The Southern Association' ( SA ) was a higher-level minor league in American organized baseball from 1901 through 1961. For most of its existence, the Southern Association was two steps below the Major Leagues ; it was graded Class B (1901), Class A (1902–1935), Class A1 (1936–1945), and Double-A (1946–1961). Although the SA was known as the Southern League through 1919, the later Double-A Southern League was not descended from the Southern Association; the modern SL came into existence in 1964 as the successor to the original South Atlantic ("Sally") League.
22-749: A stable, eight-team loop, the Southern Association's member teams typically included the Atlanta Crackers , Birmingham Barons , Chattanooga Lookouts , Little Rock Travelers , Memphis Chicks , Nashville Vols , and New Orleans Pelicans . The eighth club was usually either the Knoxville Smokies , Mobile Bears , or Shreveport Sports . The Association was formed from the remnants of the Southern League (1885–1899) by Abner Powell , Newt Fisher , and Charley Frank. After Jackie Robinson broke
44-640: A Minor League Baseball team based in Atlanta , Georgia , between 1901 and 1965. The Crackers were Atlanta's home team until the Atlanta Braves moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin , in 1966. Atlanta played its inaugural Southern Association game, against the Nashville Baseball Club , on Saturday, April 26, 1902 ( Memorial Day ) in Piedmont Park before a crowd of around 3,500. For 60 years (until 1961),
66-400: A fire on September 9, 1923, destroyed the all-wood stadium. Spiller Field (a stadium later also called Ponce de Leon Park), became their home starting in the 1924 season; it was named in honor of a wealthy businessman who paid for the new concrete-and-steel stadium. That new park was unusual because it was constructed around a magnolia tree that became part of center field. Balls landing in
88-587: A longtime member of the Sally League, returned to that circuit in 1962. After a one-year hiatus, Nashville and Chattanooga joined the Sally League in 1963. Later in the decade, Birmingham (1964) and Mobile (1966) joined the Southern League, and Memphis and Shreveport (both in 1968) entered the Texas circuit. While a league pennant winner was crowned each season, some seasons (1928 and 1932–61) also concluded with either
110-564: Is descended from those original settlers of the area. As in several other cities, Atlanta's local Negro league team was named after the local White league team : the Atlanta Black Crackers joined the Negro Southern League in 1920, and existed until the early 1950s. Play-by-play announcer Ernie Harwell called Cracker games on the radio from 1943 to 1949 before being traded to Brooklyn Dodgers for catcher Cliff Dapper ,
132-627: The Nashville Vols captured the most, with nine—dominating the league with six straight championships from 1939 to 1944. They are followed by Atlanta, with six playoff titles. Combining both pennants and playoffs, the Crackers won the most (21), with the Vols trailing them with 17. On the other hand, the Chattanooga Lookouts , charter members of the association, won only one title during their 54 years in
154-672: The color barrier in 1946 with the Montreal Royals of the International League , the Southern Association continued to adhere to the Jim Crow segregation laws of the time. Only one African-American ever played a meaningful game during this time: Nat Peeples of the 1954 Atlanta Crackers, the only black player in the league's history. On April 9–10, 1954, Peeples played in two road games in Mobile, and went hitless in four at bats . He
176-670: The 1961 season. Member cities slowly began to join remaining leagues, which were racially integrated. The Atlanta club moved up to the Triple-A International League in 1962. Little Rock followed suit (as the renamed Arkansas Travelers ), moving to the International circuit in 1963 and the Pacific Coast League from 1964 to 1965, before making a permanent home in the Double-A Texas League in 1966. Macon,
198-744: The Crackers name, from " Georgia cracker " (which refers to early white settlers in Georgia) and " cracker ," a pejorative term for poor rural White Southerners. Originally the top affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals , the AAA Crackers spent the 1964 season as the Minnesota Twins ' top affiliate. Then, in 1965, the Milwaukee Braves became the Crackers' parent club. That team had bought the Crackers as part of their planned move to Atlanta in 1965; under MLB rules of
220-642: The Crackers were part of the Class AA Southern Association, a period during which they won more games than any other Association team, earning the nickname the "Yankees of the Minors". In 1962, the Association disbanded. Then, the former Miami Marlins , a Class AAA International League team that had spent 1961 playing in San Juan, Puerto Rico , and Charleston, West Virginia , moved to Atlanta and adopted
242-868: The Gwinnett Braves, now the Gwinnett Stripers . Dating back to their time as the Crackers, the Stripers have been the Braves' top affiliate for 57 seasons, the longest-running affiliation agreement in Triple-A. The Crackers won the Dixie Series , a postseason interleague championship between the champions of the Southern Association and the Texas League , in 1938 and 1954. The Crackers played in Ponce de Leon Park from 1907 until
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#1732833834057264-511: The day, ownership of a minor league team also carried the major league rights to that city. However, an injunction forced the Braves to play a lame-duck season in Milwaukee. The Braves finally moved to Atlanta in 1966, and moved the Crackers to Richmond, Virginia , as the Richmond Braves . In a return home of sorts, the team moved to Gwinnett County , a northeastern suburb of Atlanta, in 2009 as
286-669: The end of the 1950s, the SA was the target of a boycott by activists of the Civil Rights Movement . In its last three years, the Southern Association was plagued by frequent franchise shifts. Little Rock moved to Shreveport after the 1958 season, and New Orleans moved to Little Rock after the 1959 season. Memphis' park burned down just before the 1960 season, forcing the Chicks to play in several temporary facilities before moving to Macon, Georgia , for 1961. The league finally ceased operation after
308-418: The last decade of the Southern Association's existence. As an International League team, they were the top affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals (1962–63), Minnesota Twins (1964) and the Braves again (1965). According to Tim Darnell, who wrote The Crackers: Early Days of Atlanta Baseball , the origins of the team name is unknown. Darnell cites several possibilities as to why this name was chosen: During
330-479: The league was established in 1901, the award was not created until 1936. It continued to be issued through the 1961 season, after which the league disbanded. Two players won the award twice: Ted Cieslak , who won back-to-back in 1945 and 1946, and Stan Palys , the winner in 1957 and 1960. Eleven outfielders won the MVP Award, the most of any position. Catchers and first basemen , each with three winners, won
352-427: The league—with that coming during the Southern Association's final, 1961 campaign. The Most Valuable Player Award was given to honor the best player in the league from 1936 to 1961. In both 1940 and 1944 league leaders tried to start a minor football league, with plan to draw crowds of 15,000 to 20,000, but both attempts were cancelled at the early stages. Atlanta Crackers The Atlanta Crackers were
374-529: The most among infielders , followed by second baseman and third baseman (2). Six pitchers also won the award. Eight players from the Nashville Vols were selected for the MVP Award, more than any other team in the league, followed by the Atlanta Crackers (4); the Birmingham Barons , Little Rock Travelers , Memphis Chicks , and Mobile Bears (3); and the Chattanooga Lookouts , Knoxville Smokies , and New Orleans Pelicans (1). Four players from
396-496: The only time an announcer has been traded for a player. Southern Association Most Valuable Player Award The Southern Association Most Valuable Player Award ( MVP ) was an annual award given to the best player in Minor League Baseball 's Southern Association based on their regular-season performance as voted on by league sportswriters . Early iterations of the honor were voted on by league managers . Though
418-517: The period of Reconstruction following the American Civil War, there was also a political party of the same name. Organized in Augusta, Georgia, this party's platform was one of "opposition to Catholics and segregation of blacks". While now sometimes used as a derogatory term for a white southerner that promotes racism, it is also used as a term of pride by some white southerners to indicate one that
440-505: The top two or four teams in the league competing in playoffs to determine a league champion. These playoffs varied between being best-of-five and best-of-seven contests. The Atlanta Crackers , termed by some the " New York Yankees of the minors," won the Southern Association pennant 13 times, the most among all teams. They are followed by the New Orleans Pelicans , with nine pennants. As far as playoff championships are concerned,
462-517: The tree remained in play, until Earl Mann took over the team in 1947 and had the outfield wall moved in about fifty feet. The Crackers played their last season in the newly built Atlanta Stadium (later known as Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium) in 1965. The Crackers were independent of major league farm systems until 1950. They then became a AA affiliate of the Boston/Milwaukee Braves (1950–1958) and Los Angeles Dodgers (1959–1961) during
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#1732833834057484-483: Was demoted to the already-integrated, Single-A Jacksonville Braves of the Sally League before the Crackers played a home game. The Southern Association then played the rest of its history, through the end of 1961, as a racially segregated league. Partly due to this, its Major-League parent clubs were among the last to integrate during the 1950s, a period when African-Americans and Latin-American players of African descent were beginning to dominate Major League Baseball. By
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