{"id":645984,"date":"2026-03-27T06:20:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T06:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/645984\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T06:20:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T06:20:19","slug":"diehard-braves-fan-lapd-officer-travels-cross-country-for-opening-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/645984\/","title":{"rendered":"Diehard Braves fan, LAPD officer travels cross-country for Opening Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) \u2014 The footprint of Atlanta Braves baseball fandom stretches across the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Todd and Anita Dressen are all the proof you need. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cSo we got married in October (2016), but we put off the honeymoon part of it to be able to come to Opening Day at Truist Park,\u201d Anita said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Los Angeles-based couple went to their first Braves game together in 2013 at Turner Field.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Todd and Anita Dressen have not missed an opening day, apart from COVID, since 2017.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SUGAL7GIYFC7RJTYGYU2WI3QAI.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"736\" \/>Todd and Anita Dressen have not missed an opening day, apart from COVID, since 2017.(Anita Dressen)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI actually got a ball signed by Freddie Freeman and I got the first base bag from that game, which is in my office still,\u201d Todd said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Todd had been a fan his entire life. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cComing home from school and doing homework, the only team that was on TV was the Atlanta Braves,\u201d he said. \u201dIt was America\u2019s team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Todd had his bachelor party at the last game played at Turner Field. He and Anita have not missed an opening day &#8211; except for COVID &#8211; since 2017.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe\u2019ve never been to a better opening day anywhere,\u201d Anita said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Braves Opening Day is how the couple celebrates their anniversary every year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cRight when I step off that plane, I always tell Anita, &#8216; I\u2019m home,\u2019\u201d Todd said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Todd is a 20-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department. His 300-person division only has three Braves fans, and their jurisdiction includes Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI\u2019m in enemy territory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Dressen\u2019s said they\u2019ll eventually move to the Atlanta area in retirement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThis is where I want to be, with my Braves,\u201d Todd said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WANF. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) \u2014 The footprint of Atlanta Braves baseball fandom stretches across the country. Todd&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[191,46,82370,4166,5,192,64431,815,55,82773,4,82341,4589,252,2071],"class_list":["post-645984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-braves","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-atlanta-braves-opening-day","tag-atlantabraves","tag-baseball","tag-braves","tag-braves-opening-day","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-lapd","tag-mlb","tag-opening-day-braves","tag-police","tag-royals","tag-truist-park"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116299697262259544","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}