When he was a kid John Wright dreamed of wearing the uniform of his beloved Atlanta Braves. Now, 31 years after playing high school ball at William Fleming, he gets to do just that.
No, John won’t be in uniform when the Braves open at home Friday night against Kansas City at Atlanta’s Truist Field. He’s too busy directing the Salem High School band and preparing for a big drum competition this weekend. But he’ll be watching, and feeling like part of the team.
This past winter Wright participated in the Atlanta Braves Fantasy Camp, a getaway for true baseball fans who, for a week, get a feel of what it’s like in the big leagues. You have to be 35 years of age or older and John qualifies, having graduated from high school 31 years ago.
The camp is held in North Port, Florida at the Braves spring training facility. The stadium is a smaller version of Truist Park and Braves fans from all over make the pilgrimage to don the uniform, play baseball, and mingle with Braves players John has watched from afar. At the camp, he gets to see them up close and actually becomes friends with some.
“They break us up into six teams and each team has a former Brave for a hitting-field coach and a pitching coach,” said Wright. “Kevin Pillar was our hitting coach and Denny Neagle was our pitching coach. He was hilarious.”
Wright got to mingle with, among others, Andruw Jones, who’s going into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame this summer, former big league ace Steve Avery, popular Atlanta infielder Terry Pendleton and long-time Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone. The camp starts with a tryout session on Tuesday, and John was familiar with the process as he also attended the camp prior to the 2025 season.
“You hit in the stadium and they hit you ground balls and fly balls,” he said. “The Major League players do the evaluations, then they split you up into teams.”
Wright was a pitcher at Fleming so he also took a turn on the mound.
“The first year it was a little nerve wracking,” he said. “I mean, I’m pitching and Steve Avery is evaluating me. I told him, ‘you were on my wall in college.’ Now, I’m friends with him.”
Each team gets to play seven games, concluding with a championship game between the best two teams. They play two games a day, and this year John got to play two games against a Yankees fantasy team at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. It was the 30th anniversary of the Braves and Yankees playing in the World Series and the six Braves’ teams played two games each against their New York counterparts. Atlanta lost the Series in ’95, but this time the campers took nine of 12 from the Yanks.
“Our team won both of our games,” said Wright. “Next year I’m hoping we play the Red Sox,”
Each player gets an official Atlanta Braves uniform, both home and away. Wright wore number eight, his uniform number at Fleming.
“I was a big Dale Murphy fan growing up so ‘3’ was always my favorite number, but I wore ‘8’ at Fleming so I went with that,” he said. “The uniforms are really nice, and you get to keep them, both home and away. They’re the real deal NIKE uniforms, with your name on the back and everything.”
Wright grew up in Alleghany County watching the Braves on the “Super Station.” Those broadcasts created a lot of fans as just about every game was on your TV if you had cable. There are plenty of Braves fans in the Roanoke Valley for that very reason.
“Our family went to Atlanta every year for a three game series,” said Wright. “I think I saw 20 games before I saw the Braves win.”
John moved to Roanoke his junior year and played for Al Holland, a former big leaguer and charter member of the Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Fame. Holland, a Roanoke native, came up with the Pirates and was one of the best relief pitchers of his time while also pitching for the Phillies, Giants, Angels and Yankees in a 10 year big league career.
Wright pitched for Fleming for two years for Holland, then played at Concord College. He also played American Legion ball for Jimmy Mitchell, another Salem-Roanoke Baseball Hall of Famer who area fans are familiar with. Legion ball was big back then and John pitched against and played for some of the top young talent in the area. So, it only stood to reason that he took the mound at the camp.
“You get to pick what you want to play,” he said. “Last year I got to pitch 17 innings but this year I only pitched three because I had some elbow soreness. I played the outfield, and I threw a guy out at home.”
John had a big camp at the plate. He was 12 for 18 for the week for a .667 batting average. He had seven doubles, and noted that he had an inside-the-park home run last year.
This was against fellow Braves fans of all ages. As mentioned, you had to be at least 35 but there was no limit on how young you had to be.
“There’s one guy who comes to the camp who’s 80 years old, and he can still hit,” said Wright.
While John has a blast playing the games, the “down time” is just as exciting for a lifelong Braves fan.
“When I first started I wasn’t sure how much you could talk to the players,” he said. “Now, I feel right at home. They call you by name and hang out at night. Most of them have some great stories. Bruce Benedict was telling us what it was like to catch (knuckballing great) Phil Niekro, and Brian Jordan was awesome. They’d play cards with you and you saw that they were just regular guys, only with cooler stories.”
John took the whole family with him. His wife, Jessa, got to sing the national anthem prior to the championship game and son Jett, a fourth grader at West Salem Elementary, served as bat boy. He also has a daughter Brynn, who is a freshman at Salem High, and a daughter Elle who is a sixth grader at Andrew Lewis Middle School.
John was the team MVP against the Yankees, and that earned him two free tickets to a Braves game any time this season. He’s going to use them over Memorial Day weekend when the Braves host the Nationals. That weekend the campers will have a reunion at Truist Park. And, of course, he’ll be heading back to Florida for his third year at the Fantasy Camp next winter. He’s already signed up.
“I’m going to go as long as my arm will let me,” he said. “It’s a great experience, you’re literally an Atlanta Brave for a week and I just love going down there. They say it’s a once in a lifetime experience you’ll do over and over again.”