I’m back after two weeks in St. Louis and Atlanta. Why those cities? St. Louis, as diligent readers may recall, is the closest airport to my hometown and the home of my favorite baseball team, the Cardinals.
Atlanta was the latest stop on my stately, slow-motion tour of all 30 Major League Baseball stadiums, one or two new ones per season: Minneapolis in 2023, Detroit in 2024, Houston in 2025.
I’m keeping track via a handy “scratch-off” stadium poster that’s framed and hanging in my kitchen. To refresh my memory, I counted them Monday. Atlanta’s Truist Park was No. 19 for me. Yeah!
I timed my trip carefully. The Cards were at home on a Friday night, allowing my brother and sister-in-law to drive in to join me at Busch Stadium. A few days later, the Cards would be in Atlanta for three nights. Why not go to Atlanta?
Following your team on the road is always a risk. It’s one thing to see your team lose at home. It’s another to travel a long distance for the privilege.
For instance, I saw the Cardinals lose in Philadelphia one night and, doubling down, went back the next night, only to see them lose again. To invert Ronald Reagan’s joke after he was shot: All in all, I’d rather not have been in Philadelphia.
Emotionally, it’s safer to go to a ballgame in which you have no rooting interest. You can pretend to be a local and cheer for the home team — whatever it is, even if it’s the Cubs — without being invested in the outcome.
But sometimes I will take the dare.
In St. Louis on June 26, my team, which is doing well, lost 4-0 to the Miami Marlins, an inevitable result if you’re going to muster only three hits. In Atlanta, they’d be facing the Braves, one of baseball’s best teams. I lowered my expectations accordingly.
At the July 2 game, I wore my red Cardinals cap and, subtly, a shirt from Imo’s Pizza, a chain based in St. Louis. All the right people would get it. Indeed, outside the stadium, a fan in Cardinals gear saw me and exclaimed, “Imo’s!”
Atlanta was 95 degrees that day, 10 degrees above normal, and by evening was still toasty.
Also hot were the Cards, who singled on the first pitch and ended the first inning up 3-0. Soon, though, they were losing 5-3. In the seventh, I left my seat in the visitor section, taking a long walk up the concrete stairs to look for food.
A fan on the aisle said approvingly, “Imo’s! You’re a true St. Louisan.”
That was the inning the Cards broke things wide open. I missed some of it and saw some of it. They scored seven runs, then added another run in the ninth. They won 11-5.
A road trip win? OK, that was emotionally satisfying. Especially against a team whose fans cheer the action by making tomahawk chop motions.
Outside, a Cards fan saw my shirt and sang a bit of an Imo’s jingle. I said, “If you know, you know.”
Quoting the tavern-cut pizza chain’s slogan, she replied: “It’s the square beyond compare!”
It is. (So am I, incidentally.)
More baseball
Did I really write here last month that Dodger Stadium is nearly inaccessible by transit? Well, I wasn’t wrong, but Truist Park, opened in 2017, isn’t even in Atlanta city limits. And there’s no direct transit connection.
From downtown, I rode a train a few stops, then took a 30-minute bus ride on Line 10, much of it on a freeway, that dropped me off on a corner by a KFC, a few blocks from Truist.
As a fan put it on the Facebook page Stadium Chasers: “Truist is pretty much on the other side of the world from ATL. Get a car.”
At 10:30 p.m. and 85 degrees, waiting on a sidewalk for the bus, I was drenched in sweat. An Uber driver had offered me a ride for $90 but, despite my discomfort and the inconvenience, I stuck with the $2.50 bus.
Good thing the game wasn’t on a Sunday. The bus doesn’t run that day.
MLK in ATL
Middling transit aside, Atlanta is well worth a visit. My first day, I walked to the King District for sites connected to Martin Luther King Jr., many overseen by the National Park Service.
Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King and his father preached, is modest but meaningful. His birthplace, an 1895 home owned by his maternal grandparents, was about to reopen after two years of conservation. The entire block has been preserved by the National Park Service, adding essential context to King’s life.
The nearby King Center holds the marble tombs of MLK and his wife, Coretta Scott King, surrounded by a long reflecting pool.
At the far end, the fountain’s stair steps are inscribed with this MLK quote: “We will not be satisfied/Until justice rolls down like water/And righteousness/Like a mighty stream.”
The water seems to rush by the tombs and by anyone viewing them. It is, in both senses of the term, moving.
The Beltline
The highlight of my visit? July 4.
After breakfast in the Cabbagetown district, I headed off on foot through the quiet, character-filled neighborhood. A man was mowing his lawn, possibly the most American activity in the world.
I admired the mural-decorated Krog Street Tunnel, then picked up the Atlanta Beltline, a 22-mile paved trail around the city on former railroad right-of-way.
This is where Atlanta gathers. Walkers and cyclists were plentiful, of all ages and races. Some segments are lined with native trees and plants. Other segments sport mixed-use buildings, apartments up top and shops, eateries and brewpubs down below.
I stopped for a frozen custard and a break from the steamy heat, then resumed my walk.
Whole families or groups of friends were out. A mother on a bike had paused with her young son, also on a bike. “Let’s race,” she said, then let him get a head start.
A white-haired woman was walking with a cane. A half-dozen women were strolling and gossiping. A couple in red, white and blue passed by, each walking a dog. I heard three or four languages.
This parade of people, diverse and cheerful, felt like the best of America. I was pleased to be among them, enjoying the outdoors, on our nation’s 250th anniversary. Thanks, Atlanta.
Back home again, David Allen writes Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook or Instagram, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.