I recently shared here about our summer vacay trip to Atlanta, Georgia. As most of y’all know, I’m an avid baseball fan and the Atlanta Braves, being just 200 miles from my hometown, are my most favorite team, though I have followed other teams throughout my life and have had several other favorite teams over the years while still following the Braves. But this trip to see the Braves was special because we were going to visit their new stadium for the first time.

Monument Garden

And in my wife Lynndee’s recent post sharing tips on how to enhance any trip to the new stadium, she mentioned in her comments about viewing the Monument Garden in the concourse area behind home plate. I’ll now share with you some of the fantastic things to see at this site.

Hank Aaron

Like most fans, I heard NBCs Curt Gowdy call this dinger on Monday Night Baseball. But I actually saw Aaron hit #713 and then watched the final game of the 1973 season the next day in hopes of seeing him make history. He went 3 for 4, all singles.

The centerpiece of this exhibit is a statue of Hank Aaron capturing the moment on April 8, 1974, at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium when Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s long-standing 715 career home-run record. And behind the statue is a sculpture made up of 755 baseball bats to honor Aaron’s career home-run total, which most true baseball fans consider to be the actual all-time record considering the controversy behind the record later set by an individual who apparently used performance-enhancing drugs.

Also shown in this exhibit is the MVP (Most Valuable Player) Award won by Aaron in 1957, also the year the Braves won the World Series with his amazing performance in the series where he led all regulars with a .393 average and eleven hits, including a triple, three home runs, and seven RBI. He would have most likely won the MVP award for the series if not for the performance of Braves’ pitcher Lew Burdette who pitched and won three complete games, two of them being shutouts and only giving up two runs in the other.

Miracle Braves

The first piece of the exhibit is a huge photo of the Boston Braves where the franchise began its history in 1876 as the Boston Red Caps, making them the oldest team in baseball history along with the Chicago Cubs, also founded in 1876 as the Chicago White Stockings. I’m unsure, but this particular photo may be the 1914 “Miracle Braves” who swept the World Series from Connie Mack’s powerful Philadelphia Athletics, winners of three of the four previous series.

What was really amazing about this Braves team is that they were in last place on July 4th with a record of 26 wins and 40 losses only to then come back and win the pennant by 10 1/2 games by playing the final 87 games of the season at 68–19, a winning percentage of an amazing .782! That puts me in mind of the 1991 Braves who had what was considered a “Miracle Season”, going from worst to first, winning the Eastern Division by a one game margin after being 9 1/2 games behind at the all star break. And that would be the first of 14 straight division titles, never done before by any professional team and most likely never to be accomplished again.

Dale Murphy

Other interesting pieces are those honoring the great Braves outfielder Dale Murphy. One is one of his 1982 game jerseys, the first of two consecutive MVP years Murphy had. Also shown is the Silver Slugger Award he won in 1982, the first of four consecutive he won.

Awards Given to Braves

Other awards featured are one of the three Cy Young Awards won as a Brave by pitcher Greg Maddux, one of the ten consecutive Gold Gloves won by Andrew Jones during his time with the Braves signifying his defensive abilities, and the 1990 Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award given to outfielder David Justice, one of six such awards given to a Brave in the 68 years since its inception, five going to Atlanta Braves and one to a Boston Brave. Just the number of these awards given to Braves show the outstanding history of this teams players.

And I’ve barely touched upon all the fantastic pieces presented at this great exhibit. I could have wandered through it for hours but there was a game to watch. Next time, I’ll have to go much earlier to get my fill of it. But hey, that’s just an excuse to make another trip to Atlanta to see my Braves, as if I really need an excuse.