Matt Olson rounds first base after hitting a solo homer in the third inning of the home opener against Arizona on April 5. Photograph by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images On Friday, the Atlanta Braves opened up their Truist Park account with their first home game of the year. The game itself is just one of 162 and in the win-loss column, the result has little impact on the outcome of the season. But the experience for Braves’ fans matters more than any other regular season game in the year. The winter after a disappointing postseason is hard and long for players and fans alike, especially with World S ..read more

A line drive is always a tricky thing. As an 11-year-old Little League first baseman, that was a truth I knew from experience. Sometimes they shot off the bat with such ferocity that it tested my reflexes to get my glove on them as I fought against the instinct to simply get out of the way. Occasionally, they were hit so solidly that they had no spin, and would come at me fluttering, like a Phil Niekro knuckleball. And other times, they would spin like a curveball, cracking off the bat at chest level and dipping to my feet by the time they reached my glove. But none of my Little League experi ..read more

Truist Park Photograph courtesy of the Atlanta Braves Truist Park: The home of the Braves is an enigma. It’s an artificial mecca of baseball that displaced Turner Field to the chagrin of many, but now draws some of the best crowds in baseball. The stadium itself is a beauty, with faux red brick that creates an old-school ballpark feel in a sea of corporate office parks. Let’s leave behind its contradictions for a moment to focus on Truist Park and the great baseball played there since 2017. Out in Droves A combination of recent Braves success and Battery amenities has driven up attendance, wit ..read more

Atlanta Vibe player Leketor Member-Meneh (Outside Hitter) Photograph courtesy of Atlanta Vibe Not sure if you’ve ever tried launching a professional sports team before, but there’s a lot to it. Selecting logos. Setting schedules. Building hype. But apparently, Atlanta makes choosing a home city easy. In addition to the familiar big leagues, new pro teams are coming to the ATL. The Atlanta Bouncers, Major League Pickleball’s only Deep South franchise outside Florida, got a boost when Hawks star Trae Young joined team owner Anheuser-Busch as an investor during the Bouncers’ first year of paddled ..read more

Tristan Muyumba shows off the new Resurgens Kit. Atlanta United has had a few kits that nod toward the team’s home base. The King Peach Kit shouted out to the Peach State, while last season’s mint green secondary kit was a nod to Atlanta’s nickname as the City in the Forest. Last year’s third kit, the graffitied 404 Kit, was sprung from a collaboration with Atlanta Influences Everything. But this year’s brand-new secondary kit has the most direct Atlanta connections yet. Called the Resurgens Kit, the jersey was created in partnership with the City of Atlanta and features an abstract phoenix on ..read more

The ’90s were the decade that transformed Atlanta. The 1996 Olympics put the city on the international stage. Hip-hop legends like OutKast, Goodie Mob, TLC, and Arrested Development made sure the world knew, in the immortal words of André 3000 at the ’95 Source Awards, that “the South got something to say.” Freaknik took over the streets each spring. CNN made the city synonymous with 24-hour news. The Falcons went to the Super Bowl and the Braves won the World Series. We could keep going—heck, that’s why we devoted an entire issue to the decade back in 2015. And everything that Atlanta became ..read more

Grady Jarrett jogs towards his sideline before a game against the Carolina Panthers this past November. Photograph by Grant Halverson/Getty Images Not that we’re keeping tabs, but it’s been more than 2,035 days since the Atlanta Falcons last appeared in a playoff game. Even for a franchise that’s mastered the art of meh, that’s a long time. But when you look around the team’s Flowery Branch training facilities these days, you sense change in the air. Some of that is literal—a strength and conditioning facility renovation is happening as we speak. Some of it is with the roster’s mindset. Player ..read more

Following a pro wrestling career, the Iron Sheik found a second act—on Twitter. Photograph courtesy of WWE On American TV in the 1980s, the only Iranian who was a bigger star than Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri was Ayatollah Khomeini. They appeared on different channels: Khomeini, the cleric turned autocrat, had a recurring role on the nightly news, while Vaziri—a pro wrestler better known as the Iron Sheik—could be seen in various syndicated and pay-per-view broadcasts. But the two men played variations of the same role. Both were heels. In wrestling-speak, heels are villains, there to excite an ..read more

Kelley O’Hara controls the ball during a 2016 game against Thailand. Photograph by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images The FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off July 20 in Auckland, New Zealand, and once again, the Americans are favored to win it all. The U.S.Women’s National Team enter the fray as the reigning champions, having claimed victory at the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, their fourth since the tournament began in 1991. And this year, they’ll be bringing plenty of Peach State pride Down Under: the 23-player roster includes two Georgia natives, defenders Kelley O’Hara and Emily Sonnett. We rounded ..read more

Jesse Cole owns seven yellow tuxedos. He shows me during our Zoom interview, adjusting his camera to fit an open closet door into the frame: sure enough, six canary-yellow tuxes, hanging at the ready. He’s wearing the seventh while we speak—top hat included. Cole is the founder of Fans First Entertainment, which owns and operates the Savannah Bananas, an exhibition baseball team with 5.5 million followers on TikTok, a wait list for tickets of over 100,000, and an ESPN documentary series titled Bananaland. His new book, Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas, was publi ..read more