name	Atlanta
settlement type	City
nicknames	Hotlanta, ATL
motto	''Resurgens'' (Latin Rising again)
image seal	Seal of Atlanta.png
map caption	City highlighted in Fulton County, location of Fulton County in the state of Georgia
pushpin map	USA
pushpin map caption	Location of the city of Atlanta, Georgia
coordinates region	US-GA
subdivision type	Country
subdivision type1	State
subdivision type2	County
subdivision name	:United States of America
subdivision name1	Georgia
subdivision name2	Fulton and DeKalb
leader title	Mayor
leader name	Kasim Reed
leader title1
established title	Terminus
established date	1837
established title2	Marthasville
established date2	1843
established title3	City of Atlanta
established date3	1847
area magnitude	1 E8
unit pref	Imperial
area total km2	343.0
area land km2	341.2
area water km2	1.8
area total sq mi	132.4
area land sq mi	131.8
area water sq mi	0.6
area urban sq mi	1963
area metro sq mi	8376
area blank1 sq mi
population as of	2010
population total	420,003
population density km2	1552
population metro	5,268,860 (9th)
population density metro km2	243
population urban	4,750,000
population blank1 title	Demonym
population blank1	Atlantan
population density blank1 sq mi
timezone	EST
utc offset	-5
timezone dst	EDT
utc offset dst	-4
coordinates display	inline,title
elevation footnotes
elevation m	225 to 320
elevation ft	738 to 1050
area code	404, 470, 678, 770
postal code type	ZIP code(s)
postal code	30060, 30301-30322, 30324-30334, 30336-30350, 30353
blank name	FIPS code
blank info	13-04000
blank1 name	GNIS feature ID
blank1 info	0351615
website	atlantaga.gov
footnotes	}}

Atlanta (, , locally ) is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. The Atlanta metropolitan area, with 5,268,860 people, is the third largest in the Southern United States and the ninth largest in the country. The Atlanta Combined Statistical Area, a larger trade area, has a population approaching six million and is the largest in the Southeast. Like many urban areas in the Sun Belt, the Atlanta region has seen increasing growth since the 1970s, and it added about 1.6 million residents between 2000 and 2010.

Atlanta is considered to be a top business city and is a primary transportation hub of the Southeastern United States—via highway, railroad, and air. Metro Atlanta contains the world headquarters of corporations such as The Coca-Cola Company, Turner Broadcasting, The Home Depot, AT&T; Mobility, UPS, and Delta Air Lines. Atlanta has the country's third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 75 percent of Fortune 1000 companies have business operations in the metropolitan area, helping Atlanta realize a gross metropolitan product of US$270 billion, accounting for more than two-thirds of Georgia's economy. Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport has been the world's busiest airport since 1998.

Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County and the location of the seat of government of the state of Georgia. A small portion of the city of Atlanta corporate limits extends eastwards into DeKalb County. Residents of Atlanta and its surroundings are known as "Atlantans".

History of Atlanta

Prior to the arrival of European Americans in north Georgia, Creek and Cherokee Indians inhabited the area. A Creek village located where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee River, Standing Peachtree or Standing Pitch Tree, was the closest Indian settlement to what is now Atlanta. As part of the systematic removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area that is now Metro Atlanta in 1821. White settlers arrived in 1822, and nearby Decatur was founded the following year.

In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad in order to provide a link between the port of Savannah and the Midwest. The initial route was to run from Chattanooga to a spot called simply "Terminus," located east of the Chattahoochee River, which would eventually be linked to the Georgia Railroad from Augusta and the Macon and Western Railroad, which ran from Macon to Savannah. An engineer was chosen to recommend the location of the terminus. Once he surveyed various possible routes, he drove a stake (the “zero milepost”) into the ground in what is now Five Points. A year later, the area around the railroad terminus had developed into a settlement, first known as "Terminus" and then Thrasherville, for John Thrasher, a local merchant who built homes and a general store in the settlement. By 1842, the settlement had six buildings and 30 residents and the town was renamed "Marthasville". The Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, J. Edgar Thomson, suggested renaming the area "Atlantica-Pacifica" to highlight the rail connection westwards, shortened to "Atlanta". The residents approved, and the town was incorporated as Atlanta on December 29, 1847. By 1854, another railroad connected Atlanta to LaGrange, and the town grew to 9,554 by 1860.

During the Civil War, the nexus of multiple railroads in Atlanta made the city a hub for the distribution of military supplies. In 1864, following the capture of Chattanooga, the Union Army moved southward and began its invasion of north Georgia. The region now covered by Metropolitan Atlanta was the location of several major army battles, including Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Jonesborough (now Jonesboro), and the Battle of Atlanta. On September 1, 1864, following a four-month-long siege of the city by the Union Army under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman, Confederate General John Bell Hood made the decision to retreat from Atlanta. General Hood ordered that all public buildings and possible assets to the Union Army be destroyed. On the next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered Atlanta to the Union Army, and on September 7, General Sherman ordered the city's civilian population to evacuate. On November 11, 1864, in preparation of the Union Army's march to Savannah, Sherman ordered for Atlanta to be burned to the ground, sparing only the city's churches and hospitals. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Atlanta was gradually rebuilt. From 1867 until 1888, U.S. Army soldiers occupied the McPherson Barracks in southern Atlanta to ensure that the Reconstruction era reforms were carried out. In 1868, the Georgia State Capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta due to the city's superior rail transportation network, making Atlanta the fifth location of the capital of the State of Georgia. The Confederate Soldiers' Home was built to house disabled and elderly Georgia veterans from 1901 to 1941. Henry W. Grady, the editor of the ''Atlanta Constitution'' newspaper, promoted Atlanta to potential investors as a city of the "New South", one to be built on a modern economy, less reliant on agriculture. As a focal point of this change, the Georgia Institute of Technology (its future name) was established in Atlanta in 1885 (with its first classes held in October 1888).

Increased racial tensions, the result of a media-fueled hysteria over alleged sexual assaults on white women by black men, led to the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906, which left at least 27 people dead and over 70 injured. On May 21, 1917, the Great Atlanta Fire destroyed 1,938 buildings, mostly wooden, in what is now the Old Fourth Ward. The fire resulted in 10,000 people becoming homeless. Only one person died, a woman who died of a heart attack at seeing her home in ashes.

On December 15, 1939, Atlanta hosted the film premiere of ''Gone with the Wind'', the epic film based on the best-selling novel by Atlanta's Margaret Mitchell. Several stars of the film, including Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, and its legendary producer, David O. Selznick, attended the gala event, which was held at Loew's Grand Theatre, now demolished. The reception was held at the Georgian Terrace Hotel, which still exists.

During World War II, manufacturing industries such as the Bell Aircraft Company's large factory in the northwestern suburb of Marietta, a massive growth in railroad traffic—and the manufacture of railroad cars—for the war effort, and great growth at Fort McPherson, Fort Gillem (est. 1941), and Rickenbacker Field forced a large growth in the population and economy of Atlanta. Shortly after the war, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was founded in Atlanta.

In the 1950s, the city's newly-constructed freeway system enabled middle class Atlantans to relocate from the city to the suburbs. As a result, the city began to make up an ever smaller proportion of the metropolitan area's population, decreasing from 31% in 1960 to 9% in 2000.

During the 1960s, Atlanta was a major organizing center of the Civil Rights Movement, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and students from Atlanta's historically Black colleges and universities playing major roles in the movement's leadership. In 1961, Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. became one of the few Southern white mayors to support desegregation of his city's public schools. While minimal compared to other cities, Atlanta was not completely free of racial strife. After forced-housing patterns were outlawed, violence, intimidation and organized political pressure was used in some white neighborhoods to discourage blacks from buying homes there. However, such efforts proved futile as real estate agents began engaging in blockbusting, encouraging white homeowners to sell at rock-bottom prices so that the agents could re-sell the homes to blacks at a large profit. The resulting white flight mostly affected Atlanta's western and southern neighborhoods, many of them transitioning to majority black by the 1970s. In 1961, the city attempted to thwart blockbusting by erecting road barriers in Cascade Heights, countering the efforts of civic and business leaders to foster Atlanta as the "city too busy to hate." African Americans became a majority in the city by 1970, and exercised new-found political influence by electing Atlanta's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, in 1973. However, suburbanization, rising prices, a booming economy, and new migrants have decreased the black percentage of the city from a high of 69% in 1980 to 54% in 2010. From 2000 to 2010, Atlanta gained 22,763 white residents, 5,142 Asian residents, and 3,095 Hispanic residents, while it lost 31,678 black residents.

In 1990, Atlanta was selected as the site for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. Following the announcement, Atlanta undertook several major construction projects to improve the city's parks, sports facilities, and transportation. Atlanta became the third American city to host the Summer Olympics. The games themselves were marred by numerous organizational inefficiencies, as well as the Centennial Olympic Park bombing.

During the 2000s, Atlanta completed its transformation into a cosmopolitan city, becoming well known for its robust cultural offerings. Much of the city's change in the last decade was been driven by young, college-educated professionals who have moved into Atlanta by the thousands, seeking a lifestyle rich in cultural variety, diversity, and excitement. From 2000 to 2009, the tree-mile radius surrounding Downtown Atlanta gained 9,722 residents aged 25 to 34 holding at least a four-year degree, an increase of 61% and the sixth-largest such increase in the nation. In fact, Atlanta is on the leading edge of a national trend: while the same growth has occurred in dozens of other American cities, the change was twice as strong in Atlanta as it was nationwide. As the city's new residents transformed communities long in decline into neighborhoods of choice, Atlanta's cultural offerings expanded to meet their increased demand. A total of 45 restaurants have opened Downtown since 2008. The High Museum of Art doubled in size and launched partnerships with major institutions such as the Louvre and New York's Museum of Modern Art. In 2007, the Alliance Theatre won a Tony Award, placing it among the nation's leading performing arts venues. The once-industrial Westside is now home to warehouse lofts, start-up companies, and buzzed-about restaurants.

Geography

Topography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . of it is land and of it is water. The total area is 0.54% water. At about above mean sea level, Atlanta sits atop a ridge south of the Chattahoochee River.

The Eastern Continental Divide line enters Atlanta from the south, proceeding to the downtown area. From downtown, the divide line runs eastward along DeKalb Avenue and the CSX rail lines through Decatur. Rainwater that falls on the south and east side runs eventually into the Atlantic Ocean, while rainwater on the north and west side of the divide runs into the Gulf of Mexico via the Chattahoochee River. That river is part of the ACF River Basin, and from which Atlanta and many of its neighbors draw most of their water. Being at the far northwestern edge of the city, much of the river's natural habitat is still preserved, in part by the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Downstream however, excessive water use during droughts and pollution during floods has been a source of contention and legal battles with neighboring states Alabama and Florida.

Climate

thumb|Atlanta's Piedmont Park, with a blanket of winter snow. Atlanta has a humid subtropical climate, (Cfa) according to the Köppen classification, with hot, humid summers and mild winters that are occasionally cold by the standards of the southern United States. January averages , with temperatures in the suburbs slightly cooler. Warm, maritime air can bring springlike highs while strong Arctic air masses can push lows into the teens (−11 to −7 °C). High temperatures in July average but occasionally exceed . Atlanta's high mean elevation distinguishes it from most other southern and eastern cities, and contributes to a more temperate climate than is found in areas farther south.

Typical of the southeastern U.S., Atlanta receives abundant rainfall, which is relatively evenly distributed throughout the year, though spring and early fall are markedly drier. Average annual rainfall is . Temperatures at or above occur more than 40 days per year; overnight freezing can be expected over 45 days, but high temperatures that do not climb above the freezing mark are rare. Snow is not seen every year and averages annually. The heaviest single storm brought around on January 23, 1940. True blizzards are rare but possible; one hit in March 1993. Ice storms usually cause more trouble than does snowfall; the most severe such storm may have occurred on January 7, 1973. In 2010, Atlanta had its first White Christmas since 1882.

Extremes range from in February 1899 to in July 1980. More recently, a low one degree away from the record, was observed on January 21, 1985.

Environmental issues

In 2007, the American Lung Association ranked Atlanta as having the 13th highest level of particle pollution in the United States. The combination of pollution and pollen levels, and uninsured citizens caused the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America to name Atlanta as the worst American city for asthma sufferers to live in.

However, the city was recently commended by bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency for its eco-friendly policies. In 2009, Atlanta's Virginia-Highland became the first carbon-neutral zone in the United States. Verus Carbon Neutral developed the partnership that links 17 merchants of the historic Corner Virginia-Highland shopping and dining neighborhood retail district, through the Chicago Climate Exchange, to directly fund the Valley Wood Carbon Sequestration Project (thousands of acres of forest in rural Georgia).

On March 14, 2008, an EF2 tornado hit downtown Atlanta with winds up to . The tornado caused damage to Philips Arena, the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, the Georgia Dome, Centennial Olympic Park, the CNN Center, and the Georgia World Congress Center. It also damaged the nearby neighborhoods of Vine City to the west and Cabbagetown, and Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills to the east. While there were dozens of injuries, only one fatality was reported. City officials warned it could take months to clear the devastation left by the tornado.

Tree canopy

Atlanta has a reputation as the "city in a forest" due to its abundance of trees, unique among major cities. The city's main street is named after a tree, and beyond the Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead business districts, the skyline gives way to a dense canopy of woods that spreads into the suburbs. The nickname is factually accurate, as the city's tree coverage percentage is at 36%, the highest out of all major American cities, and above the national average of 27%. Atlanta's tree coverage does not go unnoticed—it was the main reason cited by ''National Geographic'' in naming Atlanta a "Place of a Lifetime":

"For a sprawling city with the nation’s ninth-largest metro area, Atlanta is surprisingly lush with trees—magnolias, dogwoods, Southern pines, and magnificent oaks."

The city's lush tree canopy, which filters out pollutants and cools sidewalks and buildings, has increasingly been under assault from man and nature due to heavy rains, drought, aged forests, new pests, and urban construction. A 2001 study found that Atlanta's heavy tree cover declined from 48% in 1974 to 38% in 1996. This loss of tree canopy resulted in a 33% increase in stormwater runoff and a loss of 11 million pounds of pollutants removed annually, a value of approximately $28 million per year. Due to a historic drought in the late 2000s, Atlanta lost trees at an unprecedented rate. For example, Piedmont Park lost about a dozen large, historic trees in 2009, compared to two or three during normal years. Although many of Atlanta's trees are between 80–100 years old and thus reaching the end of their normal lifespan, the drought accelerated their demise by shrinking the trees' roots. However, the problem is being addressed by community organizations and city government. Trees Atlanta, a non-profit organization founded in 1985, has planted and distributed over 75,000 shade trees. Atlanta's city government awarded $130,000 in grants to neighborhood groups to plant trees.

Being a city of trees encourages outdoor activity, and thanks to a perpetually mild climate, nature is a constant guest in Atlanta. The city is home to the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, an annual arts and crafts festival held one weekend during early April, when the native dogwoods are in bloom. Downtown's Centennial Olympic Park is the start and finish of the Georgia Marathon, which courses through central Atlanta and Decatur suburbs, business sections and major schools of higher learning like Georgia State University, Agnes Scott College, Emory University and Georgia Tech.

Parks, gardens, and trails

Ever-popular Piedmont Park and the quieter Grant Park call to athletes and loungers throughout the week. The Atlanta Botanical Garden is home to the Canopy Walk, a 600-foot elevated walkway ambling 40 feet from the ground through a 15-acre forest of mature hardwoods, and the only canopy-level pathway of its kind in the United States.

The BeltLine is a former rail corridor that forms a 22-mile loop around Atlanta's central neighborhoods and has been acquired as public space. Most of the corridor is already open as a rough walking path, and it is to be developed into trails with the eventual addition of transit. A trail is already built near the West End neighborhood and one is underway from Piedmont Park near Midtown, south to Inman Park. BeltLine projects will increase Atlanta's park space by 40%, including two new parks: Historic Fourth Ward Park, now open, and Westside Park.

PATH maintains a network of biking and walking trails in Metro Atlanta including one that passes along the Carter Center and through Freedom Park.

Cityscape

Architecture

Atlanta's skyline is punctuated with highrise and midrise buildings of modern and postmodern vintage. Its tallest landmark—the Bank of America Plaza—is the 52nd-tallest building in the world at . It is also the tallest building in the United States located outside of Chicago and New York City.

Unlike many other Southern cities such as Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, and New Orleans, Atlanta chose not to retain its historic Old South architectural characteristics. Instead, Atlanta viewed itself as the leading city of a progressive "New South" and opted for expressive modern structures. Atlanta's skyline includes works by most major U.S. firms and some of the more prominent architects of the 20th century, including Michael Graves, Richard Meier, Marcel Breuer, Renzo Piano, Pickard Chilton, and locally based internationally known Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam Architects.

Atlanta's most notable hometown architect may be John Portman whose creation of the atrium hotel beginning with the Hyatt Regency Atlanta—one of the tallest buildings in Atlanta at the time of its completion in 1967—made a significant mark on hospitality architecture. Through his work, Portman—a graduate of Georgia Tech's College of Architecture—reshaped downtown Atlanta with his designs for the Atlanta Merchandise Mart, Peachtree Center, the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, and SunTrust Plaza.

Neighborhoods

Atlanta fell victim to the urban flight that affected other major American cities in the 20th century, causing the decline of well-to-do east side neighborhoods such as Inman Park and Candler Park, typified by their craftsman bungalows and Victorian mansions. In the 1970s, after neighborhood opposition blocked two freeways from being built through the east side, the area became the starting point for Atlanta's gentrification wave. By the early 1990s, the neighborhoods had transformed into shining examples of renewal, and are now considered hip, urban neighborhoods, appealing to young residents who wish to be in close proximity to entertainment and commercial options.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, gentrification expanded into other parts of Atlanta, spreading into the historic streetcar suburbs east of Downtown and Midtown such as the Old Fourth Ward, Kirkwood, Cabbagetown, and some of the neighborhoods along the BeltLine. Older homes were renovated, new houses were constructed, and once-forgotten leafy, urban villages were rehabilitated. On the western side of the city, condos, apartments, and retail space were built into former warehouses spaces, quickly transforming once-industrial West Midtown into a shining model of smart growth. While the infill growth has slowed somewhat during the Late-2000s recession, it still continues at a steady pace, expanding into areas such as Capitol View, Peoplestown, and Adair Park.

The city's highrises are clustered in the three business districts of Atlanta—Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead (there are also two major suburban business districts, Perimeter Center to the north and Cumberland to the northwest). Downtown contains the most office space in the metro area and is home to many government offices. Notable skyscrapers include the 191 Peachtree Tower, Westin Peachtree Plaza, SunTrust Plaza, Georgia-Pacific Tower, and the buildings of Peachtree Center.

Midtown Atlanta, located north of Downtown, developed rapidly after the completion of One Atlantic Center in 1987. In addition to being a major employment center for the metro area, Midtown contains the offices of many of the region's law firms. In 2006, former Mayor Franklin set in motion a plan to make the 14-block stretch of Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta (nicknamed "Midtown Mile") a street-level luxury shopping destination to rival Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive or Chicago's Magnificent Mile, but in 2011 these plans were rolled back to more modest levels.

Buckhead, the city's uptown district, is eight miles (13 km) north of Downtown. Beginning as a wealthy suburban community with the construction of Lenox Square mall in the 1950s, the area has since developed into a major employment, commercial, and financial center. Immediately surrounding Buckhead's skyscrapers are wealthy neighborhoods of single-family homes.

Southwestern Atlanta contains a number of suburbs popular with African-Americans, such as Collier Heights, Cascade Heights and Peyton Forest.

Atlanta was in the midst of a construction and retail boom prior to the late-2000s recession, with over 50 new midrise or highrise buildings either proposed or under construction in 2006. However, new development slowed with the beginning of the recession.

Culture

Atlanta, while very much in the South, has a culture that is no longer strictly Southern. This is due to the fact that in addition to a large population of migrants from other parts of the U.S., nearly three-quarters of a million foreign-born people make Atlanta their home, accounting for 13 percent of the city's population and making Atlanta one of the most multi-cultural cities in the nation. A random Atlantan is more likely to have been born in Bangalore, Seoul, or Indianapolis than in Atlanta. Thus, although traditional Southern culture is part of Atlanta's cultural fabric, it's mostly the backdrop to one of the nation's leading international cities. This unique cultural combination reveals itself at the High Museum of Art, the bohemian shops of Little Five Points, and the multi-cultural dining choices found along Buford Highway.

Entertainment and performing arts

The classical music scene in the metropolitan Atlanta area includes the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Opera, Atlanta Ballet, Gwinnett Ballet Theatre, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, New Trinity Baroque, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Georgia Boy Choir and the Atlanta Boy Choir. Classical musicians have included renowned conductors Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony's Robert Spano.

The Fox Theatre is an historic landmark and one of the highest grossing venues in the world. The city also has a large collection of highly successful music venues of various sizes that host top and emerging touring acts. Popular local venues include the Tabernacle, the Variety Playhouse, The Masquerade, The Star Community Bar and the EARL.

The city contains a flourishing theater community. Major Theater groups include the Tony Award-winning Alliance Theater (part of the Woodruff Arts Center), the internationally-known Center for Puppetry Arts, Theatrical Outfit, Seven Stages Theater, The Horizon Theater Company, improv group Dad's Garage, Actor's Express, and the Shakespeare Tavern.

Atlanta is also a major hub for the marching arts. The city is home of Spirit Drum and Bugle Corps, who competes in Drum Corps International, and both Alliance Drum and Bugle Corps and the CorpsVets Drum and Bugle Corps, both of which participate in the Drum Corps Associates circuit.

Atlanta is the home of recording studios/companies So So Def Recordings, Grand Hustle Records, BME Recordings, Block Entertainment, Konvict Muzik, and 1017 Brick Squad.

Tourism

Atlanta is one of the nation's leading tourist destinations, both for Americans and those visiting the U.S. from abroad. As of 2010, the city is the seventh-most visited city in the United States, with over 35 million visitors per year.

Atlanta features the world's largest indoor aquarium, the Georgia Aquarium, containing more animals than any other aquarium in more than eight million gallons of water and more than sixty exhibits, including a dolphin exhibit.

In 2010, ''American Style Magazine'' ranked Atlanta as the ninth-best city for the arts. As such, the city is home to many significant art museums. The renowned High Museum of Art is arguably the South's leading art museum and among the most-visited art museums in the world. The Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA), a design museum, is the only such museum in the Southeast. Contemporary art museums include the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. Atlanta's Michael C. Carlos Museum contains the largest collection of ancient art in the Southeast.

Atlanta also hosts a variety of history museums and attractions, including the Atlanta History Center, detailing the history of Atlanta and Georgia; the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, which includes the preserved boyhood home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as his final resting place; the Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum, a civil war museum that houses a massive painting and diorama in-the-round, with a rotating central audience platform, that depicts the Battle of Atlanta in the Civil War; the Carter Center and Presidential Library, housing U.S. President Jimmy Carter's papers and other material relating to the Carter administration and the Carter family's life; historic house museum Rhodes Hall, a Romanesque Revival house inspired by German castles; the Wren's Nest, former home of Brer Rabbit author Joel Chandler-Harris; the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, site of the writing of the best-selling novel Gone With the Wind; the World of Coca-Cola, featuring the history of the world famous soft drink brand and its well-known advertising; the Delta Heritage Museum, an aviation museum that also details the history of the Delta corporation; the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, which showcases the history of paper and paper technology, and also allows visitors to create their own paper; the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, which presents exhibitions and programming about natural history; and the William Breman Jewish Heritage & Holocaust Museum, one of only two Holocaust museums in the southeast.

Museums geared specifically towards children include the Fernbank Science Center, Imagine It! The Children's Museum of Atlanta. In addition, the Center for Puppetry Arts presents puppets from various time periods and countries around the world, hosts puppet performances, and allows visitors to create their own puppets. Future museums planned for the city include the National Health Museum, the College Football Hall of Fame, and the Center of Civil and Human Rights, all to be constructed in the emerging tourist district surrounding Centennial Olympic Park.

Due to Atlanta's mild climate, outdoor events and attractions are plentiful in the city. Piedmont Park hosts many of Atlanta's festivals and cultural events, including the annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival and Atlanta Pride. Atlanta Botanical Garden sits next to the park, home to the Kendeda Canopy Walk, a skywalk that allows visitors to tour one of the city's last remaining urban forests ­from . The Canopy Walk is considered the only canopy-level pathway of its kind in the United States. Zoo Atlanta, located in Grant Park, houses over 1,300 animals representing more than 220 species. Home to the nation’s largest collections of gorillas and orangutans, the Zoo is also one of only four zoos in the U.S. currently housing giant pandas. Just east of the city rises Stone Mountain, the largest piece of exposed granite in the world. During Labor Day weekend each year, Atlanta hosts the popular multi-genre convention Dragon*Con, held downtown at the Hyatt Regency, Marriot Marquis, Hilton and Sheraton hotels. The event attracts an estimated 30,000 attendees annually. The entire month of August is dedicated to filmmaking when Atlanta hosts the month-long celebration of independent film known as Independent Film Month. In October, Midtown Atlanta is host to the popular Out on Film gay film festival, attracting film makers and fans from around the world.

Cuisine

Atlanta's cuisine contains a mix of urban establishments garnering national attention, ethnic restaurants offering cuisine from every corner of the world, and traditional eateries specializing in Southern dining. In the last decade, Atlanta has emerged as a sophisticated restaurant town. Many of the restaurants that have opened within the city's gentrifying neighborhoods since 2000 have garnered praise on a national scale, including Bocado, Bacchanalia, and Miller Union in West Midtown, Empire State South in Midtown, and Two Urban Licks, Parish, and Rathbun's on the east side.

Visitors seeking to sample international Atlanta are directed to Buford Highway, the city's international corridor. There, the million-plus immigrants that make Atlanta home have established various authentic ethnic restaurants, ranging from Vietnamese, Indian, Cuban, Korean, Mexican, Chinese, Russian, and Mongolian.

For traditional Southern fare, one of the city's most famous establishments is The Varsity, a long-lived fast food chain and the world's largest drive-in restaurant. Mary Mac's Tea Room, where every morning workers shuck bushels of corn, wash selected greens, and snap fresh green beans by hand, has been Atlanta's Southern dining destination for more than 60 years. Other eateries offering Southern food include Colonnade and the Horseradish Grill.

Religion

There are over 1,000 places of worship within the city of Atlanta. Protestant Christian faiths are well represented in Atlanta, the city historically being a major center for traditional Southern denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention, the United Methodist Church, and the Presbyterian Church (USA). Atlanta is home to various Protestant megachurches, including North Point Community Church, the second largest church in the United States, and the Anglican Church of the Apostles.

Atlanta contains a large, and rapidly growing, Roman Catholic population. The number of Catholics grew from 292,300 members in 1998 to 900,000 members in 2010, an increase of 207 percent. The population is expected to top 1 million by 2011. The increase is fueled by Catholics moving to Atlanta from other parts of the U.S. and the world, and from newcomers to the church. About 16 percent of all metropolitan Atlanta residents are Catholic. As the see of the 84 parish Archdiocese of Atlanta, Atlanta serves as the metropolitan see for the Province of Atlanta. The archdiocesan cathedral is the Cathedral of Christ the King and the current archbishop is the Most Rev. Wilton D. Gregory. Also located in the metropolitan area are several Eastern Catholic parishes which fall in the jurisdiction of Eastern Catholic eparchies for the Melkite, Maronite, Syro-Malabar, and Byzantine Catholics.

The city hosts the Greek Orthodox Annunciation Cathedral, the see of the Metropolis of Atlanta and its bishop, Alexios. Other Orthodox Christian jurisdictions represented by parishes in the Atlanta area include the Antiochian Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church in America. Atlanta is also the see of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, which includes all of northern Georgia, much of middle Georgia and the Chattahoochee River valley of western Georgia. This Diocese is headquartered at the Cathedral of St Philip in Buckhead and is led by the Right Reverend J. Neil Alexander.

Atlanta also serves as headquarters for several regional Protestant church bodies. The Southeastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America maintains offices in downtown Atlanta; ELCA parishes are numerous throughout the metro area. The headquarters for The Salvation Army's United States Southern Territory is located in Atlanta. The denomination has eight churches, numerous social service centers, and youth clubs located throughout the Atlanta area.

Traditional African American denominations such as the National Baptist Convention and the African Methodist Episcopal Church are represented in the area. These churches have several seminaries that form the Interdenominational Theological Center complex in the Atlanta University Center.

The city has a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located in the suburb of Sandy Springs.

Atlanta also has a considerable number of ethnic Christian congregations such as Korean Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches, the Tamil Church Atlanta, Telugu Church, Hindi Church, Malayalam Church, Ethiopian, Chinese, and many more traditional ethnic religious groups.

Metropolitan Atlanta is also home to a Jewish community estimated to include 120,000 individuals in 61,300 households. As of 2006, Atlanta's Jewish population is the 11th largest in the United States, up from 17th largest in 1996. There are eruvim in the Virginia Highland and Toco Hills neighborhoods inside 285, as well as in Dunwoody, Sandy Springs and Alpharetta in the North Metro Area.

The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Atlanta in adjacent Lilburn, Georgia is currently the largest Hindu temple in the world outside of India. It is one of approximately 15 Hindu temples in the metro Atlanta area.

There also are an estimated 75,000 Muslims in the area and approximately 35 mosques.

Sports

Atlanta is home to professional franchises of three major team sports: the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball, the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association, and the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League.

The Braves began playing in 1871 as the Boston Red Stockings, and is the oldest continually operating professional sports franchise in America. The Braves won the World Series in 1995, and had an unprecedented run of 14 straight divisional championships from 1991 to 2005.

The Atlanta Falcons (American football) have played in Atlanta since 1966 and currently play at the Georgia Dome. They have won the division title four times (1980, 1998, 2004, 2010) and one conference championship—going on to finish as the runner-up to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII in 1999. Atlanta hosted Super Bowl XXVIII in 1994 and Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000.

The Atlanta Hawks (basketball) began in 1946 as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, playing in Moline, Illinois. The team moved to Milwaukee in 1951, then to St. Louis in 1955, where they won their sole NBA Championship as the St. Louis Hawks. In 1968, they came to Atlanta. In October 2007, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) announced that Atlanta would receive an expansion franchise, that commenced their first season in May 2008. The new team is the Atlanta Dream, and plays in Philips Arena.

From 1972 to 1980, the Atlanta Flames played ice hockey in the National Hockey League (NHL), but moved to Calgary in 1980. Then, in 1997, Atlanta was awarded an NHL expansion franchise and in 1999, the Atlanta Thrashers began playing (at Philips Arena). The Thrashers moved to Winnipeg in 2011.

The original Atlanta Beat of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA, 2001–2003) was the only team to reach the playoffs in each of the league's three seasons. The new Atlanta Beat made its debut in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) in April 2010, and the following month played its first game in the new soccer-specific stadium that it shares with Kennesaw State University in the northern suburb of Kennesaw. Atlanta is also home to the Atlanta Silverbacks of the North American Soccer League (men) and W-League (women). In 2007, the Silverbacks had their best season advancing to the USL Finals against the Seattle Sounders, who have since been promoted to the MLS. The city is supposedly also being considered for a potential expansion team in Major League Soccer. The Atlanta Chiefs won the championship of the now-defunct North American Soccer League in 1968.

In golf, the final PGA Tour event of the season that features elite players, The Tour Championship, is played annually at East Lake Golf Club. This golf course is used because of its connection to the great amateur golfer Bobby Jones, an Atlanta native.

Atlanta has a rich tradition in collegiate athletics. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets participate in 17 intercollegiate sports, including football and basketball. Tech competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and is home to Bobby Dodd Stadium, the oldest continuously used on campus site for college football in the southern United States, and oldest currently in Division I FBS. The stadium was built in 1913 by students of Georgia Tech. Atlanta also played host to the second intercollegiate football game in the South, played between Auburn University and the University of Georgia in Piedmont Park in 1892; this game is now called the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. The city hosts college football's annual Chick-fil-A Bowl (Formerly known as the Peach Bowl) and the Peachtree Road Race, the world’s largest race.

Atlanta was the host city for the Centennial 1996 Summer Olympics. Centennial Olympic Park, built for the 1996 Summer Olympics, sits adjacent to CNN Center and Philips Arena. It is now operated by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority. Atlanta hosted the NCAA Final Four Men's Basketball Championship most recently in April 2007.

Atlanta is home to two of the nation's Gaelic football clubs, Na Fianna Ladies and Mens Gaelic Football Club and Clan na nGael Ladies and Mens Gaelic Football Club. Both are members of the North American County Board, a branch of the Gaelic Athletic Association, the worldwide governing body of Gaelic games.

Atlanta is also home to many rugby union clubs including the Atlanta Harlequins, ranked #2 in the United States in Division 1 for women's clubs under USA Rugby, the governing body for rugby in the United States.

{|class="wikitable" |- !Club !Sport !League !Venue !League Championships |- |Atlanta Falcons |American football |National Football League |Georgia Dome | 0 |- |Atlanta Braves |Baseball |Major League Baseball, NL |Turner Field |1 (1995) |- |Atlanta Hawks |Basketball |National Basketball Association |Philips Arena | 0 |- |Atlanta Dream |Women's basketball |Women's National Basketball Association |Philips Arena | 0 |- |Atlanta Silverbacks |Soccer (football) |North American Soccer League, Women's W-League |Atlanta Silverbacks Park | 1 (2007) |- | Atlanta Beat (WUSA, WPS) |Women's soccer (Football) |Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) |2001–2002 Bobby Dodd Stadium, 2003 Morris Brown College, 2010 Kennesaw State University Soccer Stadium | 0 |- |Atlanta Xplosion |Women's football |Independent Women's Football League |James R. Halford Stadium | 1 (2006) |- |Gwinnett Gladiators |Ice hockey |ECHL |Arena at Gwinnett Center | 0 |- |Gwinnett Braves |Baseball |International League |Gwinnett Stadium |0 |- |Georgia Force |Arena football |Arena Football League |Arena at Gwinnett Center |0 |- |Atlanta Harlequins |Rugby Union |USA Rugby |Multiple Locations | 0 |}

Media

The Atlanta metro area is served by many local television stations and is the eighth largest designated market area (DMA) in the U.S. with 2,387,520 homes (2.0% of the total U.S.). There are also numerous local radio stations serving every genre of music and sports.

Cox Enterprises, a privately held company controlled by Anne Cox Chambers, has substantial media holdings in and beyond Atlanta. Its Cox Communications division is the nation's third-largest cable television service provider; the company also publishes over a dozen daily newspapers in the United States, including ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution''. WSB AM—the flagship station of Cox Radio—was the first broadcast station in the South.

The notable television stations in Atlanta are Cox Enterprises-owned ABC affiliate (and the city's first TV station) WSB-TV (Channel 2.1), Fox Television's WAGA-TV (Channel 5.1), Gannett Company's NBC affiliate WXIA-TV (Channel 11.1, also known as "11 Alive") and its sister station MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL-TV (Channel 36.1, known as MyAtlTV), the Univision owned station WUVG-TV (Channel 34.1) and its sister station Telefutura (Channel 34.2), the Meredith Corporation's CBS affiliate WGCL-TV (Channel 46.1), and CBS-owned CW station WUPA (Channel 69.1).

The market has two PBS affiliates: WGTV (Channel 8.1), the flagship station of the statewide Georgia Public Television network, and WPBA (Channel 30.1), owned by Atlanta Public Schools.

Atlanta is the home of the nation's first cable superstation, then known as WTCG (Channel 17), first transmitting its signal via satellite in December 1976; the station itself first signed-on in Atlanta as WJRJ-TV in 1967. The station changed its call letters to the more-familiar WTBS in 1979, and became WPCH-TV (also known as "Peachtree TV") in 2007, when its parent company, the Time Warner-owned Turner Broadcasting System decided to separate the local and national programming feeds.

The Atlanta area is also home to other Turner Broadcasting properties TNT, CNN, Cartoon Network, HLN, truTV, and Turner Classic Movies, as well as NBC Universal's The Weather Channel.

The Atlanta radio market is ranked seventh in the nation by Arbitron, and is home to more than forty radio stations, notably of which including WSB-AM (750), WCNN-AM (680), WQXI-AM (790), WGST-AM (640), WVEE-FM (103.3), WSB-FM (98.5), WWWQ-FM (99.7), and WSBB-FM (95.5).

Economy

Atlanta is one of ten U.S. cities classified as a "beta world city" by a 2008 study at Loughborough University, and ranks fourth in the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered within city boundaries, behind New York City, Houston, and Dallas. Several major national and international companies are headquartered in metro Atlanta, including four Fortune 100 companies: The Coca-Cola Company, Home Depot, United Parcel Service, Delta Air Lines, AT&T; Mobility, and Newell Rubbermaid. Other headquarters for some major companies in Atlanta and around the metro area include Arby's, Chick-fil-A, Earthlink, Equifax, Gentiva Health Services, Georgia-Pacific, Oxford Industries, RaceTrac Petroleum, Southern Company, SunTrust Banks, Mirant, and Waffle House. In early June 2009, NCR Corporation announced that they will relocate its headquarters to the nearby suburb of Duluth, Georgia. First Data is also a large corporation who announced in August 2009 that they would move its headquarters to Sandy Springs. Over 75% of the Fortune 1000 companies have a presence in the Atlanta area, and the region hosts offices of about 1,250 multinational corporations. As of 2006 Atlanta Metropolitan Area ranks as the 10th largest cybercity (high-tech center) in the US, with 126,700 high-tech jobs.

Delta Air Lines is the city's largest employer and the metro area's third largest. Delta operates one of the world's largest airline hubs at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and, together with the hub of competing carrier AirTran Airways, has helped make Hartsfield-Jackson the world's busiest airport, both in terms of passenger traffic and aircraft operations. The airport, since its construction in the 1950s, has served as a key engine of Atlanta's economic growth. Atlanta has a sizable financial sector. SunTrust Banks, the seventh largest bank by asset holdings in the United States, has its home office on Peachtree Street in downtown. The Federal Reserve System has a district headquarters in Atlanta; the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which oversees much of the deep South, relocated from downtown to midtown in 2001. Wachovia announced plans in August 2006 to place its new credit-card division in Atlanta, and city, state and civic leaders harbor long-term hopes of having the city serve as the home of the secretariat of a future Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Atlanta is also home to a growing Biotechnology sector, gaining recognition through such events as the 2009 BIO International Convention. Atlanta is also the headquarters of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region II.

The auto manufacturing sector in metropolitan Atlanta has suffered setbacks recently, including the closure of the General Motors Doraville Assembly plant in 2008, and the shutdown of Ford Motor Company's Atlanta Assembly plant in Hapeville in 2006. Kia, however, has opened a new assembly plant near West Point, Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia.

The city is a major cable television programming center. Ted Turner began the Turner Broadcasting System media empire in Atlanta, where he bought a UHF station that eventually became WTBS. Turner established the headquarters of the Cable News Network at CNN Center, adjacent today to Centennial Olympic Park. As his company grew, its other channels—the Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TNT, Turner South, Turner Classic Movies, CNN International, CNN en Español, HLN, and CNN Airport Network—centered their operations in Atlanta as well (Turner South has since been sold). Turner Broadcasting is a division of Time Warner. The Weather Channel, owned by a consortium of NBC Universal, Blackstone Group, and Bain Capital, has its offices in the Cumberland district northwest of downtown Atlanta. Cox Enterprises, a privately held company controlled by James C. Kennedy, his sister Blair Parry-Okeden and their aunt Anne Cox Chambers, has substantial media holdings in and beyond Atlanta; it is headquartered in the city of Sandy Springs. Its Cox Communications division, headquartered in unincorporated DeKalb County, is the third-largest cable television service provider in the United States.

Unincorporated DeKalb County is also home to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Adjacent to Emory University, with a staff of nearly 15,000 (including 6,000 contractors and 840 Commissioned Corps officers) in 170 occupations, including: engineers, entomologists, epidemiologists, biologists, physicians, veterinarians, behavioral scientists, nurses, medical technologists, economists, health communicators, toxicologists, chemists, computer scientists, and statisticians. Headquartered in DeKalb County, CDC has 10 other offices throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. In addition, CDC staff are located in local health agencies, quarantine/border health offices at ports of entry, and 45 countries around the world. Originally established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Center, its primary function was to combat malaria, the deep southeast being the heart of the U.S. malaria zone at the time.

Law and government

Atlanta is governed by a mayor and the Atlanta City Council. The city council consists of 15 representatives—one from each of the city's 12 districts and three at-large positions (a district system superseded the ward system in 1954). The mayor may veto a bill passed by the council, but the council can override the veto with a two-thirds majority. The mayor of Atlanta is Kasim Reed.

Every mayor elected since 1973 has been black. In 2001, Shirley Franklin became the first woman to be elected Mayor of Atlanta, and the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major southern city. Atlanta city politics suffered from a notorious reputation for corruption during the 1990s administration of Bill Campbell, who was convicted by a federal jury in 2006 on three counts of tax evasion in connection with gambling income he received while Mayor during trips he took with city contractors. As the state capital, Atlanta is the site of most of Georgia's state government. The Georgia State Capitol building, located downtown, houses the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor and secretary of state, as well as the General Assembly. The Governor's Mansion is located on West Paces Ferry Road, in a residential section of Buckhead. Atlanta is also home to Georgia Public Broadcasting headquarters, and is the county seat of Fulton County, with which it shares responsibility for the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System.

The city is divided into 25 neighborhood planning units or NPUs, which in turn are divided into 242 officially defined neighborhoods, some of which are traditional neighborhoods, while others are large districts containing multiple neighborhoods, such as Downtown and Midtown.

Crime

Crime in Atlanta has been consistently dropping. Between 2001 and 2009 the crime rate in Atlanta dropped by 40 percent, according to the FBI. Homicide fell 57 percent. Rape is down 72 percent. Violent crime overall is down 55 percent. Atlanta’s public safety improvement has occurred at more than twice the rate of the rest of the country. Crime is down across the country, but Atlanta’s improvement has far surpassed the national trend. This relative improvement explains why Atlanta—after ranking in the top five highest crime cities for most of the previous three decades—now ranks 31st. Atlanta has lower crime than Salt Lake City, Orlando and Tacoma, Washington. The city is served by the Atlanta Police Department, which has an estimated 1,700 officers working in the force. Atlanta is divided into six police zones.

Demographics

2010 Census figures indicated a population of 420,003 – 22.4% lower than 2009 estimates of 540,921. The huge difference between the 2010 official count and the 2009 estimates caused many to question the reliability of the 2010 count, including Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed.

According to the 2010 census, the racial composition of the city of Atlanta was as follows:

Black or African American: 54.0%

White: 38.4% (Non-Hispanic Whites: 36.3%)

Asian: 3.1%

Native American: 0.2%

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.0%

Some other race: 2.2%

Two or more races: 2.0%

Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 5.3%

Source:

The city of Atlanta is seeing a unique and drastic demographic increase in its white population, and at a pace that outstrips the rest of the nation. The proportion of whites in the city's population, according to Brookings Institution, grew faster between 2000 and 2006 than that of any other U.S. city. By 2010, Atlanta's white population had increased by 22,763 people. The white percentage increased from 31% in 2000, to 35% in 2006, to 38% in 2010, more than double the increase between 1990 and 2000. During the same time, the city's black poulation decreased by 31,678 people, shrinking from 61.4% of the city's population in 2000 to 54.0% in 2010. The demographic changes are due to an influx of whites into gentrifying intown neighborhoods, such as East Atlanta and the Old Fourth Ward, coupled with a movement of blacks into adjacent suburbs, such as Clayton County.

The median income for a household in the city was $47,464 and the median income for a family was $59,711. About 21.8% of the population and 17.2% of families lived below the poverty line.

The city of Atlanta also has one of the highest LGBT populations per capita. It ranks 3rd of all major cities, behind San Francisco and slightly behind Seattle, with 12.8% of the city's total population recognizing themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. According to the 2000 United States Census (revised in 2004), Atlanta has the twelfth highest proportion of single-person households nationwide among cities of 100,000 or more residents, which was at 38.5%.

According to a 2000 daytime population estimate by the Census Bureau, over 250,000 more people commuted to Atlanta on any given workday, boosting the city's estimated daytime population to 676,431. This is an increase of 62.4% over Atlanta's resident population, making it the largest gain in daytime population in the country among cities with fewer than 500,000 residents.

According to census estimates, the city of Atlanta was the 13th fastest growing city in the nation, in terms of both percentage and numerical increase.

Since the 1990s, the number of immigrants from Latin America to Atlanta has greatly increased. This flow of immigrants has brought new cultural and religious practices and affected the economy and demography of the urban area, resulting in vibrant Hispanic communities within the city. Although the majority of the Hispanic population is made up of Mexicans, it has been declining due to an increase in deportation and the population of other Hispanic groups.

Education

Colleges and universities

The city has more than 30 institutions of higher education, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, a premier research university that has been ranked among the nation's top ten public universities since 1999 by ''U.S. News & World Report''; Emory University, a prominent liberal arts and research institution that has been consistently ranked as one of the top 20 schools in the United States by ''U.S. News & World Report'' and is widely considered one of the leading universities in the world; Georgia State University, a comprehensive public research university located downtown; SCAD-Atlanta, the Atlanta campus of Savannah College of Art and Design, a private arts university; the Mercer University Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Studies campus; Morris Brown College, a four-year, private, coed, liberal arts college; and the Atlanta University Center, comprising Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Interdenominational Theological Center, a consortium of historically-black colleges.

Greater Atlanta contains several notable colleges and universities, including Oglethorpe University, a small liberal arts school named for the founder of Georgia with a faculty rated 15th in the nation by the ''Princeton Review''; Agnes Scott College, a women's college; Kennesaw State University, the third largest university in Georgia; other state-run institutions such as Georgia Gwinnett College, Clayton State University, Atlanta Metropolitan College, Georgia Perimeter College, Southern Polytechnic State University, University of West Georgia, and Gordon College; as well as private colleges, including Reinhardt University and the Atlanta Christian College.

Elementary and secondary schools

The public school system (Atlanta Public Schools) is run by the Atlanta Board of Education with interim superintendent Erroll Davis. As of 2007, the system has an active enrollment of 49,773 students, attending a total of 106 schools: including 58 elementary schools (three of which operate on a year-round calendar), 16 middle schools, 20 high schools, and 7 charter schools. The school system also supports two alternative schools for middle and/or high school students, two single-sex academies, and an adult learning center. The school system also owns and operates radio station WABE-FM 90.1, a National Public Radio affiliate, and Public Broadcasting Service television station WPBA 30.

Transportation

Air

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport , the world's busiest airport as measured by passenger traffic and by aircraft traffic, provides air service between Atlanta and many national and international destinations. Delta Air Lines and AirTran Airways maintain their largest hubs at the airport. Situated () south of downtown, the airport covers most of the land inside a wedge formed by Interstate 75, Interstate 85, and Interstate 285. The MARTA rail system has a station in the airport terminal, and provides direct service to Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead, and Sandy Springs. The major general aviation airports near the city proper are DeKalb-Peachtree Airport and Brown Field . See List of airports in the Atlanta area for a more complete listing.

Highway

With a comprehensive network of freeways that radiate out from the city, Atlantans rely on their cars as the dominant mode of transportation in the region Atlanta is mostly encircled by Interstate 285, a beltway locally known as "the Perimeter" which has come to mark the boundary between the interior of the region and its surrounding suburbs.

Three major interstate highways converge in Atlanta; I-20 runs east to west across town, while I-75 runs from northwest to southeast, and I-85 runs from northeast to southwest. The latter two combine to form the Downtown Connector (I-75/85) through the middle of the city. The combined highway carries more than 340,000 vehicles per day. The Connector is one of the ten most congested segments of interstate highway in the United States. The intersection of I-85 and I-285 in Doraville—officially called the Tom Moreland Interchange, is known to most residents as Spaghetti Junction. Metropolitan Atlanta is approached by 13 freeways. In addition to the aforementioned interstates, I-575, Georgia 400, Georgia 141, I-675, Georgia 316, I-985, Stone Mountain Freeway (US 78), and Langford Parkway (SR 166) all terminate just within or beyond the Perimeter, with the exception of Langford Parkway, limiting the transportation options in the central city.

This strong automotive reliance has resulted in heavy traffic and contributes to Atlanta's air pollution, which has made Atlanta one of the more polluted cities in the country. The Clean Air Campaign was created in 1996 to help reduce pollution in metro Atlanta.

Around 2008 the Atlanta metro area has ranked at or near the top of the longest average commute times in the U.S. Also, the Atlanta metro area has ranked at or near the top for worst traffic in the country.

Public transportation

Notwithstanding heavy automotive usage, Atlanta's subway system, operated by Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), is the eighth busiest in the country. Feeding into the rail system is MARTA's bus system. the 14th largest in the country. MARTA rail lines connect many key destinations in the area such as the airport, Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead, Perimeter mall, and Decatur. However key central destinations such as Emory University and Turner Field remain unserved.

There is no commuter rail in Metro Atlanta at this time, and MARTA rail lines only reach the innermost suburbs such as Sandy Springs, Brookhaven, College Park and Decatur – only Fulton and DeKalb Counties chose to join MARTA; Cobb, Gwinnett and other counties chose to stay out of MARTA. To provide a public transportation option for suburban and exurban commuters, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority operates the Xpress bus service from Downtown and Midtown Atlanta to 12 counties.

Public transportation originally consisted of horsecars (from 1871), which were replaced by electric streetcars (1889–1949), which were in turn replaced by trolleybuses ("trackless trolleys") (1937–1963) and buses. In 1963 all existing trolleybuses were replaced by buses. Various proposals would bring streetcars back to Atlanta. The Downtown Connector route, now funded, will connect Centennial Olympic Park with Peachtree Center and the MLK historic site. Other proposed routes include lines along the 22-mile Beltline around Atlanta's central neighborhoods, as well as on Peachtree Street, Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., North Ave., and 17th St. Proposals also exist for a commuter rail system, MARTA rail line extensions, light rail lines, bus rapid transit, and more suburban express buses.

Intercity rail

Atlanta began as a railroad town and it still serves as a major rail junction, with several freight lines belonging to Norfolk Southern and CSX intersecting below street level in downtown. It is the home of major classification yards for both railroads, Inman Yard on the NS and Tilford Yard on the CSX. Long-distance passenger service is provided by Amtrak's Crescent train, which connects Atlanta with many cities between New Orleans and New York. The Amtrak station is located several miles north of downtown—and it lacks a connection to the MARTA rail system. An ambitious, long-standing proposal would create a Multi-Modal Passenger Terminal downtown, adjacent to Philips Arena and the Five Points MARTA station, which would link, in a single facility, MARTA bus and rail, intercity bus services, proposed commuter rail services to other Georgia cities, and Amtrak.

International relations

Diplomatic missions

Atlanta, as the home of 24 general consulates, contains the seventh-highest concentration of diplomatic missions in the United States. Most of the diplomatic missions are located in Buckhead, Midtown, or Peachtree Center. The city is also home to 36 honorary consulates. In 2011, it was announced that Atlanta would be the host of the next Indian consulate.

Sister cities

Atlanta has 18 sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI): {| |- | valign="top" | Toulouse, France (1974) Brussels, Belgium (1967) Bucharest, Romania (1994) Cotonou, Benin (1995) Daegu, South Korea (1981) Fukuoka, Japan (2005) Lagos, Nigeria (1974) Montego Bay, Jamaica (1972) Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom (1977) | valign="top" | Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Germany (1998) Ancient Olympia, Greece (1994) Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (1987) Ra'anana, Israel (2000) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1972) Salcedo, Dominican Republic (1996) Salzburg, Austria (1967) Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan) (1974) Tbilisi, Georgia (1988) |}

Surrounding municipalities

The population of the Atlanta region spreads across a metropolitan area of —a land area larger than that of Massachusetts. Because Georgia contains the second highest number of counties in the country, area residents live under a heavily decentralized collection of governments. As of the 2000 census, fewer than one in twelve residents of the metropolitan area lived inside Atlanta city proper.

See also

Urban forest

List of people from Atlanta

Notes

References

Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events: Years of Change and Challenge, 1940–1976 by Franklin M. Garrett, Harold H. Martin

''Atlanta, Then and Now''. Part of the Then and Now book series.

Darlene R. Roth and Andy Ambrose. ''Metropolitan Frontiers: A short history of Atlanta''. Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1996. An overview of the city's history with an emphasis on its growth.

Sjoquist, Dave (ed.) ''The Atlanta Paradox.'' New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2000.

Stone, Clarence. ''Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta, 1946–1988.'' University Press of Kansas. 1989.

Elise Reid Boylston. ''Atlanta: Its Lore, Legends and Laughter''. Doraville: privately printed, 1968. Lots of neat anecdotes about the history of the city.

Frederick Allen. ''Atlanta Rising''. Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1996. A detailed history of Atlanta from 1946 to 1996, with much about City Councilman, later Mayor, William B. Hartsfield's work in making Atlanta a major air transport hub, and about the American Civil Rights Movement as it affected (and was affected by) Atlanta.

External links

Official Website

Atlanta Department of Watershed Management

Atlanta Police Department

Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau

Entry in the New Georgia Encyclopedia

Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive Digital Library of Georgia

Atlanta Time Machine

Atlanta, Georgia, a National Park Service ''Discover Our Shared Heritage'' Travel Itinerary

Category:Atlanta metropolitan area Category:Cities in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:County seats in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Host cities of the Summer Olympic Games Category:Populated places established in 1845 Category:Populated places in Georgia (U.S. state) with African American majority populations Category:United States places with Orthodox Jewish communities Category:Urban forests in the United States Category:IOC Session Host Cities

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name	Dan Uggla
team	Atlanta Braves
number	26
position	Second baseman
birth date	March 11, 1980
birth place	Louisville, Kentucky
bats	Right
throws	Right
debutdate	April 3
debutyear	2006
debutteam	Florida Marlins
statyear	August 24, 2011
stat1label	Batting average
stat1value	.259
stat2label	Home runs
stat2value	184
stat3label	Runs batted in
stat3value	531
stat4label	On base percentage
stat4value	.342
teams	Florida Marlins (–) Atlanta Braves (–present)
awards	2× All-Star selection (, ) NL Silver Slugger Award winner () Sporting News NL Rookie of the Year: 2006 Players Choice NL Most Outstanding Rookie: 2006 Topps Rookie All Star Second Baseman: 2006 Florida Marlins All-Time career home run leader }}

Daniel Cooley Uggla (born March 11, 1980) is an American professional baseball second baseman with the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball. Uggla finished third in the 2006 National League Rookie of the Year voting behind teammate and winner Hanley Ramirez, and Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals, but won the Players Choice and Sporting News NL ROY awards. Dan also had his own fan club at Sun Life Stadium who called themselves "Uggla's Ugglies." Uggla is the all-time leader in home runs for the Marlins, and is the only second baseman in MLB history to hit at least thirty home runs in four consecutive seasons. He also holds the Atlanta Braves record for longest hitting streak.

Biography

Personal life and early career

Uggla was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of Elizabeth Armistead (née Cooley) and John Carl Uggla. After graduating from Columbia Central High School in Columbia, TN, in 1998, Uggla attended the University of Memphis where after his junior season he was named an All-American by Baseball America, Baseball Weekly, and Collegiate Baseball.

Professional career

Minor leagues

Drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 11th Round (338th overall) of the 2001 Major League Baseball Draft, Uggla spent five seasons in the Diamondbacks organization, including a year with the short season-advanced team, the Yakima Bears in Yakima, Washington. He amassed a .276 career minor league batting average, .341 on-base percentage, and .443 slugging percentage, to go along with 64 home runs, 311 runs batted in, and 62 stolen bases. Although he was 25 years old, which would make him the same age as many AAA players, and moderately successful in 2005, he never advanced past the AA level.

Uggla was left off the Diamondbacks 40-man roster in , and the Marlins selected him in the Rule 5 Draft.

Florida Marlins

Starting the 2006 season with the Marlins, Uggla would get his first major league hit just three days later when he singled off Houston Astros pitcher Andy Pettitte; his first home run was on April 13 against San Diego Padres starter Dewon Brazelton; his first stolen base was a steal of home plate against the Philadelphia Phillies on April 21.

Uggla was named to the 2006 Major League Baseball All-Star Game on July 2, 2006, as a reserve; he is believed to be the first player in history to be selected for the All-Star Game in the same season in which he had been a Rule 5 pick.

On September 15, 2006, Uggla hit his 25th home run, breaking Joe Gordon's record for most home runs by a rookie second baseman. Because he received less publicity as a prospect than some of his fellow rookies in Major League Baseball, such as Prince Fielder, Ryan Zimmerman, and Nick Markakis, Uggla's display of power in the majors and his selection to the National League All-Star team caused him to suddenly draw more attention. Throughout his rookie season, due to the many mispronunciations of his last name, Marlins television announcers Rich Waltz and Tommy Hutton have exclaimed, "And his name...is DAN UGGLA!!", when Uggla hit a home run. Waltz and Hutton continue to use this call for most of Uggla's home runs.

Uggla finished his rookie season with 27 homers and 90 runs batted in. He won numerous rookie awards, including the Players Choice NL ROY award and Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award.

The Marlins finished Uggla's second season in last place. Uggla finished the year with a .245 batting average, caused mainly by slumps in April and September. However, he did surpass his rookie home run total, hitting 31 home runs and knocking in 88 runs.

Uggla is considered media friendly. He has hosted This Week in Baseball in the past with several of his teammates. He also appears weekly on Sirius' Mike & Murray Show (hosted by Bruce Murray and Mike Yam on channel 123) every week during the 2008 baseball season and has made multiple appearances on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show.

On May 10, 2008, Uggla hit his first career Grand Slam in the fourth inning of the game against the Nationals off Joel Hanrahan. On May 25, 2008 Uggla set a Marlins record for most home runs for a Marlins in any month (12) passing Gary Sheffield. On June 11, 2008, about a month after his first grand slam, he hit a walk-off grand slam off Tom Gordon to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-2 at Dolphin Stadium.

The rising star emerged in 2008, named to the 2008 MLB All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, as well as opting to take part in the 2008 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. Uggla hit six home runs in the first round of the derby, two on the first two balls. Uggla finished fifth, tied with Grady Sizemore. In the All-Star Game, Uggla committed two consecutive errors on playable balls in the 10th inning that appeared to end the National League's hopes of victory, but those errors did not result in runs. He committed a third error in the bottom of the 13th, making him the first player with three errors in a single All-Star Game. Uggla also struck out three times, and grounded into a double play.

On September 28, 2008, Uggla hit the last home run ever at Shea Stadium.

During the 2008 offseason, Uggla went to arbitration with the Marlins and was awarded $5.3 million dollars; the Marlins had offered him $4.4 million.

On June 5, 2009, Uggla became the fastest 2nd Basemen in history to get to the 100HR mark, in 502 games. He took the record from Alfonso Soriano, in 34 fewer games.

Uggla signed a one-year, $7.8 million contract with the Marlins on January 18, 2010. On July 31, he hit his 144th career home run, setting the Marlins all-time career mark. On September 13, he became the first second baseman in Major League History to hit 30 or more home runs in four seasons.

Atlanta Braves

After the 2010 season, Uggla rejected a four-year, $48 million contract offer from the Marlins. Soon thereafter, Uggla was traded to the Atlanta Braves for infielder Omar Infante and reliever Michael Dunn. On January 4, 2011, Uggla and the Atlanta Braves agreed to a 5-year, $62 million contract.

During the 2011 season with the Braves, Uggla became the 23rd player in MLB history to have a hitting streak of at least 33 games. Uggla, who had gotten off to a poor start, had a .173 batting average after going hitless on July 4th. The next day, he collected two hits in four at bats to start the streak. During this hitting streak, Uggla along with rookie Freddie Freeman became the first Braves in the modern era to have concurrent twenty game hitting streaks. On August 12, Uggla his two home runs in a home game against the Chicago Cubs to break the Atlanta Braves record for longest hitting streak, which had been set by Rico Carty in 1970. He also hit a single and a home run in the next game, extending the streak to 33 games. The streak ended on August 14, 2011, after he went 0-for-3 with a sacrifice fly against the Chicago Cubs. He is the only player in the Modern Era to have a hitting streak of over 20+ games while batting under .200 during the hitting streak. After the first few weeks, he raised his average over .200. Uggla hit .377 with 15 homers and 32 RBIs during his streak, which was the third longest by a second baseman in major league history, and the longest in the majors since 2006. On August 22nd, 2011 Uggla hit his 30th home run of the season for his fifth consecutive season of 30 or more home runs. As of the 2011 season, he is the only second baseman to have hit 30 or more home runs in more than three seasons.

References

External links

Dan Uggla on the Fish@Bat Florida Marlins Wiki

Category:1980 births Category:Living people Category:Florida Marlins players Category:Atlanta Braves players Category:Baseball players from Kentucky Category:Major League Baseball second basemen Category:Memphis Tigers baseball players Category:National League All-Stars Category:People from Louisville, Kentucky Category:Yakima Bears players Category:Lancaster JetHawks players Category:South Bend Silver Hawks players Category:El Paso Diablos players Category:Tennessee Smokies players

fr:Dan Uggla ja:ダン・アグラ zh:丹·阿格拉

Name	John Smoltz
Width	250
Position	Pitcher
Bats	Right
Throws	Right
Birth date	May 15, 1967
Birth place	Warren, Michigan
Debutdate	July 23
Debutyear	1988
Debutteam	Atlanta Braves
Finaldate	September 30
Finalyear	2009
Finalteam	St. Louis Cardinals
Stat1label	Win–loss record
Stat1value	213–155
Stat2label	Earned run average
Stat2value	3.33
Stat3label	Strikeouts
Stat3value	3,084
Stat4label	Saves
Stat4value	154
Teams	Atlanta Braves (–) Boston Red Sox () St. Louis Cardinals ()
Highlights	8× All-Star selection (1989, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007) World Series champion () Silver Slugger Award winner (1997) 1996 NL Cy Young Award 1992 NLCS MVP 2005 Roberto Clemente Award 2005 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award 2007 Branch Rickey Award 2002 NL Rolaids Relief Man of the Year }}

John Andrew Smoltz (born May 15, 1967) is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher and active sportscaster. He is best known for his prolific career of more than two decades with the Atlanta Braves, in which he garnered eight All-Star selections and received the Cy Young Award in 1996. Though predominantly known as a starting pitcher, Smoltz was converted to a reliever in 2001, following his recovery from Tommy John surgery, and spent four years as the team's closer before returning to a starting role. In 2002 he became only the second pitcher in history to have had both a 20-win season and a 50-save season (the other being Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley). He is the only pitcher in major league history to top both 200 wins and 150 saves. He became the 16th member of the 3,000 strikeout club on April 22, 2008 when he fanned Felipe Lopez of the Washington Nationals in the third inning in Atlanta.

Smoltz threw a four-seam fastball that was clocked as high as 98 miles per hour, a strong, effective slider, and an 88–91 mph split-finger fastball that he used as a strikeout pitch. He also mixed in a curveball and change-up on occasion, and in 1999, he began experimenting with both a knuckleball and a screwball, though he rarely used either in game situations.

Minor leagues and trade to Atlanta

John Smoltz was an All-State baseball and basketball player at Waverly High School in Lansing, Michigan and in college at Michigan State University before the Detroit Tigers drafted him in the 22nd round of the 1985 amateur draft. He was the 574th selection of the draft.

Smoltz played first for the Lakeland Tigers minor league team and then moved on to the Glens Falls Tigers in 1987. On August 12, 1987, he was traded to the Atlanta Braves. The 1987 Tigers were in a three-team race, chasing the Toronto Blue Jays for the AL East division lead. In need of pitching help, Detroit sent their 20-year-old prospect to the Braves for the 36-year-old veteran Doyle Alexander.

Major leagues

Early years (1988-1997)

Smoltz made his Major League debut on June 23, 1988. He posted poor statistics in a dozen starts, but in 1989, Smoltz blossomed. In 29 starts, he recorded a 12–11 record and 2.94 ERA while pitching 208 innings and making the All-Star team. Teammate Tom Glavine also had his first good year in 1989, raising optimism about the future of Atlanta's pitching staff.

Smoltz began the 1991 season with a 2–11 record. He began seeing a sports psychologist, after which he closed out the season on a 12–2 pace, helping the Braves win a tight NL West race. His winning ways continued into the 1991 National League Championship Series. Smoltz won both his starts against the Pittsburgh Pirates, capped by a complete game shutout in the seventh game, propelling the Braves to their first World Series since moving to Atlanta in 1966. Smoltz had two no-decisions against the Minnesota Twins, with a 1.26 ERA. In the seventh and deciding game, he faced his former Detroit Tiger hero, Jack Morris. Both starters pitched shutout ball for seven innings, before Smoltz was removed from the 0–0 game during a Twins threat in the eighth. Atlanta reliever Mike Stanton pitched out of the jam, getting Smoltz off the hook, but Morris would eventually pitch a 10-inning complete game victory.

The next year, Smoltz won fifteen regular season games and was the MVP of the 1992 National League Championship Series, winning two games. He left the seventh game trailing, but ended up with a no-decision as the Braves mounted a dramatic ninth-inning comeback win. In the World Series that year, Smoltz started two of the six games in the series, with a no-decision in Game Two and a win with the Braves facing elimination in Game 5.

Before the 1993 season, the Braves signed renowned control pitcher Greg Maddux, completing what many consider to be the most accomplished starting trio ever assembled on a single Major League team. Smoltz again won fifteen games, but suffered his first postseason loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS despite a 0.00 ERA.

Smoltz had a 6-10 record in the strike-shortened 1994 season, and during the break, had bone chips removed from his elbow. Returning as the Braves' #3 starter, he posted a 12–7 record in 1995. Smoltz had shaky postseason numbers, avoiding a decision despite a 6.60 ERA. But Smoltz and the Braves won the franchise's only World Series in Atlanta, thanks in great part to Maddux and Glavine, who had begun to overshadow Smoltz.

The following season, 1996, was the best of Smoltz's career. He went 24–8 with a 2.94 ERA and 276 strikeouts, including winning a franchise record fourteen straight decisions. He won the National League Cy Young with 26 of the 28 first-place votes. Smoltz's effectiveness in 1997 was only slightly less than his Cy Young season, but frugal run support limited him to a 15–12 record. Smoltz was also awarded a Silver Slugger Award for his batting.

Injuries and move to the bullpen (1998-2004)

Smoltz continued to post excellent statistics in 1998 and 1999, but he was spending significant time on the disabled list and missed about a fourth of his starts. In 1999, Smoltz began experimenting with both a knuckleball and a three-quarters delivery, though he rarely used either in game situations.

He underwent Tommy John surgery prior to the 2000 season, missing the entire year. When he was unable to perform effectively as a starter in 2001, Smoltz made a transition to the bullpen, filling a void as Atlanta's new closer down the stretch, replacing John Rocker.

In 2002, his first full season as a closer, Smoltz broke the National League saves record with 55 saves (the previous record was 53; Éric Gagné would equal Smoltz's new record a year later). Smoltz finished third in the Cy Young Award voting. Injuries limited Smoltz slightly in 2003, but he still recorded 45 saves with a 1.12 ERA in 64.3 innings pitched. In 2004, Smoltz finished with 44 saves, but was frustrated with his inability to make an impact as a closer during another Braves' postseason loss.

By this point, Smoltz was all that remained of the once-dominant Atlanta Braves' rotation of the 1990s. Tom Glavine had moved on to play for the New York Mets, a divisional rival, while Greg Maddux returned to his old team, the Chicago Cubs.

Return to the rotation (2005–2008)

After three years as one of baseball's most dominating closers, the team's management agreed to return Smoltz to the starting rotation prior to the 2005 season.

Smoltz's renewed career as a starter began inauspiciously. He allowed six earned runs in only 1 2/3 innings—matching the shortest starts of his career—as the Braves were blown out on Opening Day by the Florida Marlins. Poor run support contributed to an 0–3 start despite stronger pitching performances by Smoltz. After these initial difficulties, though, things fell into place. At the All-Star break, Smoltz was 9–5 with an ERA of 2.68 and was chosen for the 2005 NL All-Star team. Smoltz gave up a solo home run to Miguel Tejada in the second inning of the American League's 7–5 victory and received the loss. For his career, he is 1–2 in All-Star games, putting him in a tie for the most losses.

Smoltz finished 2005 at 14–7, with a 3.06 ERA with 169 strikeouts while allowing less than one hit per inning. Smoltz had answered the critics who doubted he would be able to reach the 200 inning plateau after three years in the bullpen. Nonetheless, Smoltz's increased workload caused him to wear down towards the end of the season.

Despite a sore shoulder, Smoltz pitched seven innings in the Braves' 7–1 win over the Houston Astros in Game Two of the 2005 NLDS. It was the only game the Braves would manage to win in the series against the eventual National League champions. The victory over Houston gave Smoltz a 13–4 record as a starter (15–4 overall) with a 2.65 ERA in the postseason. He has the second most postseason wins (15) behind only Andy Pettitte with 19. They are followed by Tom Glavine (14), and Greg Maddux (11).

In 2006, Smoltz finished the season with a record of 16–9, an earned run average of 3.49, and 211 strikeouts. He was tied for the National League lead in wins, and was third in strikeouts. The fact that the Braves bullpen blew six of Smoltz's leads in 2006 robbed him of a strong chance at a 20-win season.

On September 21, 2006, the Braves announced they had picked up Smoltz's $8 million contract option for the 2007 season. On April 26, 2007 Smoltz agreed to a contract extension with the Braves. The extension includes a $14 million salary for the 2008 season, a $12 million vesting option for 2009 dependent on Smoltz's ability to pitch 200 innings in 2008, and a $12 or $13 million team option for 2010 dependent on Smoltz's ability to pitch 200 innings in 2009.

2007 was a year of reunions and milestones for Smoltz. On May 9, he faced Greg Maddux for the first time since July 10, 1992. Smoltz earned a win in a 3–2 victory over the San Diego Padres; Maddux received a no-decision. On May 24, exactly eleven years to the day after recording his 100th win, Smoltz recorded his 200th win against Tom Glavine. He faced Glavine 3 other times faring 3–1 overall against him. On June 27, Smoltz, Glavine and Maddux all recorded wins on the same day. On August 19, 2007, Smoltz set the new Atlanta Braves strikeout record by striking out Arizona Diamondbacks' Mark Reynolds. It was his 2,913th strikeout and he passed Phil Niekro on the Braves all-time list; striking out a season-high 12 in the game. He finished the year 14–8 with a 3.11 ERA and 197 strikeouts. The stalwart pitcher was the only holdover on the Braves' roster from their 1991 worst-to-first season until Glavine returned to the Braves after an absence of several years following the 2007 season.

On April 22, 2008, Smoltz became the 16th pitcher in Major League Baseball history to reach 3,000 career strikeouts. He is one of four pitchers to strike out 3,000 batters for one team, joining Walter Johnson, Bob Gibson and Steve Carlton.

On April 28, 2008, Smoltz was placed on the 15 day disabled list due to an inflamed right shoulder.

Return to relief (2008)

On May 1, 2008, Smoltz indicated that he intended to return to being a relief pitcher. After coming off the disabled list on June 2, 2008, he blew his first save opportunity in three years. Two days later, the Braves placed him back on the disabled list. John Smoltz underwent season-ending shoulder surgery on June 10, 2008. His contract expired at the end of the season, and the contract offer from the Braves was not sufficient to keep him.

Boston Red Sox (2009)

In December 2008, several members of the Boston Red Sox organization including pitching coach John Farrell, Vice President of Player Personnel Ben Cherington, and assistant trainer Mike Reinold, flew to Atlanta, Georgia to participate in a 90-minute workout with Smoltz. Throwing for only the second time since having surgery on a torn labrum in his pitching shoulder, Smoltz threw a 50-pitch side session and showcased not only his tremendous progress since the surgery, but an arsenal of well-developed pitches which has made him so successful throughout his career. Smoltz impressed the Red Sox members enough during the workout that less than a month later, a one-year contract was offered by the organization.

On January 13, 2009, Smoltz signed a one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox for a reported base salary of $5.5 million with roster time incentives and miscellaneous award incentives which could net as much as $10 million. He made his first start in the Boston Red Sox rotation June 25, 2009, allowing seven hits and five runs through five innings. Smoltz struggled his entire time with the Red Sox posting a 2-5 record over eight games with an 8.32 ERA and no quality starts. He was designated for assignment on August 7, 2009, after a 13-6 loss to the Yankees, giving the Red Sox 10 days to release, trade, or send him to the minors. The Red Sox offered Smoltz a minor league stint in order to prepare him to be placed in the bullpen, but he rejected the offer, leaving the Red Sox the options of either releasing or trading him. On August 17, 2009 the Red Sox released Smoltz.

St. Louis Cardinals (2009)

On August 19, 2009, Smoltz signed with the St. Louis Cardinals. Smoltz made his debut against the San Diego Padres on August 23, 2009. In his first game for the Cardinals, Smoltz went five innings, striking out nine and walking none, while setting a Cardinals franchise record by striking out seven batters in a row.

That win against the Padres with the Cardinals was his only win with them that season. Smoltz finished 1-3 with an ERA of 4.26 with the Cardinals. He was 3-8 with an ERA of 6.35 overall with the Red Sox and Cardinals. In Game 3 of the 2009 NLDS, Smoltz finished with a 4.50 ERA after pitching 2 full innings, giving up 4 hits.

Broadcasting career (since 2010)

Smoltz made his debut as a baseball commentator on August 16, 2008. He was the color-commentator alongside Joe Simpson. On March 16, 2010 it was announced that Smoltz would serve as a color analyst alongside Joe Simpson for the 45 Braves games on Peachtree TV. Smoltz also tells a joke once a game on Peachtree. John is an analyst for MLB Network and he would also serve as a guest analyst, from time to time, on TBS Sunday Afternoon Baseball.

Smoltz is also part of the TBS post-season coverage.

Personal life

Smoltz met his first wife Dyan at the Omni Hotel in downtown Atlanta; the couple had four children before divorcing in 2007 after 16 years of marriage. Smoltz lives in Alpharetta and also has a home at Sea Island, Georgia, a golf resort. On May 16, 2009, Smoltz married the former Kathryn Darden at his home with 70 friends and family in attendance. Smoltz is a born-again Christian and is Chairman of the Board at Alpharetta-based King's Ridge Christian School, and a member of the Presbyterian Church in America. He has also been involved in the development of a new Christian school in the metropolitan Atlanta region.

Smoltz is a good friend of professional golfer Tiger Woods. The two often golf together. Woods has stated that Smoltz is the best golfer outside of the PGA Tour that he has observed. He is said to have a plus 4 handicap.

Smoltz is also involved in the sport of bowling.

Smoltz counts Doc Rivers as a personal friend dating back to Rivers' playing days in Atlanta. In the January 12, 2008 edition of the ''Boston Globe'', Rivers is quoted as saying, ″I offered him my apartment. .... I just told him about Terry (Francona) and the Red Sox organization. I told him it's a no-brainer.″

Smoltz is also an accomplished accordionist (accordion player) and also starred in a commercial for The Home Depot.

Smoltz also owns a house at the now bankrupt Snake River Sporting Club outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Politics and philanthropy

Smoltz produced an automated campaign phone recording on behalf of the candidacy of Ralph E. Reed, Jr. for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia during the 2006 primary.

It was speculated that Smoltz would run for Congress in 2010 as a Republican candidate to fill the departing John Linder's seat in Georgia's 7th congressional district.

Smoltz and his good friend Jeff Foxworthy teamed up for the charity event "An Evening With Smoltz and Friends" on November 9, 2008 at the Verizon Amphitheater in Alpharetta, Georgia to raise money for the John Smoltz Foundation, which has supported numerous charitable endeavors in the Atlanta area over the past decade.

Accomplishments

Eight-time All-Star (1989, 1992–93, 1996, 2002–03, 2005, 2007)

National League Championship Series MVP (1992)

Led the National League in Strikeouts (1992, with 215)

National League Cy Young Award winner (1996)

Holds Atlanta Braves record for most wins in a season (1996, with 24)

Led the National League in wins (1996, with 24)

Counting his wins in the playoffs and All-Star Game, John Smoltz amassed 29 wins in 1996. The only higher such total in the last 70 years is Denny McLain who had 32 in 1968.

Holds Atlanta Braves record for most strikeouts in a season (1996, with 276)

Led the Major Leagues in strikeouts (1996, with 276)

Led the National League in win percentage (1996)

Silver Slugger Award Winner for Pitcher (1997)

Finished 4th in National League Cy Young Award voting (1998)

Led the Major Leagues in Win Percentage (1998)

National League Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award winner (2002)

Finished 8th in National League MVP voting (2002)

Finished 3rd in National League Cy Young Award voting (2002)

Holds Braves record for most saves in a career (154)

Holds Braves record for most saves in a season (2002, with 55)

Led the National Leagues in saves (2002, with 55)

Tied for National League lead in wins (2006, with 16)

Only pitcher to compile 200 wins and 150 saves

Holds Braves record for most strikeouts in a career (3,011)

Given the Branch Rickey Award for exceptional community service (2007) First pitcher in modern era (since 1900) to pitch exactly five shutout innings, strike out ten, and get the win (April 17, 2008 in the Braves' 8–0 win at Florida)

16th pitcher in the major leagues to reach 3,000 strikeouts (April 22, 2008)

Holds Cardinals record for most consecutive strikeouts (7) in a single game (August 23, 2009)

Only MLB pitcher with more than one postseason stolen base (3)

Awarded Roberto Clemente Award (2005)

See also

3000 strikeout club

Top 100 strikeout pitchers of all time

List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins

List of Major League Baseball all-time saves leaders

List of Major League Baseball strikeout champions

List of Major League Baseball wins champions

List of Major League Baseball saves champions

References

External links

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es:John Smoltz fr:John Smoltz ko:존 스몰츠 ja:ジョン・スモルツ pt:John Smoltz zh:約翰·史摩茲

name	Jason Aldean
background	solo_singer
birth name	Jason Aldine Williams
born	February 28, 1977
origin	Macon, Georgia, USA
instrument	Vocals, guitar
genre	Country, country-rock
occupation	Singer
years active	2005–present
label	Capitol NashvilleBroken Bow
associated acts	Kelly Clarkson Colt Ford Miranda Lambert, Ludacris, Brantley GilbertMichael Knox
website	JasonAldean.com }}

Jason Aldine Williams (born February 28, 1977 in Macon, Georgia) is an American country music singer, known professionally as Jason Aldean. Since 2005, Aldean has recorded for Broken Bow Records, an independent record label for which he has released four albums and twelve singles. His 2005 self-titled debut and 2009 album ''Wide Open'' are both certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), while 2007's ''Relentless'' is certified gold. Of his singles, six have reached the number one position on the Hot Country Songs charts: "Why", "She's Country", "Big Green Tractor", "The Truth", "Don't You Wanna Stay" (a duet with Kelly Clarkson), and "Dirt Road Anthem", and seven more have reached top ten on the same chart.

Early life

Aldean's parents, Barry and Debbie, divorced when he was three. He was raised by his mother, mainly in Macon, Georgia, where he went to high school at Windsor Academy. During the summer he would spend time with his father in Homestead, Florida.

Before going to work during the day, his dad would map out guitar chords on notebook paper to show Jason where to place his fingers to play the chords. Jason sat and practiced all day while his dad was at work. When his dad got home, he got out his own guitar and they played together. Soon, after hearing a song only a few times, he could play it. His early favorites included George Strait's "The Cowboy Rides Away", Hank Williams Jr.'s "The Blues Man", and Alabama's "My Home's in Alabama". Both parents encouraged young Jason as he progressed musically. From age 14, after watching the country-music awards on TV, he wanted to perform on stage. With his mother's help, he performed at the local VFW hall in Macon, Georgia. He sang John Anderson's song "Seminole Wind" and Tracy Lawrence's "Sticks and Stones". He would later say that the entire audience — all ten — applauded, and that he almost had to be dragged off the stage because he was hooked on performing. He began performing at area talent contests and local fairs. At 15, he joined the "house band" at Georgia nightspot Nashville South.

Personal life

Aldean is married to his wife Jessica and they have two daughters, Keeley and Kendyl. Aldean married Jessica on August 4, 2001.

Musical career

After high school, with his father's help, Aldean and his band performed in college towns in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia, and then further up the southeastern seaboard. With one of the band's members, Justin Weaver, Aldean began writing songs. In 1998 he performed his original songs at a showcase staged by Atlanta nightclub The Buckboard. He was approached by Michael Knox, then of the Warner-Chappell song-publishing company. After signing with Warner-Chappell, Aldean moved to Nashville on November 1, 1998, at age 21.

A month after moving to Nashville, Aldean was offered a recording contract but was subsequently dropped. He signed with another label but again was dropped in 2000 for postponing his recording sessions repeatedly. Various showcases failed to bring him a contract. The last straw was an attempt at the Wildhorse Saloon where the promised label talent scouts never even showed up. Finally, Lawrence Mathis spotted Jason at one of the showcases at The Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville. Mathis signed as Aldean's first manager. Still frustrated and discouraged with his struggling career, Aldean gave himself six months before planning to leave Nashville and return home to Georgia. Then five weeks later, he was offered a deal from Broken Bow Records in Nashville. Shortly after the release of his first album, Jason picked up his new (and current) agent, Kevin Neal. And while recording ''Relentless'', Jason moved to Clarence Spalding and Spalding Entertainment for management.

''Jason Aldean'' (2005-2006)

Aldean's first single, "Hicktown", was released in early 2005. It served as the lead-off to his album ''Jason Aldean'', and reached a peak of #10 on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts. The album also produced his first Number One hit in "Why", as well as the #4-peaking "Amarillo Sky", which had previously been a non-charting single in 2002 for McBride & the Ride. Amarillo Sky earned a 2006 ACM nomination for song of the year and video of the year. Jason Aldean earned the title of "Top New Male Vocalist" at the 2006 Academy of Country Music Awards. ''Jason Aldean'' has sold over one million copies in the United States, and was certified platinum by the RIAA in 2007.

''Relentless'' (2007-2008)

Aldean spent most of January 2007 in the studio with producer Michael Knox to finish his second album, ''Relentless''. This album was released on May 29, 2007, and at Wal-Mart, it was released with a Limited Edition CMT Pick DVD that includes performances from Jason Aldean. The album's lead-off single, "Johnny Cash", was originally recorded by Tracy Byrd and peaked at #6 when Aldean released it. Its followup, "Laughed Until We Cried", has become his fifth consecutive Top Ten hit. ''Relentless'' has also been certified gold by the RIAA, and its title track was released as its third single. The song has also been Aldean's lowest charting single in both the U.S. and Canada, failing to reach Top Ten on the country charts.

''Wide Open'' (2009-2010)

Aldean released a seventh single titled "She's Country" to radio on December 1, 2008. It is the first single from his third album ''Wide Open'' which was released on April 7, 2009. The single debuted at #51 on the Hot Country Songs chart in late-November 2008. His seventh consecutive Top 40 hit on the country charts, it is also his first Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and became his second number-one hit, and his first since "Why" in May 2006. The next single, the David Lee Murphy-Jim Collins co-write "Big Green Tractor," became Aldean's third Number One hit. ''Wide Open'' debuted at #2 on the Top Country Albums chart. "The Truth" became the album's third consecutive Number One hit in January 2010, with "Crazy Town" being the album's fourth single, peaking at #2 on the country charts.

Jason Aldean performed with Bryan Adams on an episode of ''CMT Crossroads'' in the beginning of May, and the episode premiered on June 26, 2009. In an interview with ''Shave'' Magazine, Jason explained that working with Bryan on ''Crossroads'' "was great. He was a lot of fun." But the real highlight for Jason was working with Randy Owen. "I am a big fan of Alabama so I got a chance to work with Randy Owen on this album (it didn’t make the album but it eventually made a bonus track). It was really cool. Alabama were like ‘The Beatles’ for me so working with him was definitely one of the highlights. I mean, both of those guys were really cool moments, but, if I had to pick one highlight, it would be working with Randy this year."

A live DVD titled ''Wide Open Live & More'' was released on August 25, 2009.

At the 2010 CMT music Awards Jason Aldean picked up 3 nominations in Video of the Year and Male Video of the Year for "The Truth", as well as collaborative video of the year and CMT performance of the year for his performance of "Heaven" with Bryan Adams.

''My Kinda Party'' (2010-2011)

Aldean released a new single in August 2010, "My Kinda Party," which entered the Hot Country Songs chart at #41, which is the lead-off single from his album of the same name, released on November 2, 2010. It marks as Aldean's tenth top 10 country hit. He also collaborated with Kelly Clarkson on the intimate duet "Don't You Wanna Stay". Aldean and Clarkson's performance on November 10, 2010 at the CMA Awards received positive recognition, and debuted at #59 on ''Billboard'''s Hot Country Songs chart from unsolicited airplay for the week of November 20, 2010. In March 2011, "Don't You Wanna Stay" became Aldean's fifth number one hit.

In early 2011, Aldean's recording of "Dirt Road Anthem", recorded previously by both of its writers, country rap artist Colt Ford and Brantley Gilbert (who also wrote "My Kinda Party"), debuted on the Hot Country Songs chart at #57 as an album cut from unsolicited airplay for the week of February 5, 2011. In March 2011, "Dirt Road Anthem" was selected as the third single from ''My Kinda Party''. Aldean also collaborated with Ludacris on the song "Dirt Road Anthem" at the 2011 CMT Music Awards in Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday, June 8, 2011. In addition to making number one on the Hot Country Songs chart for the week of July 30, 2011, "Dirt Road Anthem" has also become Aldean's first top ten hit on the Hot 100 chart.

Aldean performed his song My Kinda Party at the start of the 2011 Home Run Derby, aired on ESPN.

Aldean won the CMA Country Album of the Year 2011 as well as the Musical Event of the Year with his duet, "Don't You Wanna Stay", with Kelly Clarkson. It was his first wins.

On October 25, 2011 it was announced that Aldean will be performing on “The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!! — Countdown To Music’s Biggest Night”, the one-hour special which takes place live on Wednesday, Nov. 30, at the Nokia Theatre L.A. The show will announce nominations in several categories as well as feature performances by past GRAMMY winners and/or nominees.

Awards and nominations

Academy of Country Music

!Year	!Organization	!Award	!Result
2005	|	Top New Male Vocalist
rowspan="17"	2011		Video of the Year - "My Kinda Party"
Male Video of the Year - "My Kinda Party"
Collaborative Video of the Year - "Don't You Wanna Stay" with Kelly Clarkson
Best Web Video of the Year - "My Kinda Party" (live from CMT.com webcast)
rowspan="5"	Country Music Association	Entertainer of the Year
Single of the Year - "Don't You Wanna Stay" with Kelly Clarkson
Musical Event of the Year - "Don't You Wanna Stay" with Kelly Clarkson
Album of the Year - ''My Kinda Party''
Male Vocalist of the Year
rowspan="8"	American Country Awards
Artist of the Year
Male Artist of the Year
Album of the Year - ''My Kinda Party''
Single of the Year: Male - "My Kinda Party"
Single of the Year: Vocal Collaboration - "Don't You Wanna Stay" with Kelly Clarkson
Touring Headline Act of the Year
Music Video: Group, Duo, or Collaboration - "Don't You Wanna Stay" with Kelly Clarkson

Discography

Albums

2005: ''Jason Aldean''

2007: ''Relentless''

2009: ''Wide Open''

2010: ''My Kinda Party''

References

External links

Category:1977 births Category:Living people Category:People from Macon, Georgia Category:American country singers Category:American male singers Category:Broken Bow Records artists Category:Country musicians from Georgia (U.S. state)

pdc:Jason Aldean de:Jason Aldean fo:Jason Aldean fr:Jason Aldean pt:Jason Aldean simple:Jason Aldean

Name	Chipper Jones
Team	Atlanta Braves
Number	10
Position	Third Baseman/Outfielder
Birth date	April 24, 1972
Birth place	DeLand, Florida
Bats	Switch
Throws	Right
Debutdate	September 11
Debutyear	1993
Debutteam	Atlanta Braves
Statyear	August 25, 2011
Stat1label	Batting average
Stat1value	.305
Stat2label	Home runs
Stat2value	450
Stat3label	Runs batted in
Stat3value	1,549
Stat4label	Hits
Stat4value	2,589
Teams	Atlanta Braves (–present)
Awards	The Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award (1995) World Series champion () 7× All-Star (, , , , , , ) 2× Silver Slugger Award winner (, ) NL MVP () NL Batting Champion () NL Player of the Week (June 2–8, 2008) Highest On Base Percentage with .470 (2008) }}

Larry Wayne "Chipper" Jones, Jr. (born April 24, 1972) is a Major League baseball player for the National League's Atlanta Braves. Although initially a shortstop, he has spent most of his career as the starting third baseman for the Braves. In and , Jones primarily played left field, before returning to third base in 2004.

Jones debuted in , and has played his entire career with the Atlanta Braves. Chipper won the National League Most Valuable Player Award, as well as the 1999 and National League Silver Slugger Award for third basemen. He currently holds the Braves team record for career on base percentage (.406), and on July 5, 2007, he passed Dale Murphy for third place on the Braves all-time career home run list.

In his career, through the 2010 season, Jones is a .306 hitter with 437 home runs, 1,404 walks, and 1,500 RBI in 2,261 games. He is behind only Eddie Murray on the all-time switch hitters career RBI list. He is considered one of the game's best all-around hitters, and one of the best switch hitters in the history of the game. He is the only switch hitter in Major League Baseball history to have a .300+ career (.306 at the end of the 2010 season) batting average and 400 or more home runs.

Baseball career

High school and minor leagues

Jones attended Taylor High School in Pierson, Florida until the ninth grade, when he moved to Jacksonville, Florida. After he completed his high school career at the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Jones was selected by the Atlanta Braves with the 1st pick overall in the 1990 amateur draft. Jones then played three years in the Braves Minor League system before making his major league debut. During this time, he was involved in a bench clearing brawl with future Major League stars Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome. Thome and Jones would eventually go on to develop a good friendship over the years.

Early major league career (1993–98)

Jones debuted on September 11, , as the youngest player in the league. In 1994, he had been expected to compete for the starting left field job after veteran Ron Gant broke his leg during an offseason dirt bike accident, but Jones suffered an ACL tear in his left knee in spring training. As a result, he missed the entire 1994 season.

In 1995, Jones led all major league rookies in RBIs (86), games played (145), games started (123), plate appearances (602), at bats (524), and runs scored (87). That year, he finished second in the Baseball Writers' Rookie of the Year balloting behind Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo. In addition to achieving a level of personal success, Jones participated in the 1995 World Series. The Braves won the series in six games over the Cleveland Indians. He also participated in the 1996 World Series, in which the New York Yankees defeated the Braves in 6 games.

In , Jones came in 9th in the voting for NL MVP, as he scored 123 runs and had 96 walks (both 4th best in the league).

MVP season (1999)

In 1999, Jones won the National League MVP award after becoming the first player to hit over .300 (.319) while slugging 40 or more home runs (45; 3rd in the NL) and doubles (41), drawing 100 or more walks (126; 3rd in the league), notching 100 or more RBIs (110) and Runs scored (116), and stealing 20 or more bases (25). He was also walked intentionally 18 times; 2nd in the league, and his .633 slugging percentage was 4th best in the NL. A major factor in his selection as MVP was his performance against the Braves' chief competitors, the New York Mets. The Braves led the National League East by only one game as they entered a three-game September series against the Mets, the team that was right on their heels. Atlanta swept the series at Turner Field, though, largely thanks to Jones, who hit four home runs and drove in seven of the thirteen runs that the Braves scored. For the season, he hit .400 with a .510 on-base percentage, a 1.000 slugging percentage, and seven home runs against the Mets. During the 1999 NLCS, Jones drew the ire of Mets fans by saying, "Now, all the Mets fans can go home and put their Yankees' stuff on." In the playoffs, Jones led the Braves to the World Series against the New York Yankees, in which the Braves were swept. He did, however, hit their only home run in the series, against Yankees' starter Orlando Hernández.

2000–05

Jones signed a six-year, $90 million deal in . Jones batted .330 in , 5th best in the league, and led the league with a .349 road batting average. On his birthday, he hit two home runs. On defense, however, his range factor of 2.14 placed him last among the regular major league third basemen who qualified for the fielding ranking.

In 2001, a season of flux for the Braves who had won consecutive division titles since their 1995 World Series victory without winning again, Jones was involved in a public "lingering feud" with former teammate John Rocker. Rocker referred to Jones on the radio by saying "Chip's white trash" and "as two-faced as they came." By late June the two claimed the feud had been put to bed.

Before the start of the 2002 season, Jones announced his willingness to move from third base to left field, to make room for the incoming Vinny Castilla. Jones proved adequate in left field, but following two more early playoff exits in 2002 and 2003, a hamstring pull in the early season and (then) 3rd baseman Mark DeRosa's struggles, he moved back to his regular position of third base.

In 2002, he batted .327, again 5th best in the NL. Jones was 3rd in the league with a .435 on base percentage. On August 16, 2004, he hit the 300th home run of his career in a 5–4 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Following the season, Jones reworked his contract with the Braves—freeing up money for the Braves to pursue elite free agents, while virtually assuring he will end his career in Atlanta. The revamped deal gave the Braves $15 million over the course of the next three years, as well as $6 million to use in 2006. The new deal also converted two final team option years to guaranteed contracts.

2006

World Baseball Classic

Jones was selected to play in the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic (along with Braves teammate Jeff Francoeur and Brian McCann). He hit a home run in his first at bat of the Classic against Mexico off of former Atlanta Braves teammate Oscar Villarreal, who was with the team from 2006–07. Jones went 6–17 with a double and two homers in the tournament.

MLB season

The 2006 season was one of numerous milestones for Jones. On June 10, he became the Atlanta Braves' all-time RBI leader when he drove in his 1,144th run against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park, passing former outfielder Dale Murphy and placing Jones third on the franchise's all-time list (including Braves teams based in Boston and Milwaukee), behind Hank Aaron (2,202) and Eddie Mathews (1,388).

On July 15, 2006, Jones recorded his 1,902nd career hit, to become the Atlanta Braves' all-time hits leader, passing Hank Aaron. The next day he hit a home run to extend his extra-base hitting streak to 14 games, matching the Major League record set by Pittsburgh's Paul Waner in . A month later, on August 14, Jones had his first career three-home run game. Jones homered in his final three at bats in the Braves' 10–4 win over the Washington Nationals, finishing the night 4-for-5 with 5 RBI.

Despite successes at the plate, injuries dogged Jones throughout the season and for the first time in his career, the Braves failed to qualify for postseason play.

2007

2007 was another year of impressive feats by Jones. On June 16, he hit a single in the second inning against the Cleveland Indians for his 2,000th career hit. On July 5, Jones tied and passed Braves legend Dale Murphy for first on the all-time Atlanta Braves home run list when he belted his 371st and 372nd home runs against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. This game was also the first time he hit homers from both sides of the plate since 2000. The next day, he had his 400th career double in the ninth inning against San Diego Padres pitcher Kevin Cameron, who had previously only allowed one extra-base hit all year. On July 29, Jones matched a career-high with 5 RBIs as the Braves shut out the Arizona Diamondbacks 14–0. He accomplished the feat again on August 23 against the Cincinnati Reds. In the fifth inning of an August 9 game at Shea Stadium, Jones hit a towering three-run homer to right field off Mets starter John Maine. It would later be measured at 470 feet.

Jones finished the season 1st in the NL in times reached base on an error (14) and in OPS (1.029), 2nd in batting average (.337), and 3rd in OBP (.425) and SLG (.604). He was also sixth in MVP voting, his highest finish since winning the award in 1999.

While the Braves enjoyed some early successes, injuries to the pitching staff spoiled the ample contributions from Atlanta's potent offense. While the Braves posted a winning record, they finished third in the National League East, and sat out the postseason.

He opened the Chipper Jones' 10th Inning Baseball Academy in Suwanee, Georgia, in late 2007.

2008

Jones began the 2008 season where he left off in 2007, hitting over .400 in April while slugging 7 home runs. He also had back-to-back games in which he hit two home runs. Despite these accomplishments, he ultimately lost the NL Player of the Month award in April to Chase Utley. On June 13, Jones was hitting .414 with 15 home runs, but his average dropped to .393 by June 22.

He hit his 400th home run on June 5 off Ricky Nolasco of the Florida Marlins, and he was named NL Player of the Week for the week of June 2 – 8. He was picked to start in the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, receiving the most votes by fans, managers, and other players of any NL third basemen. Jones won his first batting title at age 36, the oldest switch-hitter to win a batting title. Jones hit .364 during 2008, one point off the all-time switch-hitter high for a season of .365, set by Mickey Mantle.

In 2008, Jones tied a MLB record for most consecutive 20+ home run seasons to start a career (14).

2009

In December 2008, Jones accepted an invitation to play for the USA team in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He played alongside teammate Brian McCann. Jones was scratched from an elimination game in the 2009 World Baseball Classic after straining his right oblique muscle, while playing for team USA. The announcement came an hour before the game was to be played against team Netherlands. As reported by CBC News on March 13, 2009, Jones criticized Toronto and the play schedule of the World Baseball Classic.

On March 31, 2009, Jones agreed to a three-year $42 million contract extension with the Braves; the deal includes an option that could become worth up to $61 million over four seasons.

On May 28, against the Giants and Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum, Jones struck out four times in one game for the first time in his career.

In 2009, he was ranked #10 on the ''Sporting News''' list of the 50 greatest current players in baseball. A panel of 100 baseball people, many of them members of the Baseball Hall of Fame and winners of major baseball awards, were polled to compile at the list.

In 2009, Jones led all major league third basemen in errors, with 22, and had the lowest fielding percentage of any starting major league third baseman (.930).

2010

Jones got off to a poor start in 2010 and met with Atlanta Braves management in June to discuss possible retirement at the end of the season. However, his performance improved as the season progressed. Jones season came to an end after he was injured in a game against the Houston Astros; on August 12, 2010, injury reports indicated that he had torn the ACL in his left knee, and would require surgery. He stated in his August 13 press conference, "I don't want the fans' final image of me to be one of me hurt on the field". Atlanta Braves, general manager Frank Wren told David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution that Jones would likely be ready for Opening Day stating "I think he’s progressed very well. He had a setback earlier in the winter when he was away for a week–I think he was actually on a hunting trip–and he was not doing the [leg] lifts. But as soon as he got back on his weights, he was fine. Right now, talking to the trainers, he should not have any restrictions coming into spring training."

2011

Jones made good progress with his rehab and took part in spring training. He was in the Braves' opening day lineup against the Nationals, getting the first hit and scoring the first run of the 2011 Major League Baseball season.

On April 8, 2011, Chipper hit his 2,500th base hit in the Braves' home opener versus the Philadelphia Phillies. His former manager Bobby Cox was in attendance.

On April 13, 2011, Chipper recorded his 1500th RBI against the Florida Marlins, with a solo home run off Randy Choate. On April 26, 2011, Chipper recorded his 500th Double against the San Diego Padres. In the game he also tied Mickey Mantle for second most RBIs all time by a switch hitter.

On April 27, 2011, Jones passed Mickey Mantle and moved into sole possession of second place among switch-hitters with 1,512 RBI after a long 3-run stand up triple, helping the Braves beat the San Diego Padres 7-0.

Jones suffered from a torn meniscus in his right knee for much of the first half of the 2011 season, and received cortisone shots in an attempt to manage the pain. When this became ineffective, he elected to undergo arthroscopic surgery and was placed on the disabled list on July 9, 2011.

On August 12, 2011, Jones hit a three run homer against the Cubs for his 1000th extra base hit.

On August 19, 2011, Jones confirmed that he would indeed sign a new contract and return for the 2012 season, thus ending any speculation of retirement.

On August 31, 2011, Jones hit his 450th career home run off John Lannan of the Washington Nationals.

Accomplishments

1st pick overall in the 1990 amateur draft

TSN Rookie of the Year (1995)

7-time All-Star (1996–98, 2000–01, 2008, 2011)

National League MVP (1999)

2-time Silver Slugger at 3rd base (1999–2000)

Holds the Major League record for most consecutive games with an extra-base hit (14; tied with Paul Waner).

8 consecutive 100+ RBI seasons (1996–2003)

14 consecutive 20+ home run seasons (1995–2008); tied for MLB record with Eddie Mathews for most 20+ home run seasons to start a career

Most home runs in a season by a National League switch hitter (45; in 1999; since tied by Lance Berkman)

Third-most home runs for a switch hitter, behind Eddie Murray (504) and Mickey Mantle (536)

Hit the first home run at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. (2008)

450 home runs (hit 450th off John Lannan of the Washington Nationals, August 31, 2011)

Most home runs to begin a career playing under one manager (Bobby Cox)

NL Player of the Week (June 2–8, 2008)

2008 NL (and MLB) Batting Champ with .364

2008 highest on-base percentage with .470

29-game hitting streak vs the Philadelphia Phillies

2,500 hits

1,500 runs batted in

500 doubles

Personal life

The nickname "Chipper" came from family members who felt he was a "chip-off-the-old-block" of his father.

Jones met his first wife, Karin Fulford, while he was playing with the Braves class A affiliate in Macon, Georgia. The couple married in 1992 and later divorced after it was revealed that Jones had had an 18-month extramarital affair with a Hooters waitress which produced a son, Matthew, born in 1997.

He married Sharon Logonov in March 2000 in Pierson, Florida. They have three sons: Larry Wayne III (Trey), Tristen, and Shea, named after Shea Stadium because of Chipper's great success in the stadium.

Jones enjoys deer hunting in the offseason.

In 2008, Jones released a charity wine called "Chipper Chardonnay", with a portion of the proceeds supporting the Miracle League, an organization serving children with disabilities.

See also

List of Major League Baseball Home Run Records

List of top 300 Major League Baseball home run hitters

List of Major League Baseball batting champions

List of major league players with 2,000 hits

List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles

List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs

List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI

References

23. Chipper Jones Statistics on ESPN

24. Update on Chipper

External links

Official website

Chipper Jones' 10th Inning Baseball Academy

}}

Category:1972 births Category:Living people Category:Atlanta Braves players Category:2006 World Baseball Classic players Category:2009 World Baseball Classic players Category:American Christians Category:American hunters Category:Baseball players from Florida Category:Major League Baseball third basemen Category:National League Most Valuable Player Award winners Category:National League All-Stars Category:National League batting champions Category:People from Atlanta, Georgia Category:People from Jacksonville, Florida Category:People from Volusia County, Florida Category:Gulf Coast Braves players Category:Macon Braves players Category:Durham Bulls players Category:Greenville Braves players Category:Richmond Braves players Category:Rome Braves players Category:Mississippi Braves players

de:Chipper Jones es:Chipper Jones fr:Chipper Jones ko:치퍼 존스 nl:Chipper Jones ja:チッパー・ジョーンズ pt:Chipper Jones zh:奇伯·瓊斯