The Richmond Braves, the AAA franchise of the Braves since they moved to Atlanta, are moving to Gwinnett County, GA by 2010. Wow. This... is stunning. I feel bad for Richmond fans who have supported that team longer than I've been alive, but I'm also excited about the move. This means there will be three professional baseball teams - all Braves - within about an hour and a half drive from my house. The Rome Braves A-ball team are about an hour and 15 minutes north, Gwinnett is about an hour to an hour and a half (depending on where they build the stadium and traffic) and the Turner field is about 45 minutes south. I'll be pretty much assured that anytime I want to go see a game, someone will be in town. Utterly spectacular. And before you protest that an hour and a half drive is a long one, my normal commute to work is an hour if I'm lucky. This also means one other thing for the Braves... If they don't put a high quality product out on Turner Field, people can drive up 1-85 and see a Triple-A team for a hell of a lot less money than they would pay at the Ted. Hell, Atlanta had a Triple-A team for most of the 80's so it's not like it's something new for us. Hey Wren, time to open up the checkbook for Frenchy and Tex! It will be worth it in the long run. Why not make a play for Santana while you're at it since the Yankees just dropped out? If you trade away all our minor leaguers you'll have less competition! It makes perfect business sense.
3 comments:
It's all about stadiums. That's why the GBraves pulled out of greenville because they wouldn't commit to a new stadium and it was taking them too long to. Of course, if you go to G-ville now, the Drive have one of the best minor league ball parks I've ever seen in Greenville's revitalized West End after building a replica of Fenway park. What this will be good for is they can stick Jordan Shafer in AAA and if Kotsay's back goes out they can just have him drive to one park instead of the other.
and I really do feel bad for the Richmond fans if the move happens. They've always given that team such great support, like you said, for as long as I can remember. But this will be a better not as expensive option for Braves fans who want to see baseball at non Braves prices
Button Gwinnett is prancing in his grave!
Now wouldn't that be a good name? the Gwinette Buttons?
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