Tag: sports

On Friday, the torch will blaze for the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. After years of preparation and months of qualifying, Atlanta athletes representing the U.S. and abroad will compete on the world stage in over a dozen sports. Here, a breakdown of just some of the many Atlanta athletes who have made this year's Olympics, their relationship with the city, and when to watch them with pride:

50 high school baseball players of Native American descent, representing 23 tribes from 16 states across the U.S. and Canada, participated in the third-annual Native American All-Star Baseball Showcase at Truist Park. The players went through pro-style workouts with former Braves players as their coaches and talked to MLB and college scouts. On Sunday, they played a showcase game against one another, with many family members of the players attending and cheering for both teams.

"Everything I learned from football—whether resilience, accountability, change, or overcoming adversity—has crafted my mentality to reading and bringing it to others."

On Friday, the Atlanta Braves opened up their Truist Park account with their first home game of the year. The game itself is just one of 162 and in the win-loss column, the result has little impact on the outcome of the season. But the experience for Braves’ fans matters more than any other regular season game in the year. 

It was 50 years ago this month—April 8, 1974—that Henry Aaron hit his 715th career home run off pitcher Al Downing in Atlanta, breaking Ruth’s 39-year record. When he finally reached that summit, it seemed less a cause for celebration for Aaron than reason for a long sigh of relief: The chase was finally over.

Truist Park: The home of the Braves is an enigma. It’s an artificial mecca of baseball that displaced Turner Field to the chagrin of many, but now draws some of the best crowds in baseball. The stadium itself is a beauty, with faux red brick that creates an old-school ballpark feel in a sea of corporate office parks. Let’s leave behind its contradictions for a moment to focus on Truist Park and the great baseball played there since 2017.

Former Braves coaches Ron Washington and Eric Young Sr. mentored Acuña to an MVP season in 2023. Can the young outfielder thrive without them?

Not sure if you’ve ever tried launching a professional sports team before, but there’s a lot to it. Selecting logos. Setting schedules. Building hype. But apparently, Atlanta makes choosing a home city easy. In addition to the familiar big leagues, new pro teams are coming to the ATL.

Atlanta United has had a few kits that nod toward the team's home base. But this year's new secondary kit has the most direct Atlanta connections yet. Called the Resurgens Kit, the jersey was created in partnership with the City of Atlanta and features an abstract phoenix on the front and the official city seal on the back of the neck.

"My first [Hawks] season was 1985–1986. I had hoped that I would be the longtime voice of the team. That had been my dream as a young broadcaster—to become that guy, like a Vin Scully [with the Los Angeles Dodgers] or Johnny Most with the Celtics or Chick Hearn with the Lakers. People that have been so-called 'lifers.' That’s what I set out to do. And here we are, 39 seasons later."