Summerhill

"The Greatest Location In The World" (1997)

Nov 19, 2006

"The Greatest Location In The World":
A History of Atlanta Stadium

BY JODIE M. PEELER


This history was originally authored as part of my History 858 seminar at the University of South Carolina in the Fall 1996 semester. As it originally focused on the forces behind its development and its effect on the surrounding neighborhoods, I have rewritten it as a more comprehensive history of the stadium that also considers its sociological ramifications. I have also corrected a few errors that crept into the original version. Any remaining errors are entirely my own responsibility and I would welcome corrective commentary.
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Construction of a large stadium in Atlanta was first discussed in the early 1930s as a public works project to provide employment during the Great Depression. Although a Stadium Authority was established to manage the project, the proposal went nowhere. Backers of a stadium made no progress during the administration of mayor William Hartsfield, who considered baseball and similar sports events for those of a lower social standing. "I don't like to go to baseball games," Hartsfield once said. "They [the fans] boo me."
The next serious proposal for a stadium came in a 1956 plan assembled by two Atlanta architects, Cecil Alexander and Bernard Rothschild, to redevelop two hundred acres of "depressed housing" into facilities for a World's Fair. Among the permanent buildings the Fair would leave behind would be a fine arts center, an exhibition hall, and a huge stadium. However, like the first stadium proposal, the World's Fair idea never progressed past the planning stages.
Despite its lack of a large stadium, Atlanta was offered a baseball franchise by the new Continental League of baseball clubs after its 1958 founding, and the American Football League followed suit by offering Atlanta a franchise. In response, the Georgia General Assembly formed a new Stadium Authority in 1960. Its mission was frustrated, however, when the Continental League collapsed under pressure from the American and National Leagues. And, sensing Atlanta's lack of movement in building a suitable stadium, the AFL awarded its franchise to Oakland, California.

When Mayor Hartsfield announced his retirement in 1961, supporters of a stadium had their most vocal ally in mayoral candidate Ivan Allen, Jr. As president of the Chamber of Commerce, businessman Allen promoted an aggressive plan to improve the city, and in the plan was a proposal for a large stadium. In July 1961, the Chamber formally called for the construction of a large, domed stadium at Lakewood Park, a dilapidated race track south of the city, and unveiled a model of the proposed structure.

Buoyed by the support of Atlanta's minority community, which embraced his progressive views on civil rights, Allen won the election and took office in January 1962. Within two months, the new mayor asked Fulton County to help the city build the stadium at Lakewood Park. Allen's plan was stalled, however, as the city's aldermen considered it too much of a political risk and were preoccupied with racial problems in the city. A further blow to Allen's plans came later that year, when an $80 million bond issue to finance civic improvements was rejected by city voters. Allen, who had considered a bond campaign to finance the stadium, was forced to look for support elsewhere; however, his efforts to interest area businessmen in underwriting the project were likewise futile.

What saved the stadium project was a visit to Atlanta by Charles O. Finley, the flamboyant owner of the Kansas City Athletics. After Kansas City refused to build Finley a new stadium, Atlanta Journal sports editor Furman Bisher suggested he move the team to Atlanta, stating that Finley would give Allen the reason he needed to fulfill a key campaign promise. Thus persuaded, Finley visited Atlanta and Bisher showed him some proposed sites. Unimpressed by these offerings, Finley was ready to leave town the next day. Bisher phoned Mayor Allen that morning and asked, "Is there anything else you can show him?" Allen responded, "I've got the greatest location in the world."

Allen drove Bisher and Finley to a large plot of urban renewal property one mile south of the state capitol building, a site known as Washington-Rawson. Originally a neighborhood populated by wealthy families who lived in ornate houses, Washington-Rawson had become a slum when rich, white families fled to the suburbs north of Atlanta after World War II; the ornate homes they left fell into disrepair and were often subdivided into low-rent apartments. In the late 1950s, Washington-Rawson was targeted as part of the city's aggressive urban renewal plans; part of the site was used to construct highway interchanges and overpasses for Interstate 20. Sixty-two acres remained undeveloped, and, as the site fell between the commercial business district and a black community called Summerhill, Washington-Rawson was deemed a "buffer zone."

Originally intended for middle-class housing units, Washington-Rawson was chosen for public projects when commercial developers felt a housing project on the edge of a black neighborhood would be too risky. Instead, facilities such as the Fulton County Child Treatment Center and the Fulton County Juvenile Court building were erected. By 1963, the Urban Renewal Administration warned the city that its use of such property for nonresidential purposes was jeopardizing future federal support. In response, Allen proposed a white housing project in Washington-Rawson as a racial buffer, but black leaders complained that suitable black housing in the area should be a more pressing concern. As an Atlanta developer stated many years later, Allen was caught between the white business elite, which did not want black housing so close to the commercial business district, and the city's black community, whose support had won the election for Allen. Thus, Washington-Rawson was, politically and geographically, an ideal site for a stadium; its construction would both fulfill a key campaign promise and provide a "racial buffer" between Summerhill and downtown, and the location near a 32-lane highway interchange and close to downtown would provide easy access. Finley was quickly sold on the location, and that afternoon began discussing proposed stadium layouts with the mayor.

With a potential occupant in hand, Allen sought the financial support he needed to build the stadium. He ultimately turned to his friend Mills B. Lane, president of the Citizens and Southern Bank, who had helped finance Allen's run for mayor. Lane promised Allen that, if the mayor staffed a reconstituted Stadium Authority with the businessmen he recommended, he would pledge the full credit of C&S to build the stadium. Allen quickly made the suggested appointments, and Lane took an option on the $1.2 million Washington-Rawson property with the Atlanta Housing Authority, and extended $700,000 in unsecured loans to fund preliminary studies.

The Stadium Authority, made up primarily of bankers, attorneys, and businessmen, assembled a detailed formal proposal for presentation to Finley at the All-Star Game in Cleveland on July 7. However, at the game, Allen was told by American League President Joe Cronin that Finley did not have enough support among his fellow team owners to permit the move from Kansas City.

The day was saved when the Atlanta delegation met with representatives of the Milwaukee Braves of the National League. Recently purchased by a group of Chicago investors, the Braves were frustrated with declining fan turnout and the political situation in Milwaukee. Even more compelling for the new owners was that the deep South, which did not have a major-league team to call its own, offered a tantalizingly untapped media market. The Atlanta proposal was quickly retooled for the Braves, and by September 4 the team had agreed to preliminary terms with the city for a ten-year lease on the stadium. Architects for the project, a joint effort by the Atlanta firms of Heery & Heery and Finch, Alexander, Barnes, Rothschild and Paschal, informed the city that drawings and blueprints would be ready by January 1, 1964, and that construction would cost $11,401,000.

Although all seemed in order in Atlanta, the rumors of the Braves' planned move brought angry reaction in Milwaukee. The local government reminded the team of its contractual obligation to play its home games in Milwaukee County Stadium, and this, combined with pressure from fans, forced the Braves to give Milwaukee one final chance to keep its team. Allen was greeted with this news when he returned from an African safari. Fearing the end of his political career, and worried about how banker (and Stadium Authority treasurer) Lane had extended unsecured loans for development costs, the mayor visited the C&S president and urged him to protect himself. Lane responded, "You go back to City Hall and run the city's business, and let me run this show."

The tension eased in January 1964, when the Braves contacted the Stadium Authority and expressed renewed interest in moving to Atlanta. Claiming that their final effort had drawn insufficient interest to keep the Braves in Milwaukee, the team reached a verbal agreement with Atlanta by March, and thus gave the city the impetus to begin work on the stadium. On March 6, the Stadium Authority made its formal recommendation for the Washington-Rawson site to the Aldermanic Finance Committee, and citizens in attendance expressed their support for the choice. No reservations were voiced about the choice of urban renewal property; in fact, the Atlanta Negro Voters League gave its support to the project. The Finance Committee approved the site, as did the Board of Aldermen.

With the site approved, groundbreaking ceremonies took place on April 15, 1964. Allen crowed to the assembled that Washington-Rawson was the best site "east of Houston, Texas and south of Washington, D.C." for a municipal stadium. Forty-seven dignitaries scooped the first chunks of clay with ceremonial shovels, and Allen himself mounted a bulldozer for the cameras. Almost immediately, contractors Thompson and Street of Charlotte, N.C., working under orders to have the stadium ready for occupancy within a year, began to level off the site and prepare the foundations.

The multipurpose stadium Thompson and Street were tasked with building was designed for rapid construction. Circular in shape, each of the eighty prefabricated frames that would provide its shape would be identical. The foundation and beams would be reinforced to allow the stadium to be domed at a later date (a plan that was later abandoned). Extensive use of precast concrete and other ready-made materials would permit speedy construction of the stadium to have it ready for the Braves on Opening Day, 1965.

While Thompson and Street began work on the stadium itself, the Atlanta Summit Leadership Conference, a coalition of nine civil rights groups, began working to ensure that hiring for work on or in the stadium would be free of discrimination. Citing "civic responsibility" as its basis for supporting the stadium project, the ASLC asked the Stadium Authority to ensure that hiring and concession contracts would be free of discrimination. Behind these pleas, however, may have lurked a veiled threat; the Atlanta Inquirer, a black newspaper, reported that an unidentified ASLC spokesman said the organization "may have some secret plans at blocking the final stadium construction" if progress was not made "in desegregating Atlantans' establishments." A nondiscrimination clause was ultimately written into the stadium's contract.

A 25-year lease for the stadium was signed by the Braves on October 14. However, the move was immediately blocked by a Wisconsin court. The National League voted to permit the Braves to move in 1966, but only after the team played the 1965 season in Milwaukee. Wisconsin's attorney general filed an antitrust lawsuit against the National League and the Braves, a suit that ultimately resulted in a Fulton County judge ordering the Braves to fulfill their contractual obligations to Atlanta.

Although the Braves would not be able to move to Atlanta until 1966, work on the new Atlanta Stadium continued unabated; the contractors had been promised a $600,000 bonus for completing their work within the one-year deadline. This hurry to complete the stadium would result in problems that would plague the stadium through its life, such as inadequate drainage. Nevertheless, the stadium was completed in time for a three-game exhibition series between the Milwaukee Braves and the Detroit Tigers on April 9, 1965. Impressed by their welcome in Atlanta, the Braves took out full-page ads in the local press thanking residents and forecasting a rosy future in Atlanta the following year. And attempts by Muggsy Smith, Allen's opponent in the 1965 mayoral election, to blame the incumbent for wasting an additional $600,000 for a "hurry-up" job on an unoccupied stadium, didn't stick; with the Braves on the way and an NFL franchise, the Falcons, soon to come, Smith's allegations came to naught and Allen handily won re-election.

Although the Braves would not be coming for another year, the stadium did not want for use in the interim. Atlanta's renowned International League team, the Atlanta Crackers, bade old Ponce de Leon Park farewell and spent their final season as the first tenants of Atlanta Stadium. Other notable guests that first year included Barbra Streisand, who performed in concert; and a prayer and affirmation rally for the Vietnam effort in January 1966, in which a principal speaker was Secretary of State (and Georgia native) Dean Rusk. But by far the most well-remembered event of that first year was a concert by the Beatles in 1965.

The event Atlanta had waited for came on April 12, 1966, as the newly resettled Atlanta Braves opened their first home stand against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pittsburgh's Matty Alou got the first hit (Rico Carty got the first Braves hit), Atlanta catcher Joe Torre hit the first home run, and Hank Aaron stole the first base in Atlanta Stadium. A capacity crowd was on hand for a game that would stretch thirteen innings; Atlanta's Tony Cloninger pitched all thirteen for the Braves, only to lose 3-2 after a home run by Willie Stargell.

The Braves themselves were well aware of the special problems engendered by Atlanta Stadium's location on the edge of a poor black neighborhood. To help establish the team as a good neighbor, the team hired former minor-league player Bill Lucas, a black man, to serve as the Braves' liaison with the black community. Through the efforts of Lucas, as well as the on-field exploits of players like Aaron, Mack Jones and Rico Carty, the team itself established good relations with the Summerhill community.

Nevertheless, throughout the hot summer of 1966, tensions grew in the surrounding area and residents slowly lost patience with the city's handling of these neighborhoods. As early as 1963, groups of residents had organized demonstrations and notified Mayor Allen of their demands for such services as street cleaning, health and educational facilities, better housing, and more employment opportunities. By 1965 the Atlanta Constitution had run a series of articles that revealed the squalor some Atlantans lived in, and a subsequent study by the Community Council of the Atlanta Area revealed that expressway and stadium development had crowded ten thousand people into 354 acres. The CCAA stated that the area's prevalent attitudes were those of despair, cynicism and hopelessness -- and that Summerhill was ripe for violence. Mayor Allen attempted to increase city services to such poor neighborhoods, applied for federal housing aid for these communities, and hired a special assistant to advise on these community improvements. However, by the early summer of 1966 some Summerhill residents had taken to the streets to protest the city's failure to improve living conditions.

Finally, on September 6, the tensions boiled over. A black Summerhill man fleeing arrest was shot by a white policeman. To area residents, this was another instance of police brutality by white patrolmen. An angry crowd gathered at the scene and refused to obey police demands to disperse. Stokely Carmichael, the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, happened to be in Atlanta and headed to Summerhill upon learning of the shooting, hoping to join in a rally the residents were planning.

When news of the uprising reached Allen, the mayor promptly headed to Summerhill. His plan to restore calm involved one symbol of the resentments the neighborhood residents held against the city: the stadium itself. Allen waded into the crowd and met with its three leaders, persuading them to bring the crowd up Capitol Street to the stadium. There, he promised, the crowd could discuss their problems with him and elect delegates who could formally present their grievances to the Board of Aldermen.

The SNCC representatives, however, shouted to the crowd that the plan was "a white man's trick...They'll get you in there and the police will shoot you down." Bricks and bottles began to fly, and some in the crowd turned over police cars and set them aflame. Allen climbed atop a police car in a final effort to address the crowd, but was toppled off when the crowd rocked the car back and forth. Fearful of a massive riot if the violence spread to the communities on the other side of the expressway, Allen ordered police to fire tear gas into the crowd. The mob dispersed, and Summerhill settled into a calm that jelled when much-needed rain cooled the city that night.

The Summerhill riot did not affect the Braves themselves, who were on a road trip at the time. However, the following year, when residents threatened riots if the city did not build a recreation area nearby, the team agreed to underwrite the $10,000 cost of the playground after the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority authorized its construction in a parking lot.

Meanwhile, Atlanta Stadium settled into its new place in the sports world. Its success in drawing the Braves to Atlanta spawned imitators; the city of Cincinnati engaged Heery & Heery and Finch, Alexander, Barnes, Rothschild and Paschal to design a similar multipurpose stadium for the Reds and Bengals, and Pittsburgh would do likewise to replace the Pirates' venerable Forbes Field.

Events on the playing field drew the attentions of fans nationwide. A capacity crowd watched pitcher Denny LeMaster battle Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers on August 9, 1966; after a two-hour rain delay in the fourth inning, the 1-1 tie was broken when Eddie Mathews homered off Koufax in the bottom of the ninth inning. That September the Falcons began their 25-year tenancy in Atlanta Stadium as well.

After fielding a series of unimpressive teams for nearly a decade, the Braves won the first-ever National League West title in September 1969. Thus Atlanta Stadium hosted the first-ever National League Championship Series game on October 3. The first-ever postseason play in the South resulted in two straight losses to the New York Mets, who won the third game at Shea Stadium, clinched the National League pennant, and ultimately won the World Series. After the playoff loss in 1969, attendance for Braves games waned as the team's proficiency declined. Nevertheless, Atlanta Stadium hosted the 1972 All-Star Game on July 25; Hank Aaron provided a thrill for the hometown crowd when he homered off the Indians' Gaylord Perry in the sixth inning, and the National League won 4-3 after a tenth-inning RBI single by Joe Morgan.

Over the coming years Aaron's efforts would be the focus of most of the attention afforded the Braves. Aaron particularly benefitted from the stadium's unusually high number of home runs, caused by a combination of Atlanta's high altitude and the stadium's circular design. After discovering the ease with which he could hit home runs in Atlanta, Aaron decided to make an attempt at the record books. It was in Atlanta that Aaron hit his 500th (July 14, 1968), 600th (April 27, 1971), and 700th (July 21, 1973) home runs. Not only Aaron benefitted; for example, in 1973, the previously light-hitting Braves infielder Dave Johnson hit 43 home runs. And on August 5 of that same year, knuckleballer Phil Niekro no-hit the Padres 9-0, the first no-hitter by an Atlanta Brave. Opposing players also celebrated milestones in the stadium; Willie McCovey of the Giants hit his 500th career home run there on June 30, 1978.

The eyes of the nation focused on Atlanta as Aaron focused on Babe Ruth's record of 714 career home runs. One short of tying Ruth at the end of the 1973 season, Aaron had hoped to tie and break the record during the Braves' opening homestand in April 1974. However, under pressure from Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, manager Eddie Mathews was forced to play Aaron in the opening day lineup in Cincinnati on April 5. There, Aaron tied Ruth's record. Three days later, before a sellout crowd in Atlanta, Aaron hit a two-run homer off the Dodgers' Al Downing and became baseball's new all-time home run leader.

After 733 home runs with the Braves, Aaron was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers at the end of the 1974 season. Attendance had already plummeted immediately after Aaron's record breaking homer, and bottomed out on September 8, 1975 when only 737 fans watched the Braves play the Houston Astros. It seemed that the only good things happening in Atlanta Stadium were the efforts of the opponents: on September 28, 1976 John Montefusco of the Giants no-hit the Braves in the season's final game.

Rumors flew that the ailing team would soon move to Denver or Toronto; however, in 1976, billboard and television magnate Ted Turner, who had broadcast Braves games on his fledgling station, purchased the Braves and began a series of inventive promotions to fill the park's seats. Among the promotions and stunts Turner tried at the newly-renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium:

* Wedlock and Headlock Night, in which 34 couples were married at home plate before a Braves-Mets match, and a wrestling match was presented after the game;

* Races in which radio announcers Ernie Johnson, Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren, sportswriter Frank Hyland, disc jockey Skinny Bobby Harper, and owner Turner rode on the backs of ostriches;

* The "$25,000 Cash Scramble," in which $25,000 in single bills was scattered over the field and fans chosen at random were given ninety seconds to grab as much as they could;

* "Wishbone Salad Dressing Night," in which fans scrambled through a huge salad bowl to find the keys to a new automobile;

* Hiring 78-year-old Karl Wallenda to walk a high wire stretched across the top of the stadium;

* Wet T-shirt contests;

* A race between Turner and Phillies reliever Tug McGraw, in which each pushed a baseball down the basepaths with his nose (Turner won);

* "Mattress Stacking Night," held on the same night as "25-cent Beer Night," which saw owner Turner helping a local fraternity set a record for the most people stacked atop a single mattress;

* During a slump in 1977, Turner sent manager Dave Bristol on a ten-day "scouting trip" and acted as field manager (the Braves lost; Turner was immediately forbidden from managing future games, and holds an 0-1 lifetime record as a manager).

There were signs of improvement as the years passed, such as the emergence of slugging third baseman Bob Horner and catcher/first baseman/outfielder Dale Murphy, both of whom would become the cornerstones of future Braves teams. And there were historic moments, such as the end of Pete Rose's 44-game hitting streak at the hands of Larry McWilliams and Gene Garber on August 1, 1978.

By 1982 the Braves, under the management of original Atlanta Brave Joe Torre, fielded their first contending team since 1969. Starting the season with a 13-game winning streak, the Braves again clinched the National League West, only to fall again in three straight games in the NLCS; the last of these three defeats (to St. Louis) came in Atlanta. Despite missing their shot at the World Series, the 1982 Braves drew 1.8 million spectators. The following year, the team improved its attendance to 2.1 million.

Yet over the next few years the Braves would again fall into mediocrity punctuated by a few electric moments. Among the most comical came on July 4-5, 1985. Originally planned as a July 4 game to be followed by fireworks, this match against the Mets was delayed several times by rain. After seventeen and a half innings, the Mets had an 11-10 lead with two out in the bottom of the eighteenth inning. Relief pitcher Rick Camp, hitting only because manager Eddie Haas was out of pinch-hitters, was sent to bat. With two strikes on him from the Mets' Tom Gorman, Camp -- whose career batting average was .060 -- hit his only career home run and tied the game. When the Mets finally won the game 16-13 after nineteen innings, the Braves finally held their July 4 fireworks show -- at 4:01 in the morning!

Other kinds of fireworks punctuated the late 1980s in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. On July 6, 1986, Bob Horner became the eleventh man in history to hit four home runs in a game; nevertheless, such were the 1986 Braves that they lost to the Expos 11-8. And on September 23, 1987, outfielder Albert Hall became the first Atlanta Brave to hit for the cycle in a 5-4 victory against the Astros.

Such achievements would pale compared to the events Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium would host in its final decade. After a miserable 1990 season, the Braves went from the National League cellar to the World Series in 1991. Along the way, Kent Mercker, Mark Wohlers and Alejandro Pena combined to throw the Braves' second no-hitter in Atlanta. The World Series finally came to Atlanta on October 22; the Braves defeated the Minnesota Twins in all three games in Atlanta, but the Twins ultimately win the Series. Fans rewarded the Braves' exploits by turning out in record numbers; over 2.1 million cheered on the new National League champions during their remarkable 1991 season.

Despite a slow start in the 1992 season the Braves rebounded. A 13-game winning streak was saved on July 25 when center fielder Otis Nixon climbed the outfield wall and made a spectacular catch, robbing the Pirates' Andy Van Slyke of a ninth-inning two-run homer. And again the Braves contended for the National League pennant against their 1991 opponents, the Pittsburgh Pirates. In the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the NLCS, with two out and the bases loaded, previously- unknown pinch-hitter Francisco Cabrera sliced a single to left that scored David Justice to tie the game. First baseman Sid Bream, hobbled by a series of leg ailments, lumbered around third and slid home, just barely beating the tag of Pirates catcher Mike LaValliere. The stadium erupted with pure joy as the Braves clinched their second consecutive World Series berth. Although the Braves enjoyed a home-field advantage in the 1992 World Series, they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games.

1993 saw the Braves win their third consecutive division title, drawing close to 3.9 million fans through the old stadium's turnstiles. An already potent lineup was bolstered in July by the off-season addition of Cy Young winner Greg Maddux and the acquisition of first baseman Fred McGriff from the San Diego Padres. On July 20, the day of the "Crime Dog's" debut, a fire erupted during batting practice in the press box on the stadium's club level, delaying the game for nearly two hours. After the Cardinals had jumped to an early 5-0 lead, McGriff lit a blaze of his own, homering in his Braves debut and driving the Braves to an 8-5 win. Though strong down the stretch, the Braves missed their third consecutive World Series by losing the NLCS to the Phillies.

Hobbled in 1994 by off-season losses and injuries, the Braves fell to second place behind the Montreal Expos in the newly-realigned National League East. Whether the Braves would have been able to make the playoffs again would never be known, as the season ended with the players' strike on August 12. But while the fate of baseball remained in question that August, the fate of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was already sealed. Since the mid-1980s, both the Braves and Falcons had expressed their desire for new facilities. Not only did the stadium's use for both football and baseball play havoc with the playing surface, but the hastily-constructed stadium was prone to problems in areas such as drainage. By 1987, the Falcons had joined with Georgia Tech to request a new domed stadium just east of downtown -- the Georgia Dome, which opened in 1992.

Although the Braves had made overtures about moving to a new stadium in the suburbs of Atlanta, the team's plans changed when Atlanta was chosen in 1990 as the site of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. As part of the facilities for the Summer Games, a new stadium was being built just south of the old ballpark. Although configured as a track and field arena, the stadium was designed to be converted into an "old-style" baseball stadium after the Games' conclusion. The Braves planned to move into their new, more intimate stadium at the beginning of the 1997 season; the ancestral home across the street would be demolished to make way for four thousand parking spaces.

When players and management finally cobbled together an agreement, the 144-game 1995 season began in April. The Braves fielded a revitalized team strengthened by the acquisition of center fielder Marquis Grissom from Montreal and the promotions of talented newcomers such as Javier Lopez, Ryan Klesko, and Chipper Jones. Another key was the discovery of fastballer Mark Wohlers' tremendous capacity to serve as the team's closer. Initially sluggish, the Braves held a four-game lead over the second-place Phillies in the NL East by the All-Star break.

The season finally ended with the Braves clinching the NL East, securing a berth in the first-ever Division Series. Atlanta's rotation shut down the hard-hitting Colorado Rockies in four games, and in the NLCS the Braves clobbered the Cincinnati Reds in four straight games. Back in the World Series again, and enjoying a home-field advantage, the Braves defeated the Cleveland Indians in the first two games. Then the Indians won two out of three in Cleveland, forcing a return to Atlanta. On October 27, before a hometown crowd, Tom Glavine and Mark Wohlers pitched a one-hit shutout, and David Justice hit the only run the Braves needed to win the team's first world championship since 1957 and the first championship in Atlanta's history.

The 1996 season dawned with the knowledge that the final chapter was about to be written in the Atlanta Braves' original home, and the Braves set out to defend their hard-earned championship. This task was made more difficult by the loss of right fielder David Justice to a separated shoulder, of southpaw reliever Pedro Borbon to a blown elbow, and of the continued control problems of left-handed starter Steve Avery. Moreover, Greg Maddux, recipient of four consecutive Cy Young Awards, had an uncharacteristically rough season. However, the Braves continued their lock on the Cy Young with John Smoltz's phenomenal 24-8 season. And the old stadium itself had an opportunity to shine on the world stage, serving as the venue for Olympic baseball during the summer games.

The Braves clinched the NL East on September 22, behind the arm and bat of Smoltz, who hit a home run to help secure the Braves' title. The following night, a crowd of over 49,000 fans bade the old stadium its formal farewell in a special ceremony following the Braves' 3-1 victory over the Expos in the final regular season game. Mayor Allen, stooped with age, threw out the first ball before the game, just as he had 31 years before. After the game, Braves legends such as Phil Niekro, Bob Horner, Rick Camp, Darrell Evans, Dale Murphy and Hank Aaron appeared in uniform, took their old positions, and crossed home plate for the final time. And though the stadium's formal valediction was past, plenty of excitement remained in its final days. At Atlanta, the Braves defeated Hideo Nomo and the Dodgers to sweep the Division Series, then prepared to meet the revitalized St. Louis Cardinals to battle for the National League pennant. The Braves were sickly initially, but rallied to win their fourth pennant in Atlanta.

The Braves seemed destined to repeat their 1995 World Series success when the Fall Classic started at Yankee Stadium on October 20. In his first two World Series at-bats, Andruw Jones homered off Yankees ace Andy Pettitte, opening the way for the Braves to decimate New York in the first two games. However, the Yankees exploited Braves' bullpen weaknesses when the Series shifted to Atlanta. Unable to preserve leads, the bullpen was largely responsible for the Braves' failure in the 1996 Series, particularly when closer Mark Wohlers gave up a game-tying home run to catcher Jim Leyritz in the eighth inning of Game 4. This, the final home run in Atlanta Stadium, turned the fortunes of the Yankees, who swept all three games in Atlanta and clinched the championship at Yankee Stadium on October 26.

Coincidentally, the Yankees were managed by original Atlanta Brave and former Braves skipper Joe Torre, who hit the first official home run in the park on April 12, 1966. One of Torre's lieutenants was bullpen coach Tony Cloninger, who pitched that first Atlanta Braves game in the stadium. Of the final four opposing managers in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, three (Felipe Alou, Tony La Russa, and Torre) were former Atlanta Braves, and the fourth, Bill Russell of the Dodgers, was the shortstop for the Dodgers during Hank Aaron's record-breaking game on April 8, 1974. And the final regular-season batter in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, right fielder Moises Alou, was the nephew of Matty Alou, who was the first regular-season batter in the stadium thirty years before.

Although construction workers labored feverishly to complete the new stadium during the off-season, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium remained in good repair during the winter in case complications delayed the new field's completion. Indeed, the Braves used the old stadium for some pre-season training and practice in early 1997, and after Phil Niekro's election to the Hall of Fame that January, the press conference for Knucksie was held at the ballpark he called home for so many years. However, with work nearing completion on the new Turner Field, the Braves made ready to abandon their familiar old stadium. Not all would be left behind; Turner Field would incorporate the old stadium's main and out-of-town scoreboards. A few seats, some lockers, and the dugout railing, bench, bat and helmet racks, and bullpen phones would be preserved across the street in the Braves' new museum. But the foremost artifact was to be destroyed.

The stadium itself would not go without something of a fight, though. An Atlanta group called "Save Our Stadium" began a final effort to preserve the stadium, claiming that the stadium could be refitted to host events that were not suitable for Turner Field or the Georgia Dome. Moreover, the group charged that the city's agreement to transfer ownership of public property -- the stadium -- to the Braves for demolition was unlawful without paying the residents whose land was seized for the stadium's construction in the 1960s. The city of Atlanta, however, maintained that the agreement with the Braves would permit the old stadium's demolition at no cost to taxpayers, and a succession of judges refused to issue the restraining order necessary to prevent the old ballpark's demolition. Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell claimed the demolition would spare the city $5 million per year in maintenance costs. And a stadium that cost $18 million to build would cost nearly as much to destroy.

Thus, in late April, workers began piecemeal demolition of the stadium, starting by disassembling the roof panels piece by piece and by removing individual lights from the standards. Demolition plans called for an "environmentally friendly" procedure that would allow as much of the stadium's materials to be recycled or put to other uses. Interestingly, the Braves had not completely moved out of the stadium when demolition began, as the team's office space at Turner Field had not yet been completed. However, by midsummer the pace of demolition picked up. The D.H. Griffin Wrecking Company of Greensboro, N.C. spent May, June and July stripping the stadium and demolishing the lower-level stands. With the stands gone, the implosion subcontractor, Demolition Dynamics of Franklin, Tennessee, could begin planting explosives in the 240 pillars that composed the stadium's foundation as well as in the steel superstructure. Demolition Dynamics also cut slots in the steel superstructure and removed a segment of the stadium to ensure that the structure would collapse.

Thus, at 8:04 AM on August 2, 1997, the "Miracle in Atlanta"collapsed under the explosive force of 1,250 pounds of dynamite and 1,120 linear-shaped charges. The detonation sequence began in left center field, where the section had been removed, and continued around both sides of the stadium. The charges were detonated vertically, beginning in the foundation pillars, ensuring that the superstructure would collapse inward. And in less than thirty seconds, a stadium that took three years to plan, eight months to design, and twelve months to build was reduced to a pile of debris that cast a pall of dust over South Atlanta.

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