FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Last year, Major League Baseball made a pitch to the Department of Defense to play a big-league game at a military installation. “We received a reaction of ‘Wow, this is out of the blue, but really exciting,’” said Tony Petitti, MLB’s Chief Operating Officer.
From that initial discussion came a year’s worth of planning and a frantic construction schedule to make Sunday night’s Atlanta Braves-Miami Marlins contest a reality. The 5-2 Marlins victory was played in a temporary ballpark constructed at the nation's largest military base here. “We thought that a celebration of the military on July 4th weekend made a lot of sense,” Petitti added.
Not only was the celebration evident throughout the game, it encompassed more than the game itself. As part of MLB’s Play Ball initiative, representatives from USA Baseball held a clinic for 250 children from military families. Following the Braves’ 9-1 win Saturday in Atlanta, the two teams traveled to Fort Bragg to engage in hands-on activities, including visiting patients at the Womack Army Medical Center, packing parachutes and reviewing weapons with special operations personnel.
When Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski was asked what he learned from his special ops tour guides, he quipped, “We’re not allowed to tell you. We’d have to kill you if we did.” He added that participating in the game and the events that led up to it “ranks right up there with anything I’ve ever done.”
The Fort Bragg personnel coordinating the event were equally excited. Christina Douglas, who has worked in public affairs for the military for 12 years, called Sunday's game "the most meaningful event I’ve seen. Major League Baseball and the Players Association have gone above and beyond for our service members, their families and the whole Fort Bragg community.”
“One of the most meaningful things ever done for an American soldier is this game,” added Sargent Daniel Fusco of Port St. Lucie, Fla. He’s served in the Army for five years, including a nine-month deployment in Afghanistan. “My 2-year-old daughter Brooklyn was born with an anoxic brain injury, and to be able to bring her to this game, and to do it for free, means everything to me. I’m thankful MLB did this for us.”
The special moments started before the game began. The National Anthem singer was Staff Sargent Traci Gregg of McBee, S.C., in her third assignment at Fort Bragg. “I’ve been wondering why I kept being assigned here, hoping something good would come out of it,” she related after her performance. “Now I know, because nothing I’ve ever experienced compares to this. In this uniform, at my installation, it was such an honor.” At the end of the anthem, there was a flyover of four helicopters from the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade.
The ceremonial first pitch was delivered by Sargent First Class Corey Calkins, a recipient of the Army’s Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism in Afghanistan.
The Marlins’ Christian Yelich, whose 20-year-old brother serves in the U.S. Marine Corps, holds the distinction of having the first hit in the one-time-use ballpark. He singled in the top of the first inning. The only home run was by Miami’s J.T. Realmuto, a shot to center field in the ninth.
Following the first inning, a chair was dedicated to the memory of the 83,000 servicemen and women who’ve died in action since World War II, but their remains have never been recovered. Introduced to the crowd were family members of Sgt. David D. Parke, who symbolizes these missing-in-action service members. He was killed in action in 1952.
The contest was played as a Braves home game, complete with tomahawk chants, the team’s cheer squad and The Devil Went Down to Georgia being played after Take Me Out to the Ball Game in the seventh inning stretch. At the end of the game, Georgia On My Mind by Ray Charles boomed from the PA system.
One of the loudest ovations of the evening occurred when country singer Chris Stapleton was shown on the video board. There are a lot of country fans in the military.
Not only is this evening’s game the first big-league baseball contest ever held in North Carolina, it’s also believed to be the only time a regular season game of any professional sport has been held on an active military base.
There was no charge for the tickets to the game. Service personnel and their families received them directly from their units on base or through an online lottery. “It’s wonderful to have these two teams come up to play for us, and for us to get free tickets,” said PFC Makayla Patterson as she waited in line at the merchandise stand. She’s a Braves fan from Statesboro, Ga.
Because the sole purpose of the 12,500-seat ballpark is to host this game, the structures are anything but permanent. The stands are made up of aluminum bleachers, while six portable light towers on flatbed trucks were brought in. The players dressed in large tents acting as clubhouses.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, who remarked that he’s “always impressed by the quality of the people who serve our country,” observed that the ballpark is “really beyond what I expected,” He stressed that the playing field will be left in place after the temporary stands and structures are removed. That way, it can be incorporated into a larger recreational complex to benefit the service men and women and their families.
Players for both teams tipped their caps and waved in appreciation to the fans as they left the field following the final out of the game.
