United States Navy fighter jets fly over SunTrust Park during the national anthem before a baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and the San Diego Padres in Atlanta, Friday, April 14, 2017. The Braves are playing their first regular-season game in SunTrust Park, the new suburban stadium that replaced Turner Field. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Mark WiedmerATLANTA - Fireworks before and after the main event. A prolonged and rousing standing ovation for the greatest Atlanta Brave of them all - Hammerin' Hank Aaron. A gentle, understated delivery of the national anthem by Phillip Phillips, the former American Idol winner from Albany, Ga. The matchless voice of Timothy Miller on "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch.
Oh, and a 5-2 Braves victory over the San Diego Padres on Friday night to properly christen SunTrust Park.
"I hope this becomes a really special ballpark for all of us," said center fielder Ender Inciarte, whose two-run home run in the sixth - the first homer launched at SunTrust - assured the Braves and their fans of not only having a really special night, but also forging a modest two-game winning streak after a 1-6 start.
"We really wanted this crowd to leave here happy."
Not that Inciarte's blast or the pageantry throughout was necessarily the highlight of the night for one very lucky Ringgold, Ga., couple. Because Melissa and Caine Carpenter were the first people through the gates, they won a package for four to travel anywhere in the world that Delta Airlines flies, as well as Braves "First Fans" jerseys.
But for a lot of other folks, beginning with former Braves great Chipper Jones, the night was mostly about the $662 million ballpark.
"I'm really jealous," Jones said as he sat in the home team's dugout three hours before the game. "I was born 10 years too early."
Twenty years earlier, Jones helped christen Turner Field, which never seemed like a place the Braves would leave until Nov. 11, 2013, when longtime team executive John Schuerholz announced the franchise would be moving to the corner of I-75 and I-285 in Cobb County at the start of this 2017 season.
Of that move from Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to the Ted, Jones recalled what opening night was like for those 1997 Braves, who were fresh off their second straight World Series appearance.
"Everyone wanted to be the guy to get the first hit," Jones said. "Everybody wanted to be the guy to get the first run. So I know exactly what the guys on this team are thinking right now."
The first Atlanta hit this time around was a slow grounder to third off the bat of the first Braves hitter, Inciarte. After Freddie Freeman scorched a double to left-center to move Inciarte to third, Nick Markakis drove in the first run inside SunTrust with a double to right that brought home both Inciarte and Freeman as 41,149 fans shook their red foam tomahawks with approval at the 2-0 lead.
Of course, the Braves being the Braves, such euphoria was short-lived. Despite beginning his third start of the year having yet to surrender an earned run, Atlanta pitcher Julio Teheran gave up two in the second to tie it at 2.
Then again, a Teheran RBI single in the bottom of the fourth put the Braves back in front 3-2. And an Inciarte two-run homer in the sixth - his third in two games - staked Atlanta to a 5-2 lead that made the fans' timeless tomahawk chant last as long and strong as it ever did in either of the previous two home stadiums.
Not that anything should have or did top the roar that saluted Aaron - and to a slightly lesser extent - Jones, former manager Bobby Cox, former slugger Dale Murphy, and former pitchers Tom Glavine, Phil Niekro and John Smoltz before the game. Each of those Braves legends had his number placed on the stadium's third level before the game, along with Greg Maddux (who couldn't attend) and deceased Braves greats Warren Spahn and Eddie Mathews.
Of course, this is the kind of party the Atlanta fans deserved, Schuerholz said before Aaron tossed the ceremonial first pitch to Cox, just as those same two Braves giants had similarly teamed to throw the ceremonial final pitch at Turner Field last October.
"This facility, SunTrust Park, is for you," Schuerholz said to much applause.
Knoxville native Michael Noce was certainly happy to visit the new park for the opener. The 70-year-old Vietnam veteran graduated from Farragut High School in 1967, only to wind up in Vietnam as a member of the Marines' 7th Engineers by February 1968.
Despite living in the Atlanta area for much of his adult life, he has ushered at Tennessee football games at Neyland Stadium for more than 40 years.
"I'm in a section right under the Jumbotron," he said. "But I had to see this place."
Kennesaw, Ga., resident Josh Johnson brought his 8-year-old daughter Hailey to the game so she could get a glimpse of her favorite player, Freeman, whose No. 5 jersey she wore.
"We love it," he said of the new park, which is about 15 minutes from the family's home when there's no traffic. "This is a lot nicer, well, it's a lot newer than the old stadium."
Braves radio analyst and Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton said of SunTrust: "There's something for everybody. There's not a bad seat in the house, and I like it because it's exactly two miles from my home."
Added Michael Smith, a member of the SunTrust Park security force who grew up in Chattanooga: "The area (The Battery Atlanta) is a year-round event for people now. It's so much more than a baseball stadium. It has hotels, shops, restaurants, bars. It's like a small town."
A small town with a state-of-the-art stadium.
A stadium filled with fans who, for at least one night, got to cheer and chop their way to victory.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.