Tuesday night was not the first time the Chattanooga Lookouts played a season home opener at AT&T Field.
It was, however, the first time the Lookouts have opened at AT&T after holding a Southern League championship ceremony. The unveiling of the title banner, which is located behind home plate, took place moments before the start of Chattanooga's 4-3 loss to the Jackson Generals before an announced crowd of 3,355.
"It's a big deal," second-year Lookouts manager Doug Mientkiewicz said. "For a lot of these kids, this will be the only chance they get to have this feeling, and it's good to be able to put a period at the end of the story and let us move on to focus on this year.
"The last time we were on this field in a real game, there were a lot of emotions."
Chattanooga's championship was its first since 1988, when the Lookouts played at Engel Stadium and were in the first of 21 years as the Class AA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. The Lookouts lost in the Southern League title series in 1995 and 1996, and they didn't reach a best-of-five championship series again until 2014.
The Lookouts of two years ago were in their sixth and final season as affiliates of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but last year's maiden voyage with the Minnesota Twins went all the way.
"It's been a great offseason to be able to talk about championship baseball and to be able to talk about something that had not been done here in many, many years," Lookouts general manager Rich Mozingo said. "Even today, I had people coming up to talk about last year's championship, so anything that keeps you on the radar during football season and basketball season is great. It's been a lot of fun."
Of the current Southern League cities that have housed a team for at least 25 years - Knoxville/Tennessee (48 years), Birmingham (46), Jacksonville (46), Chattanooga (42), Montgomery (28) and Mobile (21) - Chattanooga's two titles are the fewest.
"You just never know," Mientkiewicz said. "Obviously in minor league baseball, your first objective is to develop players. There have been some good individual players come through here, and the problem is that when they're really good, they don't stay long."
Jackson broke a 3-3 tie in the eighth inning Tuesday when Leon Landry's single to center field off Lookouts relief pitcher Mason Melotakis scored Benji Gonzalez. The Lookouts had pulled into that tie in the fifth inning, when Zack Granite had a leadoff double to left and scored on Travis Harrison's single to left.
Tuesday's loss left this year's Lookouts with a 1-5 record out of the gate.
"For the most part, we're just pressing, and that can happen when you've got a lot of guys playing their first significant time in Double-A," Mientkiewicz said. "It takes some time to get adjusted, and unlike last year we should have the same group of position players from day one. Pitching can change due to injuries, but for the most part we'll have these guys.
"These guys will have a chance to develop the whole year."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.