James Nov-Dec 2023 web - Flipbook - Page 44
Cobb voters were not wild about the
out-of-nowhere announcement. I
interpreted that as fears that crime,
costs and blight that often surrounds
stadiums would follow the Braves to
Cobb County. Boy was I wrong.
That gets me back to my sweet
mother. As a sort of matriarch of
Vinings, she too thought the Braves’
move might bring problems to the
area. But before SunTrust, now
Truist Park, could open my father
passed away and she quickly
thereafter became basically
homebound. Every day for
the last eight years was
spent in that beautiful solarium looking at the deer
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JAMES
who frequented her property. She
had little knowledge of the changed
world just a few miles away.
Several years after my wife Dolle
and I moved full time to Florida and
jettisoned our place in Buckhead, we
found refuge at…The Battery.
We virtually became family to
Omar, the director of the front office
at The Battery’s Omni hotel, and his
phenomenal staff. We witnessed the
magic that those far wiser than I envisioned when they created the most
magical experience I have ever seen
in Atlanta or all of Georgia.
So much credit goes to John
Schuerholz, Jr. who literally presided
over the creation of the “winning
Braves” and who pulled the trigger
on the Cobb move.
Also much credit goes to the
Braves leadership of Atlanta/Turner
legend Terry McGuirk, Derek Schiller
and Mike Plant— a seasoned and
brilliant team who have delivered
what I am about to describe.
NOVEM B E R/D EC E M B E R 2 0 2 3
The Atlanta Braves and The Battery are without a doubt the greatest
and most enduring miracle I have
ever witnessed in Atlanta. That is no
slight to my friends Billy Payne and
Andy Young. The Olympics were
the greatest moment in the city’s
history, no doubt. Billy’s vision and
Andy’s leadership brought weeks of
unequaled excitement to games that
were truly “the best games ever.”
But what the Braves have built,
on the shoulders of a courageous,
brilliant, and unbridled Ted Turner,
is an enduring burst of great sports,
entertainment, great food and as, I
suggested, pure joy.
Never did that become more
obvious than in the final weeks of my
mother’s life.
As an aside, many years ago I
would have never considered taking a
seriously ill family member to Cobb’s
Kennestone Hospital. Not that it
wasn’t good, it just wasn’t great. But
in 2023 I never thought twice.