and even though Kevin remembers watching it live on TV. It also gave us goosebumps to visit the spot where Aaron’s historic homer left the yard, even though the “yard” is now a parking lot.

Fortunately, the Braves have marked the historic spot by leaving part of the left-field wall to honor Hammerin’ Hank’s feat. A plaque on the wall reads simply “715.”

It is easy to visualize the footprint of the old field, because the Braves have outlined the warning track and infield dirt in brick, in lieu of the tar that covers the rest of the area. Large metal plates lie where the bases once were. So why not stand at home plate and pretend you’re Aaron gunning for No. 715? Then take a trot around the bases, being careful to watch out, of course, for cars.

Two brick plazas lie adjacent to one another on either side of the center-field entrance. One is inside the gates—providing a stage for the biggest food court in the big leagues and a pregame entertainment extravaganza, while the other is outside the gates—housing the ticket windows and attractions that celebrate Braves history. Build an extra half hour into your pregame itinerary to allow for perusing these interesting areas.

The plaza outside the park is known as Monument Grove. We got a kick out of the tiny home plates posted on pillars, stating how far each stands from home plate inside the park (717 feet, 682 feet, etc.). We also liked the pennants decorating the stadium façade. There is one for each of the Braves’ championship years, spanning the franchise’s history in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta.

Thanks to a well-conceived arts project there is a string of gigantic colorful baseballs—about five feet in diameter each—on the plaza. Each team in the Majors has a ball of its own, reflecting its history or character. Kevin’s favorite was the Pirates’ ball, which depicts a bare-chested Buckaroo holding a baseball in his gold hooked hand. Josh wanted to like the Red Sox ball, but it was a struggle.

Next to the ticket windows plaques honor favorite sons like Aaron, Warren Spahn, Phil Niekro, Eddie Mathews, and Dale Murphy. The Braves retired numbers also appear in the form of three-dimensional red-and-blue monuments similar to the ones outside Oriole Park in Baltimore. The Braves honor Murphy (3), Spahn (21), Greg Maddux (31) Niekro (35), Mathews (41), and Aaron (44) with these four-foot-high numerals. We expect Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, and Bobby Cox to be similarly honored within the next few years.

Here, too, there are statues to honor Hall of Famers Aaron and Niekro, who played for the Atlanta Braves; Spahn, who played for the Boston and Milwaukee Braves; and Ty Cobb, a Georgia native who played for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics. The Aaron, Niekro, and Cobb pieces previously resided across the street outside Fulton County Stadium. The Spahn piece—which honors the winningest lefty of all time—was erected in 2003. Spahn won 363 games in a twenty-one year-career. The Aaron statue appropriately portrays the slugger watching home run No. 715 soar into eternity. Cobb is depicted sliding into a base. A quote on the base of Niekro’s statue reads, “There’s no better Braves fan anywhere than I.”

Josh:
Is that grammatically correct?

Kevin:
You’re the English teacher. You tell me.

Josh:
Yeah. I’d say it works.

The door to this wonderful museum is beside the ticket windows. There is also an entranceway for fans already inside the park. Highlights include the 1995 World Series trophy and Aaron’s 715th home run ball. We were pleasantly surprised to also find on display the knee brace lead-footed
Sid Bream was wearing when he famously slid into home to beat the Pirates in Game Seven of the 1992 National League Championship Series.

But Josh’s favorite exhibit was the old B&O railroad car, just like the type the players used to ride in the 1950s. It’s hard to imagine one of today’s prima donnas riding in one of these for twelve hours to get to a game.

Josh:
But the long rides offered time for card-playing and bonding.

Kevin:
Yes, kind of like our trip across the country.

Josh:
Interesting fact: The “Gas House Gang” Cardinals of the 1930s earned their nickname after a reporter joined them on a long train ride after the team participated in a celebrity chili-eating contest in Cincinnati.

Kevin:
You’re making that up.

Josh:
Are you sure?

Kevin:
Yes. That name came to be when Dizzy Dean bought a gas station one winter.

Josh:
Oh.

Elsewhere in the Museum a display honors Braves who served in the armed forces, like Hank Gowdy, Bamma Rowell, Eddie Haas, Dusty Baker, Joe Torre, and Darrell Evans. Spahn’s Purple Heart, which he earned after wounding his foot while on the Remagen Bridge during World War II, is displayed here.

We also liked the giant scoreboard tracking the Braves all-time leaders in a variety of offensive and pitching categories. And the “Transformation of Turner Field” video, detailing the post-Olympic reconstruction, was more interesting than we expected.

The cost of admission is $2 on game day when the Museum opens two and a half hours before the first pitch. On non-game days during the season, the Museum is open Monday through Saturday 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. and Sundays 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m.

The only neighborhood bar near Turner Field predates the stadium’s construction. For the life of us we can’t figure out why other saloons haven’t sprung up. But don’t fret, Atlanta is a fun town with plenty of hot spots. You’ll just have to drive to get to them.

735 Pollard Blvd.

This venerable institution has a monopoly on the just-outside-the-gates dining scene (discounting the presence of a Taco Bell). It features a hearty menu that includes fried catfish strips, cheese steaks, red hot wings, barbecue ribs, Brunswick Stew, pulled pork and more. Games play on TVs above a long bar, while an attendant takes patrons’ orders at a window then barks out the readiness of their food when it is finished. The outdoor porch provides a quality sitting area on cooler days. Prices are reasonable but seating can be limited, so arrive early.

North of Downtown

www.buckhead.net/bars/

Atlanta’s most happening nightspot offers more than one hundred clubs in the blocks surrounding the intersection of Peachtree Road and East Paces Ferry. We particularly enjoyed the hospitality shown to us at the Beer Mug (857 Collier Rd.), one of the city’s oldest sports bars, and Lulu’s Bait Shack (3057 Peachtree Rd.), where drinks come served in gigantic fishbowls. Like Wrigleyville in Chicago, there are just too many bars in Buckhead to do them all justice in these pages. Drive to the area, ditch your road trip car, and do some barhopping. You’re sure to find a club that suits your fancy.

Kevin:
We used to do goldfish shots in college.

Josh:
Clam up. I don’t want to have PETA on our case.

East of Downtown

http://littlefivepoints.net/

After the game we followed Moreland Avenue east to Little Five Points, which has a hippy feel to it that Kevin
really appreciated. You know, coffee shops, tattoo parlors, vintage clothing stores and plenty of bars. The Vortex (438 Moreland Ave.) treated us right while we also enjoyed more upscale establishments like The Dark Horse Tavern (816 North Highland Ave.), The North Highland Pub (469 North Highland), and the classic blues hangout Blind Willie’s (828 North Highland). The Junkman’s Daughter (464 Moreland) is a counterculture landmark that deserves a visit between bar-hops.

North Highland Street and North Avenue

http://manuelstavern.com/index.html

Manuel’s has been pouring draughts since 1956. Though we would not define it as a “sports bar,” it features a fair amount of baseball and football memorabilia on its walls. Old pictures of Atlanta Crackers players are prominently displayed. While you’re at Manuel’s look up at the ceiling where numerous playing cards and dollar bills are tacked some twenty-five feet above the bar. We asked the barkeep about this and he told us a traveling magician who stopped in many years ago was to blame. The act went something like this. The magician would ask a patron for a dollar bill. Then he would hold out a deck of cards and ask the patron to think of one specific card. He would shuffle and then throw the entire deck up at the ceiling along with a dollar bill and a thumbtack. The cards would rain down, scattering on the floor. But one card would remain tacked to the ceiling along with the dollar. And according to the bartender, the hanging card would invariably be the one the patron had thought of. “It was freaky,” the bartender told us.

Josh:
This all sounds very hokey to me. I think this guy is screwing with us.

Kevin:
Ah, my skeptical friend. Don’t you believe in anything beyond that which you can see, touch and feel.

Josh:
No, not really.

Kevin:
I pity you.

Josh:
Don’t. I’m quite content.

Kevin:
Are you really, though?

Josh:
As long as there’s a game each night at 7:10.

61 North Ave.

www.thevarsity.com/locations.php

An Atlanta institution that has a history more interesting than its menu, The Varsity sits on the edge of the Georgia Tech campus. Able to accommodate six hundred cars and more than eight hundred people at once, this is the world’s largest diner. On days when the Yellow Jackets have a home football game, it serves more than thirty thousand people. Even on typical days, it claims to serve an astounding two miles of hot dogs, two thousand pounds of onion rings, twenty-five hundred pounds of french fries, three hundred gallons of chili, and five thousand fried peach pies.

Since its founding in 1928 by a Georgia Tech alumnus, the Varsity has developed a vernacular uniquely its own. The men and women behind the counter call out to hungry patrons, “What’ll ya’ have? What’ll ya’ have?”

Ordering isn’t exactly easy, though, because very few menu items are called by the names we travelers commonly know. For example: A “Glorified Steak” is a hamburger with mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato; a “Mary Brown” is a hamburger without a bun; a “Bag of Rags” is a bag of potato chips; an order of “Strings” is an order of french fries; a “Heavy Weight” is a hot dog with extra chili; and so on. While we didn’t know exactly what we were ordering, we took solace in the fact that everything was dirt cheap.

Josh ordered a chili steak with a bag of rags, and then went back for a hot-pig. Kevin chose a yellow dog with strings and a fish burger. We thought the food was okay, but nothing special. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have lunch at the Varsity while you’re in Atlanta. It’s worth stopping by just to absorb the atmosphere.