Wayback: Champion Stadium, Orlando 2015

 

We're back at another of baseball's "lost parks"  Champion Stadium (previously Cracker Jack Field) in the middle of Disney's Orlando campus, was the pre-season home of the Braves from 1997 to 2019.
I captured these images during a game against the Mets in March 2015.  Let's start with a big name -- then and now -- Atlanta 1st baseman Freddie Freeman.
Talk about being on top of the action... catcher AJ Pierzynski eyes Freeman's 1st inning at bat from the on-deck circle.  Keep in mind, it's 10 years ago -- while Freeman remains one of the best players in the game, Pierzynski was entering the next to last of his 19 big league seasons. (He's now a game analyst with FOX Sports.) The timing worked out nicely a few moments later to capture this closeup of AJ.

We've got a pretty good mound matchup for an exhibition game:  (above) its another durable major leaguer, Bartolo Colon, who'd win 14 games as the Mets won the 2015 NL pennant -- before falling to the Royals in the World Series.
(Below:) Julio Teheran would go 7-9 for the last place Braves.  He was still active last year -- hit hard in an early-season start for the Mets, in what became his lone 2014 appearance.

A couple of familiar faces:  Wilmer Flores swings for the Mets and reliever Craig Kimbrel of the Braves -- but he never suited for Atlanta during the regular season.  He was traded to San Diego a few weeks later.
Do you remember seeing Buddy Carlyle in a Mets uniform?
Onto the coaching ranks:   1980s Mets reliever Roger McDowell was Atlanta's pitching coach; to his right is bench coach Carlos Tosca.  (Below) Mets coach Tim Teufel and manager Terry Collins keep a close eye on the action.
Finally, it's Braves skipper Fredi Gonzalez starting his fifth Atlanta season.

This was one of the nicest -- and most attractive -- Florida fields.  But the three teams that once called the Orlando area their pre-season home have moved elsewhere: the Astros, once of Kissimmee, now train in West Palm Beach; the Twins traded Orlando for Fort Myers; and the Braves left for another New Port at decade's end.  The result is two Sunshine State clusters -- one on the Atlantic coast, the other, alongside the Gulf.  And while Champion Stadium survives, it hasn't been able to lure another MLB team.  That's a shame.

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