One by one, the greats and not-so-greats walked onto the field one last time.
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, a place of no great architectural renown or, until recent years, very good teams, finally had a night befitting its legacy as the spot where major league sports gained a foothold in the South.The Braves played their final regular-season game in the concrete bowl on Capitol Avenue, beating the Montreal Expos 3-1 before a sellout crowd that hung around for a postgame ceremony honoring everyone from Hank Aaron to Francisco Cabrera.
"This park is like an old glove or old shoe - comfortable," Braves pitcher Tom Glavine said. "I'll miss it. At least we'll still be in the neighborhood, creating new memories."
Next year, the Braves will move next door to the Olympic stadium, which is undergoing a conversion from an 85,000-seat track-and-field facility to a 48,000-seat ballpark.
In the meantime, Atlanta Stadium will live on for a few more months. The Braves won their fifth straight division title, so there will be at least one postseason game. Demolition won't begin until next spring, after renovation on the new stadium is complete.
Between innings of the final regular-season game, the scoreboard showed highlights from the Braves' 31-year history in Atlanta and flashed opening-day lineups from seasons past.
After the final out - Moises Alou's fly to right as hundreds of flashbulbs illuminated the stands - the lights were turned out and lasers flashed.
One by one, players such as Aaron, 300-game winner Phil Niekro and two-time MVP Dale Murphy entered the stadium wearing uniforms from their eras, accompanied by the theme from "Field of Dreams."
"I got goose bumps a couple of times," said current Braves pitcher Greg Maddux, who watched from the dugout.
Of course, the Braves were a miserable team during most of their years at the stadium, so it was only fitting that lesser-known players like Cabrera, Rick Mahler and Earl Williams also were honored.
Atlanta Stadium's legacy stretched from a Beatles concert in 1965, shortly after it opened, to the football games and motocross events that made a mess of the baseball field.
In recent years, the Braves have played three World Series in the stadium and won a championship, which will leave more pleasant memories than the night only 737 people showed up for a game.
"I'll never forget walking through that tunnel for the first time and talking to my brother (Tommie, who also played for the Braves) about whether the ball would carry," said Aaron, who broke Babe Ruth's career home run record in the stadium in 1974. "I told someone this is a park I would like to play in all my life. I knew the ball would carry well here."
While the new stadium will be equipped with all the usual amenities, including luxury boxes, club seats and even a microbrewery, some had mixed emotions about the move.
"I guess the closing of the park is more meaningful to the older guys like myself," said shortstop Jeff Blauser, a Brave since 1987. "Atlanta Stadium put the Atlanta Braves on the baseball map."
Blauser reminisced about some of the memorable moments in the stadium's history, including Cabrera's two-run single that won the 1992 NL championship series and the fire that engulfed the press box on the night Fred McGriff joined the team.
"We lit up the league after that," Blauser quipped. "We've had quite a run."
Sandy Smith said her husband Steve proposed to her in the upper deck along the third-base line 15 years ago.
"I also remember in the late '70s when they had about 30 couples married here," she said. "The Braves players held their bats up high and the couples marched underneath. I've always wondered how many of those folks have been back here."
But another fan was looking forward to seeing the Braves' new home.
"The sight lines in this place are horrible," said Johnny Griffin of suburban Lithonia. "The seats next door look much closer to the field. And we'll have a scenic view of downtown. I'm all for the new park."
Ironically, Alou's uncle, Matty, was the leadoff hitter in the first major league game in 1966. And the Braves' first hitter that night? Felipe Alou, Moises' father and the Montreal manager.
"And I was the last manager to lose a regular-season game here," Felipe Alou pointed out.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Atlanta bomb threat
ATLANTA (AP) - A bomb threat delayed the opening of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium before the Braves' final regular-season home game.
Jim Schultz, a team spokesman, said someone called the Braves' switchboard about 5 p.m., saying a bomb had been placed in the stadium. Atlanta police, stadium security officers and an FBI representative searched the 52,000-seat facility and determined the call was a hoax. The gates, which normally open two hours before a 7:40 p.m. game, finally opened at 6:35 p.m.