For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Coming in 2017

The Smyrna Braves

All of the Atlanta Braves Nation woke up to quite a shock this morning. 2016 will be the last season the Braves will play in Turner Field and they are moving to the Cumberland - Galleria area of greater Cobb County.

the new site

I was just gobsmacked by this news and made the above tomahawk logo right after I found out this morning, and here, hours later , in the cool of my head and the afternoon, I will admit it is more than a little bit over the top.

I'm not going to take it down off facebook -  but it was a knee jerk reaction to the news.

This is about so much more than just baseball, and after obsessing over this , seriously, all day long - I sort of get it. This map is just amazing to me, for so many reasons. The vast majority of the Atlanta Brave ticket buyers are white northside folk, that stadium in in the black south side. Business is business. In the end why should the folks in the city of Atlanta carry all the tax burden for the team and all those fans in the red.  It's just why oh why did they have to pick reddest of the red - Cobb County. Just seems to be a little extra salt in the wound to the city of Atlanta. The big question still is HOW on earth will the very GOP crowd in Cobb come up with the 450 MILLION that is being talked about.

This is like the third attempt at writing about this today - all the others veered off into anti racist screeds that just became too preachy for even me. It's just cities need a core, a soul - something to pull folks out of there houses and neighborhoods and together - in Atlanta , that is rare, but the Braves were something that did! It got people into downtown. There just has to be something more to Atlanta than an airport and endless , endless sprawl.
You see there is no reason for Atlanta to be there, no great rivers meet, no sea port - just some guy who worked for a train company who had a pin and a map - and it is a city that NEEDS reasons to come together.

Everyone has said all day " If Ted Turner was still involved this would never have happened" , but he is not. The Braves are owned by a Liberty Media out of Colorado - and all they care about it is the bottom line. Looks like maybe just maybe this could be a giant game of chicken between the city and the Braves - but from the things the Mayor said today, I dont think so.

Its just a darn shame.