These tensions spilled over into the sports world this year when Major League Baseball pulled the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta to protest new state laws that make it more difficult to vote.Ī World Series title usually brings a city together. David Goldman/APĪtlanta, once known as the “city too busy to hate,” in recent years has been engulfed by racial turmoil: police shootings of Black men, racial protests and clashes over voting rights. The Braves left Turner Field after the 2016 season for a new ballpark in suburban Cobb County. Others believe the team left Atlanta because its suburban White fans felt uncomfortable coming to games downtown, where they were surrounded by Black people.Ī pedestrian walks down the street as Turner Field, former home of the Atlanta Braves, stands in the background. Some Black fans say the team has few, if any, African American players they can relate to. I’ve lived in Atlanta for 30 years, and I’ve long heard this talk in barbershops and sports bars. The Braves aren’t just playing the Houston Astros – they’re also battling a perception that the franchise has abandoned the city’s Black community. Harris’ experience demonstrates that one of the most fascinating storylines of the 2021 World Series is happening off the field. “It felt weird for the simple fact that I remember when the stands had a lot more Black people, and a lot more were enticed to games because they had more representation.”
“When you go to the game, it has a Trump feel to it with the fan base,” says Harris, who is a pastor at Acts of Faith Baptist Church in Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta.
Sports Show, attended a recent Braves game at Truist Park, he sat in a crowd of overwhelmingly White fans in a predominantly White suburb while a soundtrack of mostly rock and country music played over the sound system. Michael Clayton Harris, co-host of the Red & Rev. Andy Lyons/Getty Images North America/Getty Imagesīut when the Rev. Outfielder Otis Nixon of the Atlanta Braves in 1999.
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