I was able to go see the Braves play the Marlins again at Turner Field last night, yes, same teams as before, this time it was a night game… Literally…
Atlanta has been in monsoon season for the last few weeks, and we (Robyn and myself) were hoping, nay praying for a dry evening at the old ballpark, and for a while it looked favourable, until 10 minutes before the 7:35 pm opening pitch when it began to rain heavily. Where we were sitting (Lexus Level 1st row y’all) offered a little bit of cover from the rain but the wind changed for the worse and we had to move a few rows back to be completely covered. How long the rain delay would last, well no one knew, weather reports flashed up on the big screen saying the rain was moving away to the south but after an hour the rain was relentless, so we went inside to see what the Lexus Level had to offer, and it’s quite a nice area of the ballpark, shame it looked like a refugee camp with everyone inside hiding from the elements.
And thus it went on, it looked like we’d be having a game at about 9:30 when the ground crew came out to rapturous applause and began to lift the covers off, but they got half way before the rain came on again and they got booed out the park.
By now a lot of people, families mostly, had decided to cut their losses and head home as no one knew when, or indeed if, the game would be played. Eventually at 10:30 the rain ceased and it was anounced that opening pitch would be 10:55, the few who had remain were also told that they could sit in any free seat available, so those in the upper deck rushed down to the seats behind the dugouts and home plate. The ground crew came on and made the surface playable and opening pitch was right on 10:55 pm, some 3 hours 20 minutes late…
The game was a pretty speedy one, I guess even the players didn’t want to hang about at that time of night. J.D. Drew hit a two run homer in the third as the Braves cruised to a 6-1 victory in a game that ran until 1:25 am. During the game we had a few close calls with foul balls off Julio Franco’s bat, three or four came extremely close to us only to hit off the nearby scoreboard or drop down into the seats below…
Anyway, here is a few of the 150 odd pictures we took of the game
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Quite a few huh? Also… A Turner Field panorama (this time at night…)
Comments
2 responses to “Wet N’ Wild at Turner Field”
Are you aware of any Braves games, other than those listed below, which have ended after 1 AM? Thank you.
1:01 AM – Shibe Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 7/8/1949 – Braves 4 Phillies 3 in 4:16 and 16 innings, stretcher delay 0:15 top 13th – 11,238 fans.
1:15 AM – Crosley Field, Cincinnati, Ohio – 8/31/1965 – rain delay 0:24 at start, Braves 5 Reds 3 in 3:00, 2nd rain delay 2:08 bottom 5th, then Reds 4 Braves 1 in 1:36 and 3 innings, 3rd rain delay 0:45 top 4th, called off – 19,645 fans.
1:06 AM – Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia – 8/15/1969 – Braves 8 Cardinals 2 in 2:06, rain delay 3:00 bottom 1st – 23,336 fans.
1:06 AM – Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia – 9/5/1970 – Braves 5 Giants 2 in 2:38, rain delay 1:00 bottom 2nd; 2nd and 3rd rain delays 0:39 and 0:34 in middle innings, then Braves 5 Giants 3 in 2:10 – 13,820 fans.
2:12 AM – Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia – 9/10/1971 – Braves 7 Giants 5 in 3:41 and 11 innings, rain delay 2:19 bottom 11th – 8403 fans, 150 fans at end.
3:55 AM – Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia – 7/4/1985 – rain delay 1:24 at start, Mets 16 Braves 13 in 6:10 and 19 innings, 2nd rain delay 0:41 bottom 3rd, 4th of July fireworks show began at 4:01 AM, ended at 4:12 AM – 44,947 fans, 8000 fans at end.
1:15 AM – Busch Stadium (II), St. Louis, Missouri – 5/14/1988 – Braves 7 Cardinals 5 in 5:40 and 19 innings – 47,887 fans.
1:25 AM – Turner Field, Atlanta, Georgia – 6/28/2004 – rain delay 3:20 at start, Braves 6 Marlins 1 in 2:30 – 31,969 fans, 5000 fans at start, 2000 fans at end.
I cant say I am aware of any others