Baseball Museum 16: Braves Hall of Fame and Museum

On July 16, 2009, when we went to the game at Turner Field we visited the Braves Hall of Fame and Museum that is part of the Braves ballpark attractions. The museum costs $2 per person, which is paid for in tokens obtained from a nearby booth. It is a small museum, but is way better than the Yankees one, so it is worth paying to see even if you are not a Braves fan.

The displays in the museum include milestones, such as John Smoltz’s 3,000th strikeout. This display lists all the players he stuck out on his way to his 3,000th and how many times he struck each player out. It also has a ball from his 3,000th strikeout game and photos. Most interesting to me was the game ticket and he did it against the Washington Nationals. Now the Nats are not that famous for making history other than being on their way to losing history chasing the 120 loss record this year, but it does seem a lot of history happens against them. For example, Randy Johnson got his 300th win against them earlier this season.

The beginning of the museum has displays of items related to the Braves in the Braves Hall of Fame. This includes John Sain’s glove from the 1958 World Series bronzed and Maddux’s jersey (note we visited the day before he was officially added to the Braves Hall of Fame). There is also a television here that shows a video that includes Braves Hall of Famers in action and interviews.

The next area of displays includes items and info about the Milwaukee Era of the Braves organization. One of the most interesting items in my opinion was the first issue of Sports Illustrated, which featured a photo of Eddie Mathews at Milwaukee County Stadium. The display also includes items such as World Series programs, Milwaukee Braves hat, a signed 1957 World Series commemorative bat, and a Cy Young award won by Warren Spahn.

There is then an area that includes a display case with the 1995 World Series trophy, a display about Braves from around the world, a display of the Braves players in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and a board with the franchise and Atlanta era leaders in various records. The record list is mostly older players, but Chipper Jones is the one current player that is in the top ten for the Franchise hitting records. He is at the top of the Atlanta era of the Braves hitting records and in the top ten Atlanta era stolen base records.

The next area features locker displays with memorabilia of various Atlanta Braves eras. This includes a more current one featuring Chipper Jones, a 1960s one, a 1970s one, a 1980s one, and a Hank Aaron one. The Hank Aaron one includes the ball and bat from when he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record by hitting his 715th home run. There are also lockers for every year between 1991 and 2005, except 1994. These lockers represent the Braves streak of winning their division. It may not seem like it is a continuous streak, but since 1994 was a strike season they count it as continuous despite no official division win title for that year.

Near the locker display area is a train car that you can go inside of. However, this train car is not wheelchair accessible, so Mik was not able to check it out. The train car shows how the team used to travel by train to all the games.

The final area is about the beginning of the Braves organization. This area shows the various uniforms worn by the team as it frequently changed names in its early years in Boston. The Boston era began in 1867 and the continuation of the team until today makes it the Longest Continuously Operated Franchise in Major League Baseball. By the time the team left Boston the name of Braves had stuck and has been the name ever since, but before it became the Boston Braves for the second time in 1941 they had several names. The names included Boston Red Stockings (1871-1882), Boston Beaneaters (1883-1906), Boston Doves (1907-1910), Boston Rustlers (1911), Boston Braves for the first time (1912-1935), and Boston Bees (1936-1940). Besides just displaying the various Boston uniforms there is also some other memorabilia from the Boston era of the team such as World Series 1948 items, Babe Ruth’s 1935 Boston Braves contract reproduction, and 1914 World Series items.

Overall there is really quite a lot squeezed into this small museum, which is what makes it very worth the $2. It would be nice if it was just included in the ballpark admission, but at least it makes it worth the $2 by presenting a great history of the team beyond just its Atlanta era. I really liked how they had the different Boston uniforms on display. Mik liked the movie near the beginning and pretty much just sat and watched that as Dad and I looked through the whole museum.

Day 56: Centennial Olympic Park

We still had time to waste on July 14, 2009, after the World of Coca Cola and the Georgia Aquarium, so we walked across the street and walked through Centennial Olympic Park. I would have liked to have more leisurely strolled through here, but Mik was being a pain and kept complaining, so we did not really get to leisurely explore it.

The Centennial Olympic Park honors the hundredth anniversary of the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece, in 1896 along with the Olympic games that took place during that centennial anniversary year (1996) in Atlanta, Georgia. Some of the park features include the symbols for various Olympic sports in the sidewalk (we did find the baseball symbol), a torch monument, and a monument to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who is the founder of the modern Olympic games.

Car Sticker Update: Coca Cola

At the World of Coca Cola Dad got a Coca Cola sticker the car, but it turned out to actually be a cling. He ended up having to put it inside the car and it cannot really be scene through the tinted back window. It is in the bottom left corner. From the outside it is supposed to be a red circle that says Coke, but the only side I could get a decent photo of is the side inside the car that says Atlanta Home of Coke.

Smashed Penny: Georgia Aquarium

At the Georgia Aquarium Mik and I got the same smashed penny design. We went with the simple design that has the Georgia Aquarium’s G logo. It is a pretty interesting logo, though, as the G is made to look like a fish and there are air bubbles in front of it.

Mik’s Food Scrapbook: Georgia Aquarium

The main reason we ended up going to the Georgia Aquarium was that we were hungry after the World of Coca Cola and the café in the Aquarium was the only thing nearby to go eat at. Mik had a corn dog and a red velvet cupcake for lunch here. He rated the corn dog horrible because it was overcooked and even the hot dog was burned. The red velvet cupcake was no Fox & Obel Fat Boy, but it was still good, especially since it was only $1.

Day 56: Georgia Aquarium

The Georgia Aquarium is right next to the World of Coca Cola. There was nowhere else to get any food nearby, so we decided to go to the aquarium as something to do and a place to get lunch on July 14, 2009. The aquarium sure makes itself seem amazing boasting about it having the largest aquarium in the world, but it is actually not that impressive. Sure it has the large aquarium and was fun to see, but I think there is more to see overall at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

The first exhibit we went into was Ocean Voyager. This exhibit is of what I think they said was the largest aquarium environment in the world or something like that. Anyways it does not end up looking all that big because the viewing windows are mostly only enough for a few people to look through at a time, although there is also a tunnel view and one large viewing room. It may not end up seeming that big, but it certainly is pretty big because they have several tiger sharks in there. The aquarium also is the home to the only manta ray in a U.S. aquarium. It was interesting to stand an watch the various aquatic life swim by the large viewing wndow, but a lot of the small windows were horrible because it blocked the view of the aquarium as a whole and just showed an area mostly isolated by artificial settings that did not even have much in terms of little fish around it.

The second area we saw was Cold Water Quest. This area has animals that from cold ocean habitats. One of my favorite things in the whole aquarium was in this area. That was the seadragons. They are so fun to watch, especially the ones that look so much like kelp. This area also has belugas, an octopus, spider crabs, and a preserved specimen of a giant squid. They have penguins here, but you can currently only see them on a behind the scene tour, which we did not realize until too late to see them. Anyways it is not like I have not seen the African penguins in their native habitat.

The third area we explored was the Tropical Diver exhibit. This exhibit includes species native to tropical coral reefs. One of the interesting animals was the jellyfish, especially the transparent moon jellyfish that were illuminated with different colored lights. The garden eels were also interesting to watch pop up in the sand. There is also a large viewing window type display for this area. Other species on display included sea horses and clownfish.

The final exhibit we saw was Georgia Explorer. This exhibit contains aquatic life native to Georgia. They have loggerhead turtles and a touch station in here. They also have a display on a fish once thought to be extinct.

Overall it was not that bad of place to kill a few hours, but it was an extremely expensive place to go and see everything in less than two hours. It really is not worth its crazy admission price. It might have been better if it was not so crowded, but then again it might have been a faster trip if we were not slowed down by the crowds trying to see the different things.