Atlanta Braves' Debut 50 Years Ago Was Followed In Chattanooga

The Atlanta Braves called themselves America’s team during those early cable television days of more than three decades ago, but when the major league team moved South 50 years ago Tuesday, they were simply Atlanta’s team.

 

However, other cities within a couple of hours drive – including Chattanooga – quickly began rooting for them, too, and they soon became a beloved a part of Southern sports culture.

 

While last year’s theme for the Braves was 50 seasons in Atlanta, and this year’s focus is on the last season at Turner Field before the move next year to SunTrust Park on the north side of downtown Atlanta, it actually all began on April 12, 1966.

 

That was the first regular season game in history for the Atlanta Braves.

And it turned out to be a 13-inning home thriller against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Although it was a loss, the Braves quickly realized they had found their home after moving from Milwaukee – a move that had residents of the Wisconsin city crying foul and filing lawsuits.

 

And many cheering fans would find their homes inside the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and later Turner Field, or in front of their television sets or near their radio.

 

A look at the April 1966 Chattanooga newspapers on microfilm at the library shows that the Scenic City was quite interested from the start in the baseball goings on two hours south. This was especially true since minor league baseball had left Chattanooga after the 1965 season.

 

Veteran sports writers and longtime baseball observers Allan Morris of the Chattanooga News-Free Press and Wirt Gammon Sr. of The Chattanooga Times covered the new era with much interest and enthusiasm. They attended the opening game and tried to put into perspective the fact that a Southern city – and one not too far from Chattanooga – finally had a major league baseball team.

 

Mr. Morris even became a little nostalgic thinking about the intense rivalry of the old Atlanta Crackers and the Chattanooga Lookouts in the minor leagues.

 

While getting fans in Georgia, Tennessee and other nearby Southern states to accept the Braves was easy, getting them to say goodbye to Milwaukee was not, as the Milwaukee fans and supporters fought the move emotionally and legally.

 

The Braves – whose origin dates to 1871 in Boston – were in the World Series in 1957 and ’58 while in Milwaukee and had good attendance throughout the 1950s.

 

However, Milwaukee ownership head Bill Bartholomay thought moving the team into the burgeoning Southern city of Atlanta might be more lucrative due to potentially more television revenue. He also wanted to be the first person to bring a major league baseball team to the Deep South, one online article about him says.

 

He began working with Atlanta’s enthusiastic civic leaders and was able to move them there in 1966 after legal battles kept the Braves in Milwaukee through 1965.

 

The new stadium – which was originally called Atlanta Stadium – had opened in 1965 and served as home of the Atlanta Crackers that first year of operation. The facility also hosted in 1965 a concert by a band called the Beatles.

 

But by April 1966, the 52,000-seat circular stadium – which cost $18 million at the time – was ready for its real purpose: serving as home of the Braves and also the Falcons, which also debuted in 1966.

 

Before the Braves’ regular season began, they hosted in the Atlanta stadium a pretty well known team named the New York Yankees in an exhibition series. Injured Yankee star Mickey Mantle helped christen the stadium as a major league ballpark by playing in the games to see if he was ready for the start of the season.

 

On the day before the first Braves’ game, a black-tie dinner hosted by Georgia Gov. Carl Sanders was held. Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen, who headed the drive to get the stadium built, declared a half-day off for schoolchildren on that Tuesday, when a parade attended by an estimated 200,000 took place along Peachtree Street.

 

The historic first game was also delayed in starting due to pre-game festivities. But when it did, Tony Cloninger of the Braves, who had won 24 games the year before for Milwaukee, started the game by throwing a pitch to centerfielder Matty Alou of the Pirates, whose brother, Felipe Alou, was the centerfielder for the Braves.

 

News-Free Press writer Allan Morris hinted that he and others were in a little disbelief trying to realize that major league baseball had finally come south. “I think everyone held their breath until the last moment, against any possibility of it not happening, and maybe a lot of others rubbed their eyes to see if they weren’t dreaming,” he wrote.

 

He also said the collection of opening day ceremony activities was called the biggest event in Atlanta since the ‘Gone with the Wind’ premiere there in 1939.

 

“Actually, the game may have been a little anti-climatic,” he wrote.

 

But it was certainly exciting. Catcher Joe Torre – later the manager of the Mets, the Braves and the New York Yankees – hit a home run in the fifth inning to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Jim Pagliaroni of the Pirates tied the game with his own homer in the eighth, and it stayed that way through nine innings.

 

After three more scoreless innings, the great right-fielder Willie Stargell hit a two-run home run in the top of the 13^th to put the Bucs up 3-1. Torre would hit another homer in the bottom of the 13^th, but it was too little, too late, and Pittsburgh won the historic opener, 3-2.

 

The Braves actually played only nine players – including pitcher Cloninger -- for the entire 13 innings, a much different scenario from what would have taken place in a 13-inning game today.

 

Other Braves in that first game included third baseman Eddie Matthews, right-fielder Hank Aaron (who went 1-for-6), left-fielder Rico Carty, shortstop Denis Menke, first baseman Lee Thomas and second baseman Frank Bolling. The manager was Bobby Bragan.

 

The great Roberto Clemente had two hits for Pittsburgh.

 

While the game was exciting, even though it fell a little short for Atlanta, it was also thrilling outside the white lines. Writer Morris noted that the electronic scoreboard said, “Y’all come back,” after the game and added, “The fans are sure to, as the Dixie spirit isn’t to be held down,” he wrote. “As MC Milo Hamilton said, ‘This is the land of the free, and the home of the Braves!’ ”

 

In his notebook after the game, Wirt Gammon Sr. wrote as well of its significance. “Everyone here was happy about this exciting moment of baseball history,” he said. “Everyone, that is, except three baseball writers from Milwaukee.”

 

He said that 250 visiting writers – including noted New York writer Red Smith -- descended on the Atlanta stadium, while Mr. Morris pointed out that an auxiliary press box had to be secured.

 

Of the prices for concessions for that first game, Mr. Gammon wrote that hot dogs were 30 cents, popcorn was 25 cents, beer was 50 cents and coffee was 25 cents.

 

Mr. Gammon also interviewed noted former player Dizzy Dean, who was part of the Braves radio broadcast on radio station WSB along with future Georgia football announcer Larry Munson, Ernie Johnson and Milo Hamilton. Mr. Dean recalled playing against former Chattanoogan Whitlow Wyatt, a former pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

 

“He was the meanest man I ever saw,” Mr. Dean said. “He’d tell you he was going to hit you and show you where.”

 

Amid all the excitement and sideshows surrounding the opening game, the Braves had arrived in Atlanta to stay. They would go on to finish fifth in the National League behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1966 in those pre-division days, and would go on to have a number of good – and bad – seasons.

 

The 1969 team would bring the first division championship to Atlanta, but the franchise’s only other division championship until 1991 was during the memorable 1982 season, when the team was led by beloved player Dale Murphy.

 

The 1990s and early 2000s would be the glory years led by pitchers Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Greg Maddux and manager Bobby Cox. But still, the Braves could only muster one World Series title, in 1995, and many thought the squad was capable of more championships.

 

Last year was a reminder of the struggling days of the 1970s and 1980s, and this year is looking like a probable repeat of 2015.

 

But through it all over the last 50 years – from the era of watching Chief Noc-A-Homa by his teepee to doing the Tomahawk Chop – fans in Atlanta, Chattanooga and elsewhere have continued to shout, “Go Braves!”

 

Jcshearer2@comcast.net