Tag: Atlanta Braves

Community Heroes Week returns to Atlanta Braves in August

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ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves Foundation and FOX Sports South have announced the return of Community Heroes Week, the inspiring, weeklong community recognition initiative.

The third annual Community Heroes Week will take place Aug. 13-17, when the Braves host the Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies. Nominations are now being accepted and can be submitted on http://www.Braves.com/inspire.

The Braves are seeking nominations for individuals who have made a lasting and positive impact on their community in Braves Country. A panel of Braves and FOX Sports South staff will select five individuals to be named the 2018 Community Heroes Week Honorees. Nominations will be accepted until Friday, June 15.

“We have been inspired and grateful by these wonderful people in our community over the last few years,” said Atlanta Braves Director of Community Affairs Ericka Newsome. “We are delighted to continue to recognize people in Braves Country who go above and beyond to help others and make our community a better place.”

On each day of Community Heroes Week, the Braves will recognize a different Honoree by surprising them with a day of VIP treatment. From the surprise of meeting Braves players and FOX Sports South on-air talent to a game at SunTrust Park that evening, every Honoree’s day will be filled with unforgettable elements. Each Honoree’s story will also be shared during the game and in the FOX Sports South telecast, to celebrate the individual and bring awareness to their cause or organization.

“We look forward to again showcasing Honorees from Community Heroes Week during our Braves telecasts on FOX Sports South and FOX Sports Southeast,” said Rolanda Gaines, Director of Marketing and Communications for FOX Sports South. “This is fun and compelling initiative that allows us to shine a light on everyday people.”

For more information, visit http://www.Braves.com/inspire.

A bit about ‘Heart of the Plate’

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My third book, Heart of the Plate, is one that I wrote rather quickly.

Some may think that it is not of a certain quality, since I wrote it in about four months and had it published five months after the release of Deep Green. That’s for others who read it to judge and not me.

But I will say this: It is a fictional story I had in my mind for a long time, a story of redemption that I wanted to tell. I wrote pages and pages each day because I believed in the story and its message. It’s more than just baseball. It has addiction and overcoming, love lost and love rekindled, heartbreak and uplifting moments. It has something for everyone, and I hope you order a copy and let me know what you think.

Jeff Wright is at the pinnacle of his Major League Baseball career, earning his way into his first All-Star Game. Not long after, Jeff suffers a gruesome, career-ending injury and ventures down a path of self-destruction, and becomes addicted to painkillers. He is arrested for drug possession. Upon completing a stint in a rehabilitation center, Jeff returns to his hometown of Lewis Rock, Georgia, where he discovers that the town’s largest job source, Reynolds Manufacturing, is being sold off and will leave hundreds jobless. He also attempts to rekindle a love that he lost years ago. What begins as mandatory community service for Jeff’s arrest quickly becomes his saving grace. Follow along as Jeff helps his hometown through a difficult time the only way he knows how — through baseball.

The book earned praise from former Major League Baseball players Wes Helms, Matt Guerrier, and Jason Standridge, as well as former college softball head coach Karen Johns.

Buy Heart of the Plate

Read an interview about Heart of the Plate

Some positive news from Atlanta

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I went to Atlanta this weekend, and if you perused the Georgia headlines, you would have seen this:

A Gainesville, Ga., man was charged with molesting an eleven-year-old girl. 

A man was shot outside of a Krispy Kreme.

A middle school student brought a gun to school and showed it to classmates. 

A man fired a shot into the air after a disagreement with his Uber driver. 

You see these headlines daily. You see them everywhere, in Georgia and California and Europe and Alabama and Canada and everywhere else. It’s maddening. But this isn’t one of those posts. This isn’t a cry for gun control or stiffer penalties for criminals. No, this is a post about, dare I say, some positive things I saw in Georgia this weekend, and they all happened Saturday.

As a group of four of us walked around downtown Saturday afternoon, we encountered a woman who was shouting at no one in particular in a courtyard. I grew concerned as we passed her. As it turns out, she was shouting about despite her circumstances, whatever they are, no one will take her peace and joy in life, no matter what. 

We stopped off for some caffeine at a Burger King, and then proceeded toward Underground Atlanta, which has closed its stores for now to renovate and construct new mixed-use developments. We approached a crosswalk, where I heard a man yelling around the corner. Imagine you’re in downtown Atlanta and you hear commotion nearby. What is your first thought?

What we saw was surprising and refreshing. A group of about ten men had gathered on that corner, and one of them was doing all the talking. Men held tattered Bibles and nodded their heads as the one man preached.  

We took an Uber that night, a day after one man fired a shot into the air after a dispute with his driver. I sat up front with our driver, who we read in a review was a good conversationalist. He was silent, and I couldn’t stand it. I asked him if he liked his job, and he said that after just a few months, he really enjoys it. I learned that he lived in Texas for 12 years, Tampa Bay for 10, and has been in Atlanta for five.

He had worked in the grocery business, and he was never off work.

“It was too much,” he said.

With Uber, he picks the times he likes to work. He’s his own boss. He typically works from 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. until after midnight, so that he can get his two boys ready for school in the mornings and pick them up in the afternoons. 

It was an expensive ride for us, considering it was on a Saturday in downtown Atlanta, but I’m glad he was our driver. 

We attended a concert that night, and the main act was not my kind of music. It rattled the walls and shook the blood in my veins. My brother’s ears were ringing two days later. I couldn’t understand almost all the lyrics. But the group’s most popular song ended with these lyrics:

“Hope for the hopeless, a light in the darkness,
Hope for the hopeless, a light in the dark,
We stand for the faithless and the broken,
Hope for the hopeless, a light in the dark.”