DEL.ICIO.USDie-hard fan, almost 89, finally sees Braves in person
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, September 07, 2008
The man handed her a glossy magazine bearing John Smoltz’s image, and Doris Hawkins just about came apart.
She ran her hand across the cover and placed it in the bag holding the Braves magnet he’d given her earlier, the red foam Braves tomahawk and the Braves baseball signed by her favorite Brave of all, Smoltz.
Pouya Dianat/Staff Photographer
Doris Hawkins has loved baseball her whole life, even back in the days of the Atlanta Crackers. Hawkins, however, had not seen her beloved Braves live until her family surprised her with a trip. She is seen here after receiving a ball autographed by John Smoltz.
“I came to watch a baseball game,” said Hawkins, wiping tears from her eyes. “I didn’t expect all of this.”
For most of her life, Doris Hawkins, 88, has watched her team play on television while she sat in a wing back chair in her den – alone.
When the Atlanta Braves won – and they won a lot – her heart danced in her chest. She has kept up with them through a series of National League pennants and a World Series. Even when they weren’t in the winning column, it didn’t matter because Hawkins loved the Atlanta’s baseball team. Always has.
The first time she ever saw a baseball game, Atlanta’s team was the Crackers. She was 13 years old and full of wonder but without an athletic bone in her body. That night nearly eight decades ago was the night her love affair with baseball began.
Hawkins was the guest of a neighbor who had a daughter around the same age. They had a great time that night, but most of what happened has been wiped from her memory.
Who won that night?
“I can’t tell you,” she said.
What was the score?
“I can’t remember that,” she said, “but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was just wonderful.”
That was it. Hawkins never attended another baseball game for 75 years, at least not in person.
She grew up on Atlanta’s west side, one of three children born to a meat cutter and a tool and die maker.
She graduated from Maddox High School in 1936 and two years later married Lonzo “Lonnie” Hawkins. Until her first boy was born, she worked as a long-distance operator. The child died a month later, she said, but Hawkins never worked outside the home again. She gave birth to another son and two daughters.
There wouldn’t be much room for baseball after that. Even when Lonnie started to play for the American Can Co. team, she never went to a game.
“They were always out of town,” she said.
It didn’t matter. It wasn’t baseball Hawkins loved so much as it was the Crackers, and even if she couldn’t be there, she could always listen to the games on the radio. That’s how she has followed the Braves all these years, from her family room in Iron City, four hours from Atlanta in Southwest Georgia, where she moved 29 years ago.
She still sews for her family, still makes them dinner every night, still loves Atlanta’s team.
Hawkins is what granddaughter Angela Forster calls a “die-hard” fan who’d somehow never been to a Braves game.
So, as her 89th birthday approached, the family decided it was time to change that. They were taking Hawkins out to the ball game.
“I was just thrilled,” Hawkins said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
She still couldn’t believe it Saturday as she looked around Turner Field, no longer alone but with 34,369 spectators, including five family members. The Chick-fil-A cow is huge, much larger than it looks on television. That Coke bottle adorned with jerseys and baseballs and catcher’s mitts is gorgeous. And that television set just above her in Section 220 – who needed it?
“I’m just about to explode,” said Hawkins, tears welling in her eyes. “I just can’t believe it.”
At home, she wasn’t used to the dancing and the games and cheers from the sidelines. Just baseball.
“You don’t even hear the ball hitting the bat,” she said.
Sometime around the fourth inning, a photo of her played on the big board at center field.
“I almost missed it,” she said with a great big smile.
Hawkins quickly turned her attention back to her team.
“We’ve lost 29 games this year by one run,” she said. “So many players have been out with injuries. Glavine had elbow surgery. Chipper Jones has problems with his hamstring. John has a shoulder injury.”
At the bottom of the ninth inning, the Washington Nationals led 5-3. The Braves tied the game and went into the 10th.
“Several months ago, it went 19 innings,” Hawkins said. “We won.”
But on this night, Doris Hawkins’ team lost, 8-5.
“I wish we had won,” she said, “but I couldn’t have had a better time.”
Or a better birthday present.
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