Ponce de Leon Park ( ; also known as Spiller Park or Spiller Field from 1924 to 1932, and "Poncey" to locals, was the primary home field for the minor league baseball team called the

Atlanta Crackers The Atlanta Crackers were Minor League Baseball teams 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. History Atlanta played its first ...

for nearly six decades. The Crackers played here in the

Southern Association The Southern Association 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 A (1902–1935), Cla ...

(1907–1959) and the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ( ...

(1962–64). It was also home of the

Atlanta Black Crackers The Atlanta Black Crackers (originally known as the Atlanta Cubs and later briefly the Indianapolis ABCs) were a professional Negro league baseball team which played during the early to mid-20th century. They were primarily a minor Negro league ...

who captured the second half championship of the Negro American League in 1938. The ballpark was located at 650

Ponce de Leon Avenue Ponce de Leon Avenue ( ), often simply called Ponce, provides a link between Atlanta, Decatur, Clarkston, and Stone Mountain, Georgia. It was named for Ponce de Leon Springs, in turn from explorer Juan Ponce de León, but is not pronounced ...

; the street ran along the south side of the park i.e. along its

first base A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

side. Behind right and center field, atop the slope bordering the park on the East, were the tracks of the Southern Railway, now part of the

BeltLine The Atlanta BeltLine (also Beltline or Belt Line) is a open and planned loop of multi-use trail and light rail transit system on a former railway corridor around the core of Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta BeltLine is designed to reconnect nei ...

, a trail and future transit ring around the central neighborhoods of Atlanta. Across the street was the

Ponce de Leon Amusement Park Ponce de Leon Springs was a mineral spring in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The spring was a popular tourist destination from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s. Around the turn of the century, the land surrounding the spring was develope ...

until 1926, when the hulking

Sears Roebuck Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

Southeastern Headquarters, now known as Ponce City Market, was built.

History

Ponce de Leon Park Atlanta 1911 Sanborn map

The original Ponce de Leon Park ballpark opened on the site in 1907. The structure was destroyed by fire in 1923. The ballpark was rebuilt in 1924 and named for club owner Rell J. Spiller. It reverted to the name Ponce de Leon Park in 1933. Ponce de Leon was known for a magnolia tree in deep center field. Balls landing in the tree remained in play until Earl Mann took over the team in 1947 and moved the outfield wall in 50 feet. Both

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

and

Eddie Mathews Edwin Lee Mathews (October 13, 1931 – February 18, 2001) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) third baseman. He played 17 seasons for Boston / Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves (1952–1966); Houston Astros (1967) and Detroit Tigers (1967� ...

hit home runs that became stuck in the distant tree. Willie Mays hit a 460-foot home run to centerfield during an exhibition game that was part of the 1955 Mays-Newcombe All-Stars "barnstorming tour". The seating capacity of the park was about 20,000. On April 7, 1946, 21,006 fans saw the New York Yankees defeat the Crackers in a preseason exhibition. This was the largest baseball crowd to date in the city's history. The first integrated crowd of White European-Americans and Black and brown African-Americans at a professional sporting event in Atlanta took place at Ponce de Leon Park on April 8, 1962, for the preseason exhibition game between the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals. The desegregation of public sporting events would enable the location of major league sports franchises in Atlanta beginning in 1966. After the Crackers moved to

Atlanta Stadium Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

in 1965, Ponce de Leon Park was demolished in favor of a shopping center (now also demolished) and today a strip mall, Midtown Place, occupies the location. The famous magnolia tree is still standing at the rear of the shopping center along the BeltLine trail.

Other events

College football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football in the United States, American football rules first gained populari ...

games were once hosted at Ponce de Leon Park. The

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets is the name used for all of the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), located in Atlanta, Georgia. The teams have also been nicknamed the Ramblin' Wre ...

played all their home games there from 1908 to 1911. The

Georgia Bulldogs The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Bulldogs. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference ( ...

have also played games at 'Poncey.' On July 1, 1940, the park hosted an exhibition fightAging Bull - Jack Dempsey's 1940 'comeback' was a sad and mercifully short spectacle
an April 17, 1995 article from ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...

'' between a 45-year-old

Jack Dempsey William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983), nicknamed Kid Blackie and The Manassa Mauler, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926 ...

and wrestler Clarence (Cowboy) Luttrell which Dempsey won. The park also hosted regular Friday night high school football games between Tech High Smithies and Boys' High Purple Hurricanes during the 1940s which sometimes outdrew the college games.

References

Sources

*''Ballparks of North America'', by Michael Benson, McFarland Press, 1989. *''Ernie Harwell's Audio Scrapbook'', by

Ernie Harwell William Earnest Harwell (January 25, 1918 – May 4, 2010) was an American sportscaster, known for his long career calling play-by-play of Major League Baseball games. For 55 seasons, 42 of them with the Detroit Tigers, Harwell called the actio ...

and Bob Harris, AudioBook Publications, 2006. *Darnell, Tim. "Ponce de Leon Ballpark." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 5 April 2016. Web. 6 May 2016.

External links

Georgia Encyclopedia
* Sarah Toton,
Vale of Amusements: Modernity, Technology, and Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Park, 1870-1920
''Southern Spaces'', 15 January 2008
Vale of Amusements: Modernity, Technology, and Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Park, 1870-1920 , Southern Spaces
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