Braves 400 Club Ivan Allen, Jr. "Mr. Baseball" Award | |
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Joe Simpson, "Mr. Baseball" Dale Murphy, and Michael Marcey, Braves 400 Club President 2000-2001
| Dale Murphy - Braves Hall of Famer - "Mr. Baseball" 2000 Recipient
Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr. recognized early on that major league sports would help the rest of the world see Atlanta as a major league city. Mayor Allen gathered together a group of businessmen in early 1963 to discuss the possibilities of constructing a stadium to lure a major league team. He led the group to the 1963 All-Star Game in Cleveland to let baseball know that Atlanta was deserving of - and preparing for - Major League Baseball.
Allen and his group believed so strongly that a franchise was in the offing that ground was broken for the $18 million stadium in April 1964, six months before the National League approved the Braves' move to Atlanta. On opening night, April 12, 1966, Mayor Allen threw out the first ball.
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Atlanta born and raised, Allen graduated from Georgia Tech in 1933, where he had been president of the Student Body. Professionally, he has been with the Ivan Allen Company since 1933, serving as president from 1946 to 1970, and later as chairman of the board.
At our 1990 Gameboree, the Braves 400 Club honored Mr. Allen for his "Special Service to the Braves, Atlanta, and the Southeast." In 1992, we established the Ivan Allen, Jr. "Mr. Baseball" Award to be presented annually to the "Person who has contributed significantly to the promotion of baseball in the Atlanta area." The first "Mr. Baseball" Award recipient was Braves' owner Ted Turner. Other recent winners include Bill Bartholomay in 1994, Ernie Johnson, Sr. in 1995, the Dean of AJC sports columnists, Furman Bisher in 1997, "the Professor," Pete VanWieren in 1998, our own HOFer, Phil Niekro in 1999, and Braves General Manager John Schuerholz last year. |
