All good things must come to an end.
On Monday, April 4, the relationship between the Atlanta Braves and Turner Field will enter its last season as the Braves take on the Washington Nationals at 4:10 p.m.
The Braves, who won nine of their 14 consecutive division titles in the sheltering arms of The Ted, will begin bidding the former Olympic Stadium a long farewell.
You must do the same. Between now and October, you, the Braves fans, have some things you need to do.
You can call it the Braves Bucket List. The Ted and its surroundings have some bases you need to touch on this final lap. Here’s where we think you should start:
Hank Aaron
The statue by sculptor Ed Dwight shows Aaron looking skyward, tracing the arc of the shot heard 'round the world, the long fly ball that would unseat Babe Ruth as the home run champion. After a brief argument with the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority, the Braves agreed that the statue will stay in Atlanta and they'll make a new one for SunTrust Park. But fans should visit it here, near where that home run was actually smacked.
The Wall
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium is gone, but part of the wall over which that fateful ball flew remains, parked out in the Green Lot. A brick-paved representation of the basepath is nearby, and when cars aren’t parked on top of them, you can trace a memory of Aaron’s footsteps.
Monument Grove
Aaron's statue shares the outdoor plaza called Monument Grove with likenesses of other baseball greats, including Georgia native and all-time hitting champion Ty Cobb (who played most of his career with the Detroit Tigers), knuckleballer Phil Niekro and left-handed phenomenon Warren Spahn (who pitched for the Braves, but in Boston and Milwaukee). Show respect.
The Coke Bottle
This monumental beverage container shoots fireworks, lights up at night, and shares the skyline with downtown Atlanta. It’s also the jewel in the crown of Sky Field, where kids can practice sliding into home plate. Take them up there for one last slide.
Kids run the bases
Speaking of base-running, after every Sunday game, kids can run the bases out on the real field. Let your young ones do that now, so they can reminisce later.
Concerts in Fan Plaza
In addition to the concerts after games, the stadium keeps fans hopping with music before the game on Fan Plaza. Opening day Monday will feature Electric Avenue. Here's a gallery of some concerts at Turner through the years.
The Chick-fil-A Cow
This 36,000-pound tomahawk-chopping bovine was the star of the upper decks, but you can't visit the Chick-fil-A cow this season. That's because it is resting and relaxing in a spa in New Orleans, where it's receiving a new paint job and some discrete bodywork. (When she returns to the metro area after some bariatric surgery, she will be 18,000 pounds lighter.)
RELATED: To see video of the Chick-fil-A cow’s move, go to ajc.com.
Take a tour
On nongame days, you can tour Turner Field and see such off-limits sights as the Press Box and the Clubhouse. Call 404-614-2311 or email turnerfieldtours@braves.com.
Scout’s Alley
Scout’s Alley, near the West Pavilion, behind the lower left field seats, has two hitting games and two pitching games, and you can try to jump as high as Otis Nixon did during his famous catch in a 1992 game against Pittsburgh.
Hear Timothy Miller sing ‘God Bless America’
Since 2010, this Morehouse man and operatic tenor has made the seventh inning rafters ring with that A above the staff. Miller plans to keep singing "God Bless America" for the Braves on Sundays and holidays, but he'll miss the easy 15-minute commute from his home in Southwest Atlanta.
The Five Points MARTA station
It’s a 1.4-mile walk, but that’s a heckuva lot closer than any MARTA station will be to SunTrust Park. Pick a sunny afternoon and enjoy the opportunity to take a train to a game. Your stroll down Capitol Avenue/Hank Aaron Drive will take you underneath the Olympic torch.
The Olympic torch
Turner Field started out as the Olympic Stadium, a track-and-field oval built for the Centennial Games so that it could be disassembled and remade into a baseball park. The cauldron, sitting atop its Erector-set scaffolding, with its feet in the parking lot, is the somewhat-forlorn reminder of that past glory. The torch seems forgotten now, but, in the summer of 1996, when Muhammad Ali emerged from the shadows to set that thing on fire, a shiver went up the spine of the world.
The Braves Museum and Hall of Fame
This is a bona fide Braves museum, tucked away on the Club Level, with exhibits showing the Braves who have been invited to Cooperstown, uniforms from past eras and a walk-through Pullman car display that shows what train travel was like for a ball club in the earlier days of barnstorming.
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