Atlanta Braves right-fielder Jason Heyward signs a baseball for Jake Flippo, 12, Thursday afternoon at the Atlanta Braves Caravan at Taco Mac in downtown Chattanooga. Also included in the signing were first-baseman Freddie Freeman, relief pitcher Cory Gearrin from Rhea County and hitting coach Greg Walker.
Freddie Freeman couldn’t believe it.
As the Atlanta Braves Caravan bus carrying Freeman, Jason Heyward, Rhea County’s Cory Gearrin and new hitting coach Greg Walker drew near the back of the Taco Mac restaurant along Broad Street on Thursday morning, the fans waiting to meet their baseball heroes was at least 100 strong.
Or so they thought. Then they saw the line continuing along Fourth from Broad to Market.
“Then we saw them wrapped all the way around to the front,” Freeman said. “Amazing. Really great fans.”
That line eventually swelled to nearly 500, and almost all of them received autographs by the time the bus headed to Knoxville later in the day for the final stop on the organization’s 13-day tour.