Home Field

By Frances Shainwald

When I was thirteen I went to my first Braves game. As I walked into the stadium I felt like I was walking into my television, into a world that I never thought I would see up close. I smelled hot dogs and beer, freshly cut-grass and body odor - all the smells of a real baseball game.

My family's love of the Atlanta Braves was not a healthy devotion - it was a consuming obsession. I can still hear my mom screaming from the far reaches of our house; if I was away from the television her noises filled me in on the game. When I was 12 I could have told you every stat of every Atlanta Braves player. I cried when the Braves won, I sobbed when the Braves lost.

I cried a lot when Braves 1st baseman Sid Bream slid into home in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS. We were on our way to visit some friends in D.C., and watched the game from a hotel room in Virginia. The Braves were shutout the first eight innings. Bottom of the ninth, they were losing 2-0. Third baseman Terry Pendleton hit a double, David Justice reached on an error, and Sid Bream was walked. After a couple of outs and a walk that scored the first run, Francisco Cabrera stepped up to the plate. The bases were loaded and the team was down by one. Cabrera had only batted 10 times that season, and he was their last hope. He hit a liner to left and Justice scored easily; Bream ran like hell from second. He slid into home plate and barely missed being swiped by the catcher's glove. He had scored from second base on a single.

Braves won 3-2.

Now that's baseball.

I cried the most when the Braves lost the World Series that same year. But I'd rather not relive that one.

The Braves called Atlanta's Fulton-County Stadium home from 1966 to 1996. This was the stadium where the first National League playoff game was held. This stadium saw Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run to break Ruth's record. The Braves kicked off their unbelievable post-season streak with the 1991 "miracle season" in Fulton County stadium. But they have moved on from there since then; to the more modern and flashy Turner Field. The charm of the older stadiums is being incorporated into the remodeling of many stadiums today, but with all of their modern luxuries and amenities, these stadiums seem like mockeries. I wish I had been alive to see the real stadiums - where teams played only day games and fans sat on wooden bleachers.

That day I went to my first game at Fulton-County Stadium was like a dream. The players that were larger than life on my television screen suddenly looked like tiny men on a huge field. There were no camera angles to follow, but a full view of all the action. No replays, just memories to take with me. There was no commentary, just the sound of cracking bats and cheering fans. The roars from the crowd were happening all around me, were coming from me. I was a part of the game.

I don't remember who the Braves played that day, I don't even remember if they won or lost. I remember eating salty popcorn and doing the wave. I remember sitting on a hard seat that became as comfortable as our living room couch. I remember cheering my Braves on in their stadium.

"With a root, root, root for the home team..."