Plan for Braves stadium okayed

Maddux on Hall

MARIETTA, Georgia, Nov 27, (Agencies): Officials have approved a deal to build a new $672 million stadium for the Atlanta Braves outside the Georgia capital.

The Cobb County commissioners voted 4-1 Tuesday night to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the baseball team. Braves officials stunned local leaders earlier this month when they announced they would abandon Turner Field, a site just south of downtown Atlanta that has been their home since the team moved from Milwaukee in 1966.

The 30-year deal calls for hundreds of millions of dollars in public money to help pay for the stadium and entertainment complex. Officials plan to fund it with a mix of reallocated existing property tax revenue and new taxes on business and tourism in the area.

Meanwhile, former Atlanta Braves pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, each of them 300-game winners, were among newcomers to the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot lineup announced Tuesday.

A media panel will vote on candidates to be selected to the sporting shrine in Cooperstown, New York, with former players needing at least 75 percent support to be among those named January 8 as inductees for enshrinement next July.

No players were inducted last year, the first time that had happened since 1996 and only the second time since 1971. It coincided with the first ballot appearance of US career home run Barry Bonds, Dominican slugger Sammy Sosa and pitcher Roger Clemens — legends who were among those accused of using performance-enhancing drugs.

Maddux won 355 games, 194 coming with the Braves, while Glavine won 244 of his 305 triumphs in 17 seasons with Atlanta. “I’m confident at some point in time it’s going to happen,” Glavine said about his Hall of Fame hopes on the Major League Baseball website. “Whether it’s on the first ballot, I don’t know. We’ll see. There are a lot of good players eligible.”