Gwinnett Stadium Now Coolray Field

The Gwin­nett Braves and Cool­ray have agreed to terms on a deal that will change the name of Gwin­nett Sta­dium to Cool­ray Field.

The agree­ment  between the Gwin­nett Braves, the Triple A minor league team of the Atlanta Braves, and Cool­ray Heat­ing and Cool­ing gives Cool­ray nam­ing rights for six­teen years. In addi­tion, Cool­ray has the rights to dis­play a promi­nent  LED sign­board along High­way 20, ans sig­nage at both the main entrance to the ball­park and above the right field scoreboard.

Atlanta Braves Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent of Busi­ness Oper­a­tions Mike Plant stated “after our first full sea­son of oper­a­tion, the Gwin­nett Braves con­tinue to show­case our strong ties to the com­mu­nity and we are proud to part­ner with a great community-oriented company,”

The Gwin­nett Braves cur­rently play at Gwin­nett Sta­dium and are the Triple-A affil­i­ate of the Atlanta Braves. The first game at the newly named Cool­ray Field will be on April 8th against the Char­lotte Knights at 7:05 p.m. All Gwin­nett Braves 2010 tick­ets pack­ages, start­ing as low as $6 per game, are avail­able now at gwinnettbraves.com, the Cool­ray Field Box Office and by call­ing (678) 277‑0340.

Braves Fan Club Announces Banquet

The Braves 400 Fan Club will host its annual win­ter ban­quet and fundraiser on Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 13, at the Mar­riott Perime­ter Cen­ter. A gala recep­tion, silent auc­tion and raf­fle of Braves mem­o­ra­bilia begins at 5:30 p.m. with the awards din­ner and pro­gram fol­low­ing at 7:00 p.m.

This year’s theme, “Great Atlanta Braves Pitch­ing Rota­tions”, will fea­ture some cur­rent and for­mer Braves pitch­ers and guests recall­ing sto­ries of the great pitch­ing rota­tions. Braves announcer Jim Pow­ell will emcee the evening’s fes­tiv­i­ties. Early RSVPs include Phil Niekro, Tommy Han­son, Kris Medlen, Char­lie Leibrandt, and Braves minor league stars Jason Hey­ward, Craig Kim­brel, Greg Creek, Ryne Reynoso, Danville Braves man­ager Paul Runge, for­mer Geor­gia Tech star Luke Mur­ton (Yan­kees), and Metro-Atlanta High School Player of the Year Zack Wheeler (Giants) from East Pauld­ing High School. Addi­tional celebrity guests are anticipated.

For­mer New York Yan­kee great Bobby Richard­son will accept the Luke Appling Nos­tal­gia Award. Other awards include the Ivan Allen Jr. “Mr. Base­ball” Award, out­stand­ing per­for­mances by Braves minor lea­guers, and the 2010 Phil Niekro Col­lege Schol­ar­ships being awarded to the More­house Col­lege and Geor­gia State base­ball programs.

Admis­sion is by advance reser­va­tion only, and the dead­line is Tues­day, Feb­ru­ary 9; no tick­ets will be sold at the door. Tick­ets are only $65 and include din­ner and a well-stocked goody bag. Make reser­va­tions on the Club’s web­site www.braves400.org or by mail­ing a check to the Braves 400 Club, P.O. Box 7689, Atlanta, GA 30309. Infor­ma­tion is avail­able on the Web site or by call­ing the Braves 400 Fan Club’s hot­line, 770–416-4539, to hear a recorded message.

The Braves 400 Fan Club, the offi­cial fan club of the Atlanta Braves, was formed in 1965, a full year before the Braves made their move from Mil­wau­kee to Atlanta, and has been an inte­gral part of the fan base for the Atlanta Braves ever since. The club is a non-profit orga­ni­za­tion sup­port­ing base­ball at all lev­els — award­ing base­ball schol­ar­ships to metro-Atlanta col­leges and rec­og­niz­ing metro-Atlanta high school all-stars as well as minor and major league play­ers in the Braves organization.

Stevie Baggs Benefit for Georgia Family In Need

The CETA Foun­da­tion Hosts “Ste­vie Baggs Birth­day Cel­e­bra­tion” To Ben­e­fit Geor­gia Fam­ily In Need.

CFL All-Star Defen­sive End Ste­vie Baggs will cel­e­brate his birth­day with celebrity guests and friends includ­ing V-103’s Radio/TV Per­son­al­ity Tangie Larkin and Grammy Award Win­ning Poet Hank Stew­art, while rais­ing funds with the CETA Foundation.

Dur­ing the Christ­mas hol­i­day sea­son, the CETA Foun­da­tion adopted a single-parent fam­ily of seven from the Atlanta, Ga area to sup­port them in their endeavor towards inde­pen­dence. Since then, Cana­dian Foot­ball League All-Star Ste­vie Baggs, along with the CETA Foun­da­tion, has decided to raise addi­tional funds to sup­port the fam­ily dur­ing the cel­e­bra­tion of his 28th birthday.

On Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 9th from 8 pm – 11 pm, Ste­vie Baggs will cel­e­brate with spe­cial invited guests and friends at Aqua Bistro in Buckhead.

“This year I just really wanted to do some­thing dif­fer­ent for my birth­day,” said Baggs. “I know that it’s not all about me, and since I am in a posi­tion to help oth­ers, I really wanted to give back to oth­ers who I know are in need.”

Co-founded and estab­lished in 2004 by Baggs and his mother Lola Robin­son, the CETA (Cre­at­ing Empow­er­ment Through Auton­omy) Foun­da­tion, has been a sta­ple of sup­port for many com­mu­ni­ties through­out Geor­gia and Florida. As a lead­ing advo­cacy pro­po­nent of com­mu­nity empow­er­ment, the foundation’s mis­sion is to pro­vide higher edu­ca­tion pre­pared­ness and inde­pen­dence or self-sufficiency train­ing for those in need.

“The CETA Foun­da­tion is excited about mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in more com­mu­ni­ties in this new year of 2010,” said Robin­son. “While we are cel­e­brat­ing Stevie’s birth­day, we are also hop­ing that oth­ers will offer their sup­port and come out to cel­e­brate with us as well.”

The event will be hosted by V-103’s Tangie Larkin, fea­tur­ing spe­cial per­for­mances by Emmy Award Win­ning Poet Hank Stew­art and guest artist Ste­vie B DaRipa and more.

Other con­firmed celebrity guests include: WNBA Star Rushia Brown, cur­rent and for­mer NFL Play­ers Damion Cook, PJ Alexan­der, Renauld Williams, Dar­ian Durant, Bran­don Lynch and Sean Lucas, the Co-Hosts of The Din­ner Table Dis­cus­sions Talk Show ( Aliyah D. Najm, H. Loraine Smith, and Jacida Carter, celebrity Hip-Hop moms to “T-Pain”, Ne-Yo and Lil’ Wayne respec­tively) and more.

The Aqua Bistro is located at 264 Pharr Road, NE, in Atlanta, GA. Tick­ets can be pur­chased for a tax-deductible dona­tion of $15 (RSVP) or $20 if pur­chased at the door. (Tick­ets include heavy h’orderves, drinks, silent auc­tion and more).

Event pro­ceeds will ben­e­fit Geor­gia fam­ily adopted by the CETA Foun­da­tion. For more infor­ma­tion about tick­ets or to make a dona­tion please con­tact (678) 394‑6689 or visit www.cetafoundation.org. For celebrity RSVP’s and media inquiries please con­tact Alisha Alford of Glory Sports Con­sul­tants at alisha.glorysports@gmail.com.

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