Atlanta’s SunTrust Park: Bussing in the help

On a recent trip to Atlanta, I had a chance to visit the Braves’ new home, SunTrust Park.  It’s a lovely facility, but unfortunately terribly inaccessible for anyone who doesn’t live in the new neighborhood.  Since relocating to Atlanta in 1966, the Braves played in middle of the city, a location convenient to citizens on all sides of what has become a congested metropolitan area and one served by both train and bus.  The new stadium can be reached only by very long bus rides and is located at the intersection of two overcrowded interstate highways in an overdeveloped area full of malls and office parks. Parking is scattered around the stadium in a number of small lots, some as far as a 20-minute walk.  The demographics of Braves baseball are obvious at the stadium, where most of the customers are white, but a large part of the help is not (in a city that is 48% white, according to the 2010 census).  On a walk around the facility, I spoke with a young black female doing customer relations work who noted that she and many of her coworkers – all part-time, hourly staff – are bussed in from one of the city’s train stations.  Is it that those willing to work for Braves wages in sufficient numbers are not the people living in the vicinity of the stadium, and those that are willing cannot afford private transport to the stadium?  Might be some interesting research for a baseball anthropologist!

More about the SunTrust boondoggle here:

Stealing home: Atlanta Braves and Cobb County kick out neighborhood residents
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stealing-home-atlanta-braves-and-cobb-county-kick-out-neighborhood-residents-2016-11-18

Cobb County And The Braves: Worst Sports Stadium Deal Ever?
https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/qkyk3v/cobb-county-and-the-braves-worst-sports-stadium-deal-ever

Book review: Withers, E. (2005). Negro League Baseball: Photographs by Ernest C. Withers. 2005.

Withers, E. (2005). Negro League Baseball: Photographs by Ernest C. Withers. 1st ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams.

When Ernest C Withers returned to Memphis after service in WWII, he decided to set up his own commercial photography business.  He had started practicing while in high school, improved his skills in the military, and hoped as a civilian to serve his community taking photos of whatever might be needed.  He shot weddings, funerals, church and school functions, portraits, business openings – anything and everything to help his business grow and support his wife and eight children.  In this book’s introductory essay by Daniel Wolff, Withers notes he was no baseball fanatic.  If a better paying job was available, he wouldn’t be found at the ballpark.

But the ballpark was not without its financial rewards.  In the 1940s, baseball was perhaps the largest black owned business in the United States and Withers found a way to make himself useful to the Martin family, owners of the Memphis Red Sox, providing baseball images for publicity posters, calendars, and newspapers. When he wasn’t busy elsewhere, Withers was at Martin’s Stadium, where he was not only an image maker, but also a retailer of pictures of teams, players, and even spectators.

For the Martin family and the owners of Negro League baseball teams, Withers’ photos were vital proof of the capability of the African American community.  Images depicting contract signings in well-appointed offices, teams in pressed white uniforms, and players riding shiny team busses were evidence that African Americans could be as successful as their white counterparts.