All-Star Legacy Field unveiled to kick off All-Star Week in Atlanta

CONYERS, Ga. -- When Terry Walker Moore first came to the A.R. Gus Barksdale Boys & Girls Club back in 2017, one of the first things she envisioned was a brand new baseball field. The one she walked into was old, outdated, with holes and divots scattered throughout “to the point kids didn’t even want to come out.”

Even with Walker Moore and the rest of the staff keeping the field up as much as they could, she knew they needed a major overhaul.

That vision became a reality on Thursday when Major League Baseball, in partnership with the Atlanta Braves through the MLB Together initiative, kicked off All-Star Week in metro Atlanta by unveiling a new All-Star Legacy Field at the Barksdale Boys & Girls Club in Conyers, Ga.

The project included the installation of a brand new turf infield, light and irrigation systems, renovations to the dugouts and scoreboard, installation of a portable outfield fence, and donations of brand new equipment through the Braves’ “Equipped to Win” program and a Chevrolet Suburban. Boys & Girls Clubs of America has been the official charitable partner of MLB since 1997.

“This field was barren six months ago,” said MLB senior vice president of social responsibility April Brown. “And now, it’s a beautiful baseball and softball field for the youth that come here each and every day.”

It was such an improvement that Walker Moore now had the opposite problem -- she couldn’t keep her kids off of it before the ribbon cutting.

“Don’t touch it,” she would try to tell them. “Just look at it until July 10.”

The kids did their part as they walked into the opening ceremony decked out in Braves hats and No. 44 jerseys while the Heavy Hitters, the Braves’ drumline, played them in with the help of Blooper the mascot. And with the first pitch, the new All-Star Legacy Field -- the second of five legacy projects that MLB and the Braves will be unveiling throughout All-Star Week -- was officially open.

In addition to providing a safe place for kids to play, Walker Moore sees revitalizing the field as key for growth of the club within Conyers and the surrounding area.

“This community, Rockdale [County], is a sports community,” she said. “I felt like getting the field done would not only impact the club, but bring more kids to the club.”

Sports -- at its very core -- is about people. And the purest example of that can be found on fields just like the one in Conyers, with kids running the bases, playing catch, and just about everything in between with smiles beaming on their faces.

“Sports is the unifier for everyone,” Brown said. “And yes, Conyers is about their sport. So we’re so excited to be about the future of the sports here in Conyers, through this field and the youth that will step onto it.”

Braves Foundation vice president of community affairs and executive director Danielle Bedasse finds value in the life lessons that baseball can teach, and looks to a certain Braves legend as an example.

“From the time I was little, sports changed my life in a lot of ways and continues to do so on a daily basis,” Bedasse said. “... It builds character. It teaches resilience. Baseball is one of those sports where you actually lose more than you win, in some cases -- if you’re batting .300, you’re a rockstar, right? Teaching kids that it’s OK to strike out and get back up at the plate. You’ve got to keep going.

“You’ve got to keep swinging, as Hank [Aaron] would say.”

Walker Moore has kept swinging throughout her 25 years with the Boys and Girls Club, the last eight as the executive director of Barksdale. Eight years later, one of those swings connected in a major way.

“It feels just like a completion,” Walker Moore said of the new field. “When you get a vision and it actually comes alive, it’s just a sensational feeling. I visualized this. It happened. I didn’t know how it would happen, but it all came together.”