Rebuilding Rob

This weekend, while in Georgia to attend Kid 1’s regional gymnastics meet, i decided to make a little side trip to Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves.

Located in suburban Cobb County, the Braves moved from downtown’s Turner Field in 2017 when the Braves were unable to acquire land in the ballpark’s surrounding area. Like so many other pro sports teams, the Braves wanted to turn their area surrounding their park into a year-round destination. When they could not acquire the land around Turner Field, they made the decision to build in the suburbs.

I remember think it was kind a shame. After all, the Braves only played in Tuner Field for 20 seasons. Granted, they were gifted the Turner Field site after the 1996 Summer Olympics. In fact, the facility that would later become known as Turner Field was the reconfigured Track & Field stadium.

Joe Mock, of baseballparks.com has an in-depth review that also goes into the creation of Truist Park (nee Sun Trust park). Check it out HERE. I won’t step on Joe’s toes here. Instead I’ll give my personal impressions of the home of the Braves.

The stadium opened in 2017, but I was a little stunned at new how every everything still felt. Maybe this was due to the fact that 0 fans attended games in 2020; and 2021 saw limited attendance as well due to the Covid lockdowns. Nevertheless Truist is the “youngest” park I’ve have attended since Comerica Park’s opening in 2000.

Unfortunately, I didn’t leave myself enough time to explore “the Battery” the park’s entertainment district; but the skyline view is impressive. But, like Pittsburgh’s PNC Park and Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field, I feel like I need to make a second trip to both facilities, just to take everything, or most everything, in. I have tickets to go to a game at Cincinnati’s. Great American Ballpark on July 4 weekend. But as it gets closer, I’m thinking more and more that I need to either attend a second game or plan a tour of that facility as well.

I’m a sucker for the history of baseball. Today, teams are typically dedicating a section of their new ballparks to telling their story . As the Braves are “the oldest continuously operating organization in baseball” their history traces back to Boston as well as Milwaukee. Statues of Braves legends sit at each of the park’s main entrances. Unfortunately, once cannot simply circumnavigate the entire ballpark. Each entrance is a separate entry point for the park, with its own access to parking.

But the big draw is the Braves’ Monument Garden located on the lower deck concourse. It takes the viewer through the key points of the team’s long history and features artifacts from over the years and teams during their durations in Boston, Milwaukee, and finally Atlanta.

Perhaps most importantly, the team made Hank Aaron the focal point of Monument Garden. His is the only statue in the garden. He gets a larger display than any other player on the team. In effect, the Braves have made him “the Jackie Robinson of the franchise”. Given that Aaron was the last Negro League superstar to migrate to MLB, the fact that he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1974, and that Atlanta is the current pop culture Mecca for African-Americans, it’s easy to see understand why the Braves organization now treats Henry Aaron as the linchpin upon which their entire history rotates. Having briefly met the man in 1982, and by all public accounts, I cannot think of a better representative of this franchise.

AS for the game experience itself, my seats were in the nosebleed section. I was sitting literally in the last row of the upper deck in the 400 section. But the way I see it, my actual view of the game could not get any worse. It could only be better. And all things considered it wasn’t bad.

I think my biggest take away from my day at Truist Park was the accommodations that the Braves make for “exceptional fans“. Kid 2 is on the autism spectrum and goodie bags were available for Exceptional needs fans. We got one included things like fidget spinners, an ID/lanyard badge to be worn and various pieces of Braves swag. Noise canceling headphones and earplugs are available for fans who need them, and they came in handy this time! I know several teams are following suit and providing accommodations for exceptional fans, but this was my first real experience with it. Kudos to the Braves!

As it was a Sunday, kids were allowed to run the bases after the game. My son took part. Afterwards kids were given a certificate in a complementary T-shirt upon exiting the stadium. The Tigers may have been the first team to allow kids to run the bases; but the Braves have perfected it!

I would definitely return to Truist Park in the future! As I mentioned earlier, I feel like I didn’t get a chance to explore everything that the stadium, and the surrounding Battery area, offer. But this was, by far, the single best GameDay experience I’ve seen for children yet!

Something of a sidebar: while Hank Aaron is on my mind, I’m going to recommend the book, Hank Aaron, and the Home Run that changed America by Tom Stanton. He wrote this book several years ago, and it is probably the best recollection of Hank Aaron‘s 1974 season that I have come across

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts:

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• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision
• The Moment I Walked Inside a Hallmark Movie

The article “Rob Reviews Truist Park” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.