AUBURN | Electric. Engaged. Unreal. Another level.
Those are just some of the words Auburn’s coaches and players used to describe the atmosphere at Plainsman Park this weekend.
In my more than 20 years covering this baseball team I’ve never, and I mean NEVER, seen or heard anything like it.
The seats were full. The terrace was full. The Plainsman Patio outside centerfield was packed and then some and the parking deck was full too.
“I think there were just about as many people outside the stadium as inside. Everybody was there, everybody was rooting for us and it was unbelievable,” said first baseman Sonny DiChiara.
But it wasn’t just the magnitude of the crowd. It was the amplitude. They were into from the first pitch Friday all the way to Monday's final strikeout.
That nearly every sit was filled when Sunday night’s game resumed Monday at 2 p.m. CT with Auburn leading 9-0, says everything about the support the Auburn alumni and fans provided all weekend.
Operation Atmosphere, which Butch Thompson announced in February, has been an overwhelming success.
It started with a record number of season tickets sold, included the first-ever sell-out of a midweek game and culminated in a raucous atmosphere that helped the Tigers out-score their three opponents by a combined total of 51-18 this weekend.
And the ending couldn’t have been more appropriate.
Shortly after celebrating the Regional championship, senior Brody Moore led the players across the inside of the stadium from left field all the way to right to thank the Auburn fans.
The players were cheering just as much as the fans.
“There was a lot more people there than we all expected,” said Moore. “The Auburn family showed up and showed out for us and we had to thank them for that and tell them how much it means to us."
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 48 years to the release of one of the most iconic songs from the Queen of Country Music that also became a mega hit for another one of the greatest musical artists of all-time. On June 6, 1974, Dolly Parton released “I Will Always Love You,” which was the second single from her 13th studio album, Jolene. Parton wrote the song about her split with mentor and professional collaborator Porter Wagoner. The song reached the top of the Billboard Hot Country charts twice, upon its release and again in 1982 as a part of soundtrack of the movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. It has been recorded by several other artists including Whitney Houston, whose soul version spent 14 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 100 in 1993 becoming, at the time, the best-selling single by a woman and one of the best-selling singles of all-time. It won two Grammy Awards for Houston in 1994, and her version has been sung by many other artists as a tribute to Houston since her death including Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson and Amy Winehouse. Parton and Vince Gill did a duet of the song in 1995, which rose to No. 15 on the country charts.
Parton was born on Jan. 19, 1946 in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Center, Tenn., the fourth of 12 children. Her father worked as a farmer and part-time construction worker while her mother raised their children and sang old Wales ballads. Parton began singing in church at age 6 and was performing on local radio and T.V. shows in east Tennessee by age 10. She moved to Nashville the day after graduating Sevier County High School in 1964 and began a career as a songwriter with a couple of top 10 hits in 1967-68. In 1967, she joined the Porter Wagoner Show and soon signed with RCA Victor. She had the first of 25 No. 1 country singles with 1971’s “Joshua.” Another huge hit, “Jolene,” came in 1974. She began to crossover to pop in the late 1970’s and had another hit, 1977’s “Here You Come Again,” which won the first of her 11 Grammy Awards. In 1981, another big crossover hit, “9 to 5” hit the top spots on three charts, and 1982’s duet with Kenny Rogers, “Islands in the Stream,” which was written by Barry Gibb, hit the top of the Billboard 100. Parton has been much more than a musical artist. She starred in eight films including 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Rhinestone and Steel Magnolias, is the co-owner of Dollywood theme park that hosts over three million visitors per year and is a co-owner of Sandollar Productions, which produced T.V. series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and movies such as Father of the Bride and Straight Talk. She has been involved in a number of charitable organization and recently donated $1 million to Moderna to help develop a COVID vaccine. She has composed more than 3,000 songs, had 44 top 10 albums and charted 110 songs. Parton has been inducted into 15 different Hall of Fames including the Grammy and Country Music.
