From Rome Braves
— As she walks up the steps at State Mutual Stadium to her station as an usher in Sections 204-206, Mary McRay enters an arena that has been and still is a huge part of her life.
It’s where she makes fans — especially children — feel welcome. It’s where she has seen and been able to know young men wearing Rome Braves uniforms, many of them who now wear the threads belonging to the Atlanta Braves.
More than anything, the stadium is where she found love and later was married, and now since he passed away three years ago feels closer to him.
“I really love it here,” McRay — known as “Mary D” — said before a recent Braves home game. “I can’t think of anything better to do.
“The season-ticket holders in the section are like family to me,” she said.
“I love the children who come to watch the game. When they first come in I love telling the kids ‘I’m glad you came to the football game,’ and then see the expressions on their faces.”
That never gets old for McRay. She is one of the few original stadium staff employees who have worked for the Braves since the team came to Rome in 2003.
“I guess I get my love for the Braves from my grandmother and my father,” she explained. “It’s in our blood.”
In her first two years with the organization, she worked as a customer service representative during game days. She then moved inside the stadium as an usher. McRay grew up in Greensboro and came to Rome in 1978.
“She’s always the one who’s always there,” Braves general manager Mike Dunn said. “I don’t think she’s ever missed a game. She’s really an ambassador for us.”
When she became a part of the team’s stadium staff, she drew the attention of a fellow employee — Steve McRay, who was the usher in sections 110112.
“I met Steve on the ‘cattle car’ that first year,” Mary said, referring to the wagon that was hitched to a tractor that carried fans and employees from their cars in the parking lot to the stadium. “He asked somebody who I was.
“Everybody told me he was a nice guy,” she went on to say. “I never heard anything bad about him. He wouldn’t let go and one day I told myself he was for real.”
The love nurtured at State Mutual Stadium was officially sealed in 2007 when Mary and Steve were married there.
“It was so appropriate,” said Dunn. “It was a wonderful day.”
Steve passed away in 2011, yet not a day goes by when Mary, her fellow employees and the fans see his name on the door that leads to the employee area named after him.
“I feel like he’s our angel in the outfield now,” said Mary.
Steve’s love for the Braves — like “Mary D’s” — helped give the couple a room devoted entirely to the team. The space is loaded with memorabilia that includes Braves-themed woodwork he created in his shop.
“It’s full,” Mary said. She said the room contains dozens of autographs she obtained as a fan after the games ended. “I love getting autographs. After the game is over, I change shirts and wait outside the clubhouse with the other fans to get them.
“I love watching the kids who came through Rome on TV,” she said. “Steve and I often went down to Atlanta to watch them play.”
“Her knowledge of the game,” said Dunn, “and the passion she has for the Braves adds to the experience for the fans.”
And it has been that way since that very first Braves game in Rome, and Mary vividly remembers the first time a foul ball into the stands landed in her hands.
“I gave it away to a child,” Mary said about what she and every usher at SMS does when it happens. “Every time a ball is hit to where I am, I always give it to a young fan. To see their eyes open wide when I hand it to them — it’s a great feeling.”