PHILADELPHIA – After flying from Fort Bragg and checking into their team hotel in Philadelphia at about 3 a.m., most of the Braves were back at the ballpark, this time Citizens Bank Park, preparing for a 4 p.m. Monday series opener against the Phillies.
It was their third stadium in three days, after playing games against the Marlins on Saturday in Atlanta and Sunday night at a temporary stadium specially constructed for the Fort Bragg Game in North Carolina, the first-ever American pro-sports event played on an active military base.
Players, coaches and manager Brian Snitker all agreed that any fatigue they experienced paled next to how good they felt about the special day and night they spent at Fort Bragg.
“It was great,” veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. “We got no sleep, but, I mean, so what? That’s part of it. There’s plenty of regular-season games where we do the same thing. It was obviously one of the coolest regular-season games you’re ever going to be a part of.”
Snitker said, “It might be the coolest thing everybody in that clubhouse does the rest of their life. It was that special.”
The Braves lost 5-2 to split the four-game series with the Marlins. The Fort Bragg Game was technically a Braves home game, the finale of the series that started Thursday in Atlanta. But this was the rare game when the outcome didn’t seen nearly as important as everything connected to the event.
“As tired as guys probably are today, they wouldn’t change a thing,” said Snitker, who left the hotel to go to Citizens Bank Park about five hours after checking in. “The experience and what we did yesterday is worth a couple hours’ sleep.
“I was driving in today and I got a text from a friend of mine who lives in Pittsburgh. And he’s like, ‘Love that you got to experience that. As a veteran, you guys don’t have any idea what it means to those people when you go do something like that.’ Made me feel really … that text said it all, right there. Like I said, I don’t think anybody would change that experience for anything in the world.”
Matt Wisler, the Braves’ starting pitcher Monday night, specifically asked to be included in many of the Sunday morning and afternoon activities, such as eating with military personnel in the mess hall. Since he was pitching that night, no one would have blamed him for laying low, but he wanted to be part of it.
“It was definitely once-in-a-lifetime to do that,” Wisler said. “It was cool. To get the lucky draw (to start) that game. … The (helicopter) fly-over, you could hear them coming from a ways away, and once they came over, that gave everybody chills. And from the get-go, the first pitch of the game, the crowd was into it. It was a fun atmosphere.
“I think the biggest part was us getting to interact with them during the day, sign some stuff with them, take pictures, get to meet them and go visit people in the hospital. And the game itself, I think they really enjoyed watching it up close and personal after the interaction with us. …
“I’ve got a lot of respect for what the military does for us,” Wisler said. “They put their lives on the line for us. Total respect for what they do.”
Snitker said eating lunch with the servicemen and women and their families was something he wouldn’t forget.
“When we were in the mess hall, everybody had a plate of food and I don’t think anybody ate,” he said, smiling, “because the family members and the kids and the service members and men and women and their children were all just (conversing with Braves). And an older gentleman, a 97-year-old guy, I sat with him and had a bite to eat, and Bobby (Cox) showed up and just made that guy’s day.”
Players weren’t required to participate in all the extra activities before the game — the players’ union requires that to be optional — but all of the Braves did. All of them. Pierzynski said that was the best part of the trip.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Like I said, that was way more important than the game. I mean, the game was important because obviously it’s our livelihood. But at the end of the day seeing those people and what they do and the way they go about it, and what they do for us, is way more important than the game.”
