ATLANTA, Georgia (First News Atlanta) – Atlanta Braves fans have a strong feeling of pride, which is really noticeable at the game.
Some claim the team’s winning habits stem from deep roots planted before their time, since they have won more divisional titles than any other team in the Major Leagues with 23.
Taylor “T-Bone” Phillips, 90, with a memory as keen as his old pitching arm. However, 90 is by no means the most significant statistic in this baseball tale.
Phillips remarked, “I believe I’m among the most fortunate people to have ever worn a uniform.”
Phillips pitched for the minor league Atlanta Crackers in the 1950s before the Braves moved to the city. The team played at Ponce de Leon Park, across the street from what is now Ponce City Market.
“They had 15,000 people out there. They had people sitting on the sidelines and field and the stands were full,” Phillips said.
The Crackers were part of the Southern Association League winning more games than any other team during a 60-year span and earning the nickname “Yankees of the Minors.”
Crackers historian Joel Alterman recalls going to his first ballgame at the park on Ponce when he was 9.
“Because there was no fence, the center fielder could literally hop up on the tiny bank, which was approximately a foot high, while he was diving for a fly ball. On that bank, Eddie Matthews really hit a home run that struck the magnolia tree, according to Alterman.
Even now, there is still a magnolia tree in the centerfield. It is acknowledged as a part of Atlanta baseball history and is currently hidden under a commercial area.
Phillips stated, “I threw some that went in there.” “You believe I was flawless?”
The legendary Babe Ruth is reported by numerous historians to have once hit a home run into a magnolia tree, but the ball was never recovered.
“That tree was 450 feet from home plate, and it has to be 25-30 feet high. So that ball would have gone 550 feet,” Phillips said.
T-bone Phillips went on to pitch in the major leagues, winning a world series with the Milwaukee Braves. He later returned to the Crackers to close out his career, throwing out the last pitch in Ponce de Leon Park.
“That is a great blessing. To close down one of the greatest establishments. How many other people could have had that opportunity and it fell on me,” Phillips said.
Once the Braves moved to Atlanta in the 1960s, it was the beginning of a new era of baseball in the city.
“It’s like from generation to generation. It just keeps going and the stimulus is Atlanta baseball,” Alterman said.
A nonprofit organization named Trees Atlanta planted a magnolia outside Truist Park using seeds from the famous Ponce magnolia to commemorate the change.
Phillips remarked, “That tree is alive, and it makes everybody who sees it or knows about it happy.”
It just goes to demonstrate that planting seeds of greatness will pay out for future generations of admirers.
