Garrison Keillor, accompanied by bluegrassist Ricky Skaggs, brought his national radio show "Prairie Home Companion" to Atlanta one last time over the weekend.
As a farewell present to Atlanta, before a packed Fox Theatre audience on Saturday, Keillor thwarted the move of the Braves to Cobb County. Fictionally, anyway.
‘Twas in its “Guy Noire: Private Eye” skit that the weekly variety show took aim at the ball club's decision to abandon Turner Field, “one of the most beautiful ball parks in the history of baseball,” in favor of “an ugly new field in the midst of miles of shopping malls and office park.
“I’m talking about Cobb County, the northern suburbs that have no public transportation to speak of – just freeways that turn into parking lots,” says one of the characters who hire Noire/Keillor to sabotage the move across the Chattahoochee.
“These fiscal conservatives who pay school teachers in paper clips have ponied up half a billion dollars….so the Braves can leave a fine old ballpark and move a few miles north,” said actor Tim Russell in something approximating a Southern accent. And yes, the word “blasphemy” was used.
Spoiler alert: Keillor sneaks into the unfinished new stadium and rearranges it for lawn bowling. Or a monster truck rally. Hard to say which. Click play button below to listen for yourself, or listen here.
Other targets skewered in the same skit: The merciless enforcement robots of Park Atlanta, and metro Atlanta’s tendency to panic over a little snow – the latter always an amusing topic for Minnesota-based performers.
About the Author
The Latest
Featured
