EC's Southern Association

[Eugene Church]

THE NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE
Sunday, April 6, 1947

RUSH TOO MUCH, LOOKOUTS LOSE 1ST GAME
After three wins to open the '47 Southern Association season, Chattanooga finally tasted defeat at the hands of the Nashville Vols at the notorious Sulphur Dell, the home of high-scoring games and a haven for home runs... the Vols only got two boomers, but they added 16 other hits to pound the Lookouts 13-1... it was the home opener for Nashville so the capacity crowd went home happy... Nashville also got a fine outing from big Bob Rush (1-0)... the 21-year-old rookie right-hander befuddled Chattanooga most of the night, holding them to just one run on eight hits... in a top-notched performance Rush registered seven Ks and issued three bases on balls... his club got him a 7-0 lead in the first frame and he breezed the rest of the way... 1B George Byum (.412) and LF Red Treadway (.294) lofted balls over the short 262-foot right field fence at the Dell... CF Hal Jeffcoat (.333) and Byam had three hits apiece... Lookout starter Vern Curtis (1-1) dropped his first game of the year... the Vols slapped him around for nine runs and 10 hits in just four innings... Nashville moved its mark to 2-2 for the season with Chattanooga falling to 3-1.

CRACKERS CLOBBER ROCKS
Atlanta put a damper on Little Rock's home opener at Ray Winder Field with a 9-4 clobbering, improving the Crackers' season mark to 3-1 and handing the Travelers their fourth straight loss... they have yet to win in the '47 season... Atlanta continue to hit at a remarkable rate, piling up 13 hits... 2B Ted Cieslak went 3-for-5, including a two-run homer and four RBIs... SS Ben Steiner (.250) blasted a two-run homer... and 3B Charlie Glock (.412) had three hits... for the year the Crackers are hitting over .350 as a team and scoring runs at almost 10 a game... Sid West (1-0) notched the victory, going seven innings and giving up four runs... he walked five and fanned five... Ken Gables worked the final two frames and retired all six batters he faced.

RONAY OUTDUELS WEILAND
Atlanta put a damper on Little Rock's home opener at Ray Winder Field with a 9-4 clobbering, improving the Crackers' season mark to 3-1 and handing the Travelers their fourth straight loss... they have yet to win in the '47 season... Atlanta continue to hit at a remarkable rate, piling up 13 hits... 2B Ted Cieslak went 3-for-5, including a two-run homer and four RBIs... SS Ben Steiner (.250) blasted a two-run homer... and 3B Charlie Glock (.412) had three hits... for the year the Crackers are hitting over .350 as a team and scoring runs at almost 10 a game... Byron Cook (1-0) notched the victory, going seven innings and giving up four runs... he walked five and fanned five... Ken Gables worked the final two frames and retired all six batters he faced.

PELS RALLY PAST BEARS
Down 6-5 at the end of six innings, the New Orleans Pelicans rallied to nudge the Mobile Bears 8-6 at Hartwell Field... LF Red Lavigne (.333) doubled in the winning score in the top of the ninth and 1B Al Flair (.385) added an insurance run with an RBI single... the Pels got a masterful job from the bullpen... George Diehl (1-1/1.38) tossed four scoreless innings and picked up the win, evening his record at 1-1... reliever Pat McGlothin (0-1) got the loss for Mobile... he was tagged for three runs in three innings.. New Orleans rapped out 14 hits to 12 for the Bears... C Fred Walters (.167) paced the Pelicans with three RBIs... CF Cal Abrams (.294) batted in a pair for the Bears... New Orleans upped its record to 2-2 this season, while Mobile dipped to 1-3... it was their third defeat in a row.

[BigRed75]

Sulphur Dell...maybe the greatest name for a ballpark ever...it was the original hitters' park. Pitchers didn't call it "Sulphur Dell," they called it "Suffer Hell".

Or so I've heard.

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by BigRed75

Sulphur Dell...maybe the greatest name for a ballpark ever...it was the original hitters' park. Pitchers didn't call it "Sulphur Dell," they called it "Suffer Hell".

Or so I've heard.

That's what the Mobile Bears pitchers called it in the 1950s... they hated to go there... but the batters loved it.

[Eugene Church]

THE NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE
Monday, April 7, 1947

BARONS WIN 4TH IN A ROW
Joe Erautt (.353) and Dick Atkins (.263) came through with clutch RBI singles in the top of the seventh to lead red-hot Birmingham past Memphis 4-3 at Russwood Park... it was the Barons' 4th victory in a row and kept them in a first-place tie with Atlanta at 4-1... LF Edo Vanni (.273) homered for Birmingham and 3B Mickey Rutner (.278) had two hits and scored twice... Frank Nelson (1-1/4.61) and reliever Al LaMacchia combined for the win... Nelson got the win, tossing the first seven frames, yielding three runs on five hits... LaMacchia finished with two perfect innings and three strikeouts... four Memphis errors hurt losing pitcher Lefty Hoerst (1-1/1.00)... only two of the four scores were earned... Hoerst whiffed five Barons, walked two, but was tagged for 12 hits... the Chicks dropped below .500 for the season with two wins and three defeats.

CRACKERS WIN 3RD STRAIGHT
At Ray Winder Field in Little Rock, Atlanta nabbed their third straight win, dumping the winless last place Travelers 8-5... Forrest Thompson did a double dip... he drove in 5 runs with two doubles and also notched the win... Thompson (.667) doubled in three runs in the fifth and two more in the eighth... he worked into the ninth, but needed help from Ken Gables... Thompson (2-0/3.71) logged his second win, but was socked for five runs and 10 hits... with two runners on and Little Rock threatening to get back in the game, Gables retired all three batters he faced in the ninth... the Crackers boosted the club's season record to 4-1... Little Rock has lost all five games this year.

VOLS POUND 'NOOGA 9-4
Nashville poured it on at Sulphur Dell, pounding out 12 hits in a 9-4 thrashing of the Chattanooga Lookouts... C Rube Walker (.333) and LF Red Treadway (.350) topped the Vols... Walker rapped two hits and scored three times, while Treadway tossed in two hits, two runs and two RBIs... the win went to Nashville starter Ben Wade (1-1/9.00)... he lasted seven innings, gave up three runs on seven hits with seven Ks and three walks... young Bob Rush fired the last two innings in relief and fanned three of the six straight batters he retired... LF Al Kvasnak (.056) was the Lookouts' only offense... he launched a two-run shot in the second frame... both teams are 3-2 this year.

BEARS WALK AWAY WITH WIN
At home at Hartwell Field, Mobile walked away with a dramatic win over New Orleans... in the bottom of the 10th Byron Cook forced in the winning run when he walked LF Shotgun Shuba (.150) with the bases full of Bears, giving them a hard-earned comeback victory... twice late in the game Mobile trailed... 9-6 going into the 9th... and 10-9 heading into the last of the 10th... Shuba's two-run single and 1B Chuck Connors' (.300) RBI hit knotted the score and sent it into extra innings... RF Tom Wright's (.235) solo blast put the Pels ahead by a run in the top of the 10th, but their bullpen couldn't hold it... both pitching staffs had control problems... New Orleans walked 12 batters and Mobile issued 7 free passes... the Bears racked up 17 hits and were led by backup C Ken Staples (.833) with 5-for-6... the Pelicans chalked up 12 hits in the loss... Mobile put an end to its three-game losing skid... both clubs are 2-3 record-wise.

Click on Line Scores to Enlarge Image

[Eugene Church]

My Life in the Early 1940s

Actually don't recollect much from my early days of life from 1940 to 1944... must have been one of the early, early ADHD kids (attention deficit hyperactive disorder)... my earliest memories are few and far between... at age 3 or 4 remember playing under a high porch with model cars and building dirt roads on Cherry Hill in Florence, Alabama... I also remember throwing rocks at the neighborhood cats that would mess up my roads... gotta be careful... PETA may come after me... what's the statutes of limitations on throwing rocks at cats?

I guess my next memories are about Mobile... my mother, my grandparents and three of her younger siblings moved from the Florence area to Mobile during the war years... jobs were plentiful there and the money was good... my granddaddy and Uncle Gene worked at the Mobile Shipyards, repairing ships that were damaged in the war... I used to think the Japanese soldiers and the war were just across the Mobile Bay because my grandpa and uncle were always telling war stories about bullet holes and bomb holes in the damaged ships... I was really afraid of the Japanese soldiers... they were far more frightening to a 5-year-old than the German soldiers... I was only 5 and had made up mind, that if they drafted me and I had to go to war to fight for my country, yours truly would have volunteered for Europe... and wouldn't have gotten within several thousand miles of Japan... didn't want to mess with any Kamikaze pilots... those are some bad and dangerous dudes... but most of all, I didn't want to get close up and personal with Japanese officers wielding huge, shiny, razor-sharp and mucho scary samurai swords.

I mean to tell ya, pilgrim, that John Wayne, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, the Durango Kid, Ray Corrigan and the Three Mesquiteers, Lash Larue, Red Ryder, Sunset Carson, Cisco Kid, Zorro and Wild Bill Elliott had trained me well at the Saturday movie matinees, but they never had to go up against Samurai swords.

My mother worked at a restaurant downtown and really did well in the war years... we lived in a small house on Sage Avenue in the Loop area of Mobile... I remember having my picture made on a beautiful pinto pony all decked out in a Stetson hat, red bandana and leather chaps... still got the picture in my living room for all to see... my, my, my, I was a mighty handsome little cowpoke.

At an early age, my heart's desire was to be a bus driver... the bus driver on our route was a friendly sort... he would pick me up in front of my house and let me ride the entire route with him free of charge... times were different back then, a kid could do stuff like that... however, my bus-driving career came to a sudden and abrupt halt when my mother found out that the bus driver had let me take a few puffs on a Lucky Strike cigarette... hey, be happy go lucky... that's what all the 5-year-old nicotine addicts said back then.

My Greyhound dreams perished in a flash... or maybe went up in smoke... no mo' bus rides for little old me.

Oh, yeah... another useless memory just suddenly popped up and came out of nowhere from the long ago and far away reaches of my mind... my diet in those days consisted almost totally of Campbell's Tomato Soup... boy, did I love that stuff... it was "mmm... mmm.. good"... wouldn't eat anything else and chugged down Grapette soft drinks with it... also ate "light bread" with it... that's an old Southern name for white bread... incidentally, I only ate the centers of the bread... threw away the outer crust... all this was probably because my mother made me get every known vaccine shot known to man at the time... and then some... seems she wanted me to be healthy... the 1940's were not as enlightened as we are today.

My life was alive in '45.

After the war was over, the shipyard work for my family came to an end... my grandma separated from my grandpa (he was somewhat of a womanizer) and moved back to Florence with my aunt and two uncles, but my grandpa stayed in Mobile and got a job at Brookley Field, an airbase... my mother stayed at the restaurant and was the assistant manager by this time and still doing well financially... it was good that my granddaddy stayed in Mobile... I could always hit him up for enough money to go to the picture show at the Saenger, Lyric, Crown, Empire and Century theatres in downtown Mobile... just so you know, we called movies "picture shows" back then.

Now it's 1946 and time for yours truly to get educated... I went to Robert E. Lee Elementary School... the school was right across the street from Galvez Park, a city playground with a ball diamond with a plain old dirt infield, plain old outdoor dirt basketball court, two goals with no nets on the rims and a very nice wading pool... us kids were really spoiled in the 1940s... Galvez Park would be a vital part of my athletic development in a few years... spent many, many hours and days there... dearly loved the place.

My first grade teacher was Mrs. Nelson... she was a really nice old lady... she must have been 70 or so... I remember learning to read with Dick and Jane readers... "See Dick and Jane... See Dick run... See Jane run"... later on they greatly expanded the ensemble to include the dog Spot... then I greatly increased my vocabulary... "See Spot... Spot is a dog... See Spot run."

Hey, I know it sounds dumb... but darn it... it worked... it taught my generation to read darn well... even the poorer students could read fairly well... we didn't have high schoolers reading at elementary levels when they graduated.

The only other thing I remember about Mrs. Nelson first-grade class was the girl who sat in front of me... she had dark hair with a Buster Brown haircut... she wet her pants one day and got my feet and shoes soaking wet... and no, she wasn't my first girl friend... that would come along next year in the second grade... tell ya about her later.

My Life is heaven in '47.

Come to think of it... it might be better to forget my fretful first grade experiences.

[Izz]

Loving it, EC!

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by Izz

Loving it, EC!

Well, it's good to have at least one person who enjoys this dynasty...

Two if you count me.

[Eugene Church]

Wow!

Got some great news today... our college library has the Atlanta Constitution newspapers in their archives... I just might be able to get the actual box scores from the Southern Association for the seasons 1947 to 1959.

Should really get good coverage of the Atlanta Crackers and the rest of the teams

This means I will be able to recreate this dynasty league using the actual lineups and won't have to come up with them myself.

This will make this very special to me... too good to believe.

Hey, my life is really keen in 2016!

Sorry, I just had to say it.

[themonk]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

My Life in the Early 1940s


My first grade teacher was Mrs. Nelson... she was a really nice old lady... she must have been 70 or so... I remember learning to read with Dick and Jane readers... "See Dick and Jane... See Dick run... See Jane run"... later on they greatly expanded the ensemble to include the dog Spot... then I greatly increased my vocabulary... "See Spot... Spot is a dog... See Spot run."

Hey, I know it sounds dumb... but darn it... it worked... it taught my generation to read darn well... even the poorer students could read fairly well... we didn't have high schoolers reading at elementary levels when they graduated.

I grew up in the 60s, but I remember that I also learned to read with these Dick and Jane books. I don't know if the other schools used these books, too. I am not from the US, but I was fortunate to be enrolled by my parents in a progressive school, which was also the most expensive school in our city. It was owned by a couple who studied in the US and followed an American-based curriculum called Calvert Method.

It the best thing that my parents did for me. Although I was not a really studious boy, in that school I developed a love for reading, which served me in good stead later in life. (My wife says I devour books). Its progressive, liberal arts curriculum gave me also a good exposure to English Literature, World History, Geography, Poetry, Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and even Greek Mythology (yes,even as kids we had classes in Greek Mythology, which was of my favorites), among other things. Needless to say, it also honed my English speaking and writing skills, too.

Of course, we just did not study all day. It was also there that I learned to play basketball, which is the most popular sport in our country. Playing, by the way, when I was a kid, meant playing outdoors with other kids. I wonder if kids today still do that. My nephews and nieces are so glued to their smartphones, tablets or laptops, so much so that they don't really play with other kids outdoors anymore. Sad to say, this is typical of kids today...


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[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by themonk

I grew up in the 60s, but I remember that I also learned to read with these Dick and Jane books. I don't know if the other schools used these books, too. I am not from the US, but I was fortunate to be enrolled by my parents in a progressive school, which was also the most expensive school in our city. It was owned by a couple who studied in the US and followed an American-based curriculum called Calvert Method.

It the best thing that my parents did for me. Although I was not a really studious boy, in that school I developed a love for reading, which served me in good stead later in life. (My wife says I devour books). Its progressive, liberal arts curriculum gave me also a good exposure to English Literature, World History, Geography, Poetry, Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and even Greek Mythology (yes,even as kids we had classes in Greek Mythology, which was of my favorites), among other things. Needless to say, it also honed my English speaking and writing skills, too.

Of course, we just did not study all day. It was also there that I learned to play basketball, which is the most popular sport in our country. Playing, by the way, when I was a kid, meant playing outdoors with other kids. I wonder if kids today still do that. My nephews and nieces are so glued to their smartphones, tablets or laptops, so much so that they don't really play with other kids outdoors anymore. Sad to say, this is typical of kids today...


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Boy, you did some kind of fine education.

Kids don't play outside in my neighborhood at all... I've lived here 10 years and it's rare that you will see kids playing around outside... they play sports... but only organized games... no such thing as going to the playground and playing ball.

We have a beautiful sports complex across the highway from my subdivision... you never see any "pickup' or "sandlot" games... only sporatic weekend tournaments... during the week the place is empty.

[Eugene Church]

Spent the day at the library going through the Atlanta Constitution newspaper archives and checked out the first month of the Southern Association... they gave good coverage to the hometown crackers, but often resorted to just line scores for the rest of the league, just occasionally showing the box scores... my rosters are pretty accurate, but I had to make some changes.

Minor League teams in the 40s and 50s were in great flux at the beginning of the season... they were waiting for their parent team to make their cuts, which would filter down to each level.

Consequently, you see a lot of transactions in April.

I think they will get settled down in May.

[Eugene Church]

I reworked the team rosters last night to reflect the early season rosters.

Originally, the best I could hope for was to give the position players ABs to match how many they had in the real '47 season... I had no way to know if they played in the early part of the season or late in the season... players were promoted up and down during the year... the Baseball-Reference doesn't show this... it just shows a player played for multiple teams in a season... but not when they played in the season.

If a guy played 140 or 150 games, I knew he was a regular and it was no problem... when a guy hit .350 in 250 at bats, I didn't know when he was promoted... did he just play the first half of the year in SA and then get promoted to AAA or the Majors... or was he promoted up from A ball to the SA team at mid-year... other alternatives were a Southern Association team purchasing AAA players for the second half of the season and the stretch run to try and make the playoffs... the SA teams would pay a veteran AAA player quite well to finish the season with them and enhance their pennant and playoff chances... in '56 Mobile did this by signing several AAA players and it paid off handsomely... 3B Jim Baxes and 2B Dick Young are two that I particularly remember... what a great stretch drive that year... went down to the very last day of the regular season.

The pitchers posed the same problem... I just hoped to match the number of innings pitch to their '47 season totals.

With the newspaper archives I can get a lot of help as to when each position player and pitcher played during the year... and whether the pitchers were primarily a starter or reliever.

So far this is really working out well.

[Big Six]

Originally Posted by BigRed75

I wonder how many people know how to properly pronounce the name of the Crackers' home ground?

According to a family friend who grew up in Atlanta, the locals would never say "PONE-say day lay-ON."

Instead, they'd talk about a trip to "PONTZ da LEE-on" Park. I wondered why there was a ballpark in Atlanta named for a 16th-century Spanish explorer of Florida. My friend says the ballpark was located on Ponce de Leon Avenue, which made sense to me.

While I'm here, I'll mention how much I'm enjoying your dynasty, Eugene. My dad was born in 1940, too--same as you, and same as themonk's father. Dad's still going strong, and he says he feels younger than he did at 56. I hope you're finding your mid-seventies to be just as much fun as he is.

[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by Big Six

According to a family friend who grew up in Atlanta, the locals would never say "PONE-say day lay-ON."

Instead, they'd talk about a trip to "PONTZ da LEE-on" Park. I wondered why there was a ballpark in Atlanta named for a 16th-century Spanish explorer of Florida. My friend says the ballpark was located on Ponce de Leon Avenue, which made sense to me.

While I'm here, I'll mention how much I'm enjoying your dynasty, Eugene. My dad was born in 1940, too--same as you, and same as themonk's father. Dad's still going strong, and he says he feels younger than he did at 56. I hope you're finding your mid-seventies to be just as much fun as he is.

Wow... I'm impressed with your linguistic skills in transliterating the proper Atlanta pronunciation of PONTZ-da-LEE-on Park.

Yep, that's how they said it... at least that how "The Old Redhead" Ted Andrews used to say it when he did the Pelican-Cracker games on WTPS in New Orleans.. same thing for Jack Bitterman, the voice of the Mobile Bears on WABB when I was a kid.

Glad your dad is still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 76.

I, too, have been very blessed health-wise... hope it stays that way for another decade or so.

Thanks for posting your comments and sharing that interesting story with me and our viewers.

[Eugene Church]

THE NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE
Tuesday, April 8, 1947

CRACKERS WIN 4TH, PEBS LOSE 6TH
Great season for Atlanta so far, they captured their 4th straight game by dumping the last place Little Rock Travelers 7-2 on the road at Ray Winder Field... winning pitcher Dewey Atkins (1-2/7.36) tossed a complete game, firing a one-hitter... he was a little on the wild side with 5 walks, but struck out seven batters... leading the Crackers at the plate were CF Charlie Trippi (.478) with three hits and two runs scored... 3B Charlie Glock (.400) was 2-4 with two runs and an RBI... and RF Ted Cieslak (.407) and 1B Jimmy Blair (.333) added two RBIs apiece... Atkins no-hit the Travs for five innings... 2B Bob Mavis (.235) got Little Rock's only hit when he hit a two-bagger in the sixth... Atlanta is 5-1 for the season... the poor Pebs haven't won a game yet, falling to a dismal 0-6.

RAZOR-SHARP GRATE BLANKS BIRMINGHAM
23-year-old Don Grate was razor-sharp in his first start for the Memphis Chicks, blanking the tough Birmingham Barons 11-0 and putting an end to their four-winning streak... Grate whizzed 10 strikes past the beleagued Baron batters, walked only one and held them to just three hits... the young right-hander was 14-6 at Utica in the Single A Eastern League last season... he also had a cup of coffee in the Majors and won a game for the Philadelphia Phillies last year in his only start in a September call-up... the Chicks really clicked with the bats, battering Birmingham for 16 hits, sparked by SS Freddie Hancock (.280), 2B Bert Hodges (.227), LF Ray Bueschen (.368) and 3B Garvin Hamner (.222)... all of them collected three hits each... the blowout boosted Memphis to 3-3 for the year with Birmingham slipping to 4-2 and dropping out of a first-place tie with Atlanta.

CHATS' LYONS WHACKS GAME-WINNING HR
The Chattanooga Lookouts topped the Nashville Vols 5-3 in Southern Association action at Sulphur Dell... the Lookouts got a very good outing from Bill Kennedy and a three-run homer from 2B Ed Lyons (.348) to pin the 5-3 loss on the Vols... Kennedy (2-0/2.00) copped his 2nd win of the year, holding Nashville to just three runs on eight hits, while whiffing nine batters and walking four... Chattanooga got 10 hits in all, paced by CF John Lavelle (.429) with three hits and an RBI and 1B Jack Sanford (.292), who garnered two hits and drove in a run with a home run.... CF Hal Jeffcoat (.370) starred for the Vols with three hts... Pete Mallory (1-1/6.00) did a decent job in defeat, going the distance permitting five runs with eight Ks and three bases on balls... Chattanooga moved to 4-2 this year with Nashville dipping to .500 and 3-3.

MODICA MOWS DOWN BEARS
New Orleans' hometown boy, Pete Modica, mowed down Mobile in easy fashion with a 6-2 decision on the road at Hartwell Field... the 22-year-old right-hander stopped the Bears on just four hits, while fanning four and walking seven and evening the Pelicans' record to three wins and three losses.... the Bears fell to 2-4... New Orleans also had a field day in the batter's box, lashing out 16 hits with four players getting three hits apiece: CF George Stumpf (.273), SS Mel Rue (.333), 1B Al Flair (.476) and RF Tom Wright (.333).

Click Line Scores to Enlarge Image

[Eugene Church]

THE NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE
Tuesday, April 8, 1947

[themonk]

I'm not familiar with the Southern Association. I don't why, but I picked the Atlanta Crackers as the team I'm going to root for. Probably because I like Bobby Jones, considered one of the greatest golfers of all time. I believe he's from Atlanta. (By the way, there are only 2 types of games I play on my computer -- golf (Links 2003 & Total Pro Golf) and baseball (OOTPB)). Anyway, happy to see that they're on a winning streak...


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[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by themonk

I'm not familiar with the Southern Association. I don't why, but I picked the Atlanta Crackers as the team I'm going to root for. Probably because I like Bobby Jones, considered one of the greatest golfers of all time. I believe he's from Atlanta. (By the way, there are only 2 types of games I play on my computer -- golf (Links 2003 & Total Pro Golf) and baseball (OOTPB)). Anyway, happy to see that they're on a winning streak...
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Well, you picked a good one.

Just a little note... the Atlanta Crackers were the most successful minor league franchise in history with 17 league championships, earning them the title "Yankees of the Minors"... in baseball, only the renowned New York Yankees have won more pennants with 40.

As far as the nickname "Crackers"... it's origin is unknown... it can mean "a poor white southerner", " a person very good at a job"... "a hobo" or "a reference to a plowboy, who cracked whips over animals".

"person very good at doing his job' would be my first choice as to the meaning of the word..." as he is a crackerjack at baseball"... the plowboys cracking whips would also fit well, too.

It is a unique and special nickname in the history of the minor leagues.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the above info.

[BigRed75]

Originally Posted by Big Six

According to a family friend who grew up in Atlanta, the locals would never say "PONE-say day lay-ON."

Instead, they'd talk about a trip to "PONTZ da LEE-on" Park. I wondered why there was a ballpark in Atlanta named for a 16th-century Spanish explorer of Florida. My friend says the ballpark was located on Ponce de Leon Avenue, which made sense to me.

Ding ding ding!

I too, was curious why Atlanta had a street named after a 16th century Spanish explorer who had never explored the area, so I looked it up. Apparently, the park was built on the site of an amusement park, which was built on the site of some hot springs, which was considered to be "Atlanta's Fountain of Youth"

And Ponce de Leon is best known for searching Florida for the Fountain of Youth. An unsuccessful quest which has since been taken up by millions of New Yorkers.

Nowadays, there's a Home Depot on the site of Ponce de Leon Park.

[BigRed75]

Okay Eugene, I'll bite...why are the Little Rock Travelers nicknamed the "Pebs"?