The Atlanta Braves’ pending move to Cobb County has been a divisive issue for Braves fans and residents of both Cobb and Fulton counties. And now, a strange new wrinkle is getting inserted into the situation – the city of Atlanta doesn’t want the Braves to take a statue of Hank Aaron with them to SunTrust Park in 2017, claiming it was paid for by taxpayers. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the details on this odd story.
Eight years after Braves right-fielder Hank Aaron shattered Babe Ruth’s home-run record in 1974, [Bob] Hope decided to form a nonprofit group dedicated to erecting a monument to the baseball legend. As a symbolic gesture of gratitude, the nonprofit deemed, it should be paid for by Aaron’s fans.
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Organizers cobbled together checks and coins, and managed to get The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to urge and match donations. In the end, a larger than life statue was erected at the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium in 1982, and later moved to Turner Field.
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Hope, who worked in the Braves’ marketing department when Aaron broke Ruth’s record, believes the statue was donated to the AFCRA when it was dedicated. The folks there say they are in the early stages of itemizing the ball field’s monuments and plan to look into the issue later this year.
Isn’t this just lovely? The statue is an iconic part of Turner Field and earlier, Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. The Braves didn’t pay for the construction of the statue – fans and other people in the community did. Yet, Aaron is a legendary Brave, and his statue should be where the team is playing, whether it’s outside of Fulton County Stadium, across the street at Turner Field, or one county over outside of SunTrust Park.
When push comes to shove, the Braves will probably end up either paying for the statue or giving Fulton County and the city of Atlanta another concession with respect to their move away from Turner Field. But what a mess – you think this issue would have been sorted out sometime in the nearly 33 years the statue has stood.
