Braves Baseball Leaves Olympic Home

(ATR) It has been 20 years and eight months since R.A. Dickey last pitched to bring a championship to the city of Atlanta.

In the summer of 1996 Dickey was one of the 20 Americans hoping to bring home a gold medal in baseball at the Atlanta Olympics. Then, Dickey was in his final year at the University of Tennessee and was just months from turning professional. He pitched in two games as the United States fell short of its goal winning a bronze medal.

Now, Dickey is looking to continue his professional career at the age of 42 this time for his childhood team the Atlanta Braves. The rebuilding Braves are in a transition period in both talent on the field and the franchise’s home. The 2017 season will see the Braves leave the Atlanta city limits for a new ballpark in Cobb County, 14.5 miles (23.3 kilometers) from Turner Field, the site of the opening of the 1996 Games.

On March 31 the Braves began the quest to make new memories at their new home SunTrust Park, opening the park with an exhibition game against the New York Yankees. Around the Rings attended the game, speaking with Dickey about his Olympic experience and his return to Atlanta.

"It is a dream come true for a kid, and I consider myself a kid at heart at 42, to be able to play for a club that you grew up watching and fighting for in your bed when you fell asleep listening on the radio," Dickey said to ATR. "I tell you [the 1996 Opening Ceremony] was a cool experience for sure, but this field, this facility is just so fantastic I couldn’t hope to play any other place than this."

In the exhibition game, Dickey pitched second for the Braves notching two scoreless innings. The ageless knuckleballer is likely to become the only player to play competitively in all three Atlanta ballparks the Braves have called home when he takes the mound for a home game next week.

Dickey has made two appearances pitching for Team USA in his career. He was a member of the 2013 World Baseball Classic team that finished in fourth place. Despite pitching for the U.S. in both a professional and amateur capacity Dickey believes that Major League Baseball players should not be making the trip to Tokyo.

"My hope has always been it remained an amateur sport because I felt we had enough amateur talent to be able to compete at that level, and we did; we won a bronze medal," Dickey said. "It is such a great experience for a kid in college to have something like that to work towards so my hope is it can remain an amateur sport in Tokyo."

The IOC is unlikely to accept Dickey’s wishes, given the body’s stated desire to see the world’s best athletes in Tokyo at all sports. The World Baseball/Softball Confederation said it was confident that talks with MLB would progress well after being included in the Tokyo Olympics. Recent comments from MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred have thrown cold water on that optimism. Unlike MLB, both the Korean and Japanese baseball leagues have pledged to shut down for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The Braves controversial move to suburban Cobb County was initially seen as a blow to the 1996 Olympic Legacy. The 1996 Olympic Stadium was built with baseball in mind, and the Braves began play there for the 1997 season. Fortunately, Georgia State University purchased the stadium, and the surrounding land from the city of Atlanta and is repurposing Turner Field as a 23,000 seat football stadium.

Moving away from the heart of the city was seen by many observers as a strategic move for the franchise. Cobb County contributed over $400 million in funding to help build the stadium. At the time the Braves defended the move saying it brought the ballpark closer to a majority of the team’s fans.

Andy Sadler, 30, an operations analyst from Smyrna, Georgia told ATR the new ballpark location allowed him and his fiancée to purchase season tickets. Sadler said he would attend 10-15 games a season at Turner Field, but "absolutely" expects to go to more at SunTrust Park.

"We live three miles down the road so this is just a dream come true," Sadler said. "[The park] feels like it is built for baseball, and Turner Field was built for the Olympics. It is a different feel."

Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman is one of the longest tenured players on the 2017 roster, and played seven seasons at Turner Field. Ahead of the season Freeman played for Team Canada at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, a tribute to his late mother. Freeman told ATR that the current April to November calendar for MLB makes it almost impossible for any international competition to be held for the world’s best baseball players. He thinks the March window used for the WBC is the only option but admits it isn't perfect.

"Shutting down a season is not, I think, a good idea because those guys that don’t go play are sitting down for two weeks and are going to lose their timing and are going to lose all their stuff, and it is going to be disastrous for when people come back who haven’t played," Freeman said. "You can’t do it after the season because guys have already thrown 240-250 innings if they’ve been in the playoffs. The best time to do it is when we are doing it and ultimately it is still not the best time because guys aren’t completely ready."

Freeman says he would "gladly don the Canadian uniform again" if given the chance at a future World Baseball Classic. Ahead of the exhibition game, Freeman reflected on his seven seasons at Turner Field and saying the stadium’s deep history "is still going to be there because Georgia State has it now."

"It is never a bad thing to let those memories live, and have us create new memories here," Freeman said. "New is always good. Hopefully we can create some memories real fast here and some lasting memories for a lot of people, and we can win a World Series in this park soon."

When asked what his favorite part of the stadium was, Freeman explained that at night the wind blows out helping hitters, like him. He also spoke positively about a smaller outfield, especially where the wall is only "375 in right center."

In the bottom half of the third inning Freeman gave fans a sneak peek of how his power would translate to the new park. He hit the first Braves home run in the stadium, after Yankee Greg Bird smacked the first home run in the stadium the inning prior.

The location? Three-hundred and seventy five feet to right-center.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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