PLAY BALL! or WATCH BALL!

I went fto Atlanta three or four times to the Ponce de Leon Baseaball Park, on Ponce de Leon Park to see the Atlanta Crackers play baseball It was across from a large Sears and Roebuck Department Store. I remember the field was big and impressive. Not as big as the fields in Fulton and Cobb Counties that the Braves played at years later. The cement seats, with overheads were mostly down the 3rd base line. Down the first baseline wooden blenchers were for the black fans. Over their seats there was no overhead to protect them from the sun or weather. Sad. With our Little League team I went twice. One of those we were the players in some kind of playoffs. My team was Southern Discount and the coaches were Romeo Hudgins and Pepprer Martin. I sat on the bench my entire time except the last bat at Crackers’ field.. We were losing terribly so just for kicks I think Romeo sent me in to do the final strikeout, which I did. A couple years later our Boy Scout troop 132 went there for a Crackers’ game. I remember not paying much attention to the game because Jimmy Pat Presley and I were making up TV commercials. I can only remember one, a jingle: SMOKE TAMPA NUGGET CIGARS…..LAAA!