Baseball revived Atlanta’s Olympic atmosphere with a World Series on hold watched by millions of viewers

Baseball somehow revived the Olympic atmosphere in Atlanta in the last few days, even though the expected title celebration was put on hold.

An important number of national and international media were attracted to the capital of the state of Georgia for three games of the legendary “World Series”, the maximum event of the American Major Leagues with a history of 118 years. Several of them dedicated spots from Centennial Olympic Park to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Games.

Although baseball has been excluded from the Paris 2024 Games, it is a given that it will return with the Los Angeles 2028 Games and remain for Brisbane 2032. This World Series finale is a showcase of the spectacular nature of this sport with great stars.

The seven-challenge World Series is contested between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros and coincidentally this club includes Cuba’s Yulieski Gurriel, the only Olympic medalist among the protagonists of both sides. Gurrriel was runner-up with Cuba in the 2008 Beijing Games baseball tournament won by South Korea.

In the stands behind the Astros dogout, his father, Lourdes Gurriel, one of the top players on the gold medal-winning Cuban team at the 1992 Barcelona Games when baseball made its official debut in the Olympic program, followed the game.

Yulieski defected with his younger brother Lourdes Jr, signed by the Toronto Blue Jays, in 2016 during the Caribbean Series in the Dominican Republic.

The World Series will now return, and with no return, some 800 miles west to Minute Maid Park, where the fate of one of the two will be defined. Braves is ahead three wins to two.

Sports heroes throughout the history of the Braves franchise, well-known American figures from other sports including Olympic medalists, were seen, and several of them recognized, during these three memorable days at Truist Park after the Astros survived their last elimination game at the last minute, put a scare into Halloween and prevented the home team from uncorking the champagne.

On one of those evenings, the most moving tribute was dedicated to Hank Aaron, an iconic Major League Baseball figure. His number “44″ was displayed on the center field turf at Truist Park, as it has been all season, after his death of natural causes in January at age 86.

“Hammer Hank”, as he was known, set several batting records in his 23 years in Major League Baseball, mostly with the Braves, and his merits led him to the Hall of Fame, the home of baseball’s immortals at the Cooperstown location in New York state.

Fans of the oldest national sport in the U.S. have April 8, 1974, frozen in their memories: in an Atlanta stadium packed with spectators and in a game broadcast throughout the United States, Aaron broke the all-time record of the legendary Babe Ruth by hitting his 715th home run.

Aaron finished his career with 755 home runs, a record that stood until 2007.

The 40,000-plus crowd gave a standing ovation to Billye Aaron, his widow, who took the field as her son, Hank Aaron Jr. threw out the ceremonial pitch to stellar local player Freddie Freeman.

Atlanta originally hoped to honor Aaron at the All-Star Game in July, but Major League Baseball moved the traditional game to Denver as a protest against a Georgia law that established new voting restrictions and that, according to Democrats and voting rights groups, was discriminatory against voters of color.

But the Braves’ postseason performance, with the final blow to the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, shattered the odds.

“Baseball fever” led to three consecutive sellouts in Truist Park’s debut in the so-called “Fall Classic”. The stadium opened in 2017. When the Braves were last in a World Series, in 1999 they played at Turner Field, originally built as Centennial Olympic Stadium in 1996, and today a venue for American football.

That 22-year wait is what seems to be the main reason fans paid high ticket prices, including tickets as high as $1,000 to watch the games standing in the aisles. A seat in the “Truist Club” section directly behind home plate had a starting price of $10,750.

This Sunday, when the city celebrated in advance the victory that did not come, it is estimated that about 30,000 people invaded the entertainment complex surrounding the stadium, called “The Battery Atlanta” with a main street full of restaurants, bars and stores that leads to Truist Park.

The crowd, even bigger than in the previous two dates, and strictly guarded by law enforcement officers, as Around The Rings found out, followed until midnight the fifth game on giant screens located at various points.

The interest of the fans was also reflected in the sales of cards of Braves baseball players, who have not won a World Series since 1995.

The passion aroused made the lines in front of sporting goods stores endless. As with the postcards, the name “Freeman” is the most commonly seen on baseball shirts, but so are those of Latino players.

Some 20 Latino players are on the rosters of the two clubs, including five Cubans who have defected from the island.

Although he only arrived to the Braves in July, at the time of the change of players between franchises, shirts with Soler’s inscription on the back also began to be appreciated among the fans.

“Welcome news for a newcomer to Atlanta,” Soler told Around The Rings, with his big smile. And his several records with the Braves.

The Cuban home run hitter, who escaped the Caribbean island via sea with his father in 2011 after several attempts, already has a World Series ring with the Chicago Cubs in 2016 and is confident of conquering a second this week in a well complicated ground as the Minute Maid Park.