Foster: 30 years since Braves-Reds game made me fall in love with baseball

From SABR member Jason Foster at The Sporting News on June 20, 2017:

Today is my baseball anniversary. 

It was on this day — June 20, 1987 — that I saw my first big league game in person. I was only 11, but I remember the game as vividly as any I’ve ever attended. I remember the date because we tend to remember important milestones in our lives.

For me, I recognize June 20 as the day I fell in love with baseball.

It was a Saturday afternoon. My dad and I left Charlotte, N.C., at 5:30 a.m. with a church group for a Father’s Day weekend outing to watch the Braves host the Reds in Atlanta. To that point, I’d been a casual baseball fan. I enjoyed playing the game, but I didn’t really watch it. My knowledge of players came mostly from collecting baseball cards, which I started doing in 1986 because my mom wouldn’t let me buy Garbage Pail Kids. I was excited to see some of those cardboard images in the flesh: Dale Murphy, Dion James, Pete Rose, Kal Daniels.

When my dad and I walked into Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, my response was a cliché — but it’s also the truth: I’d never seen anything quite like it. The field, with the green grass, and the stadium, with all those seats, were a glorious sight to behold. The stadium looked massive yet intimate. I can still picture it all.

Read the full article here: http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/news/braves-reds-fight-brawl-home-runs-dale-murphy-bill-gullickson-andres-thomas-june-20-1987/kzcianecsfy11e1er9aix9r7i



Originally published: June 22, 2017. Last Updated: June 22, 2017.