Atlanta Crackers?

[ATLien]

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/met...tobsandow.html

When the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., invited major league teams to nominate their most loyal fan, the Atlanta Braves chose Pearl Sandow.
Sandow had attended 1,889 consecutive Braves games at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, from the first game the Atlanta Braves played there in 1966 through the 1989 season. For 21 years, she was a regular at spring training in West Palm Beach, Fla.
"Pearl never married, so the Braves became her life," said Bob Hope of Stone Mountain, a former Braves public relations director. "She became a part of my family and of a lot of the other office workers and players. She would take a bus to the stadium, and often one of the Braves' office personnel or players or wives would drive her home to her apartment on Piedmont Avenue. She was very special."
Sandow, 103, of Canton died Monday at Canton Nursing Center. The body was cremated. A memorial service is 2 p.m. Sunday at Huey Funeral Home. She has no immediate survivors.
On May 12, 2002, the Canton native was honored as the Braves Best Fan in a ceremony at Turner Field. Four days later, she celebrated her 100th birthday with the gift of a special Braves jersey — numbered 100, of course — at her assisted living center in Canton. Among the guests were former Braves pitcher Phil Niekro, sportscaster Ernie Johnson Sr. and some former Atlanta Crackers.
When in 1975 then-Braves owner Ted Turner learned about Sandow's loyalty, he issued her a lifetime pass. She sat in Seat 1, Row 9, Section 105. Sandow purchased an adjacent seat to park her purse and paraphernalia. She always listened to the game on the radio while watching.
"She was a great lady, a special person," Braves manager Bobby Cox said Tuesday. "She was an institution at the ballpark. She loved her Braves, and those are the kind of fans you want."
Sandow's collection of baseball memorabilia grew and grew, including a huge collection of autographed balls and photos of her with the likes of Joe DiMaggio and Hank Aaron.
It wasn't just Braves players who took a liking to Sandow.
"I remember one day I was there, and a player hollered to her, 'Hey, Pearl,' " said her cousin, Dot Patterson of Canton. "It was Pete Rose."
Former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda made sure Miss Sandow received a ball with players' autographs each year.
"He'd put it in a long sock with knots tied all the way up to the top, so she would have to untangle it," Hope said.
Former Braves third baseman Jerry Royster developed a special fondness for Sandow. After a game in which the infielder made several errors, Sandow walked by the dugout and saw Royster crying, Patterson said. "She sat down with him and talked with him and helped lift his spirits."
Royster stayed in touch after his playing career was over. "Jerry would call her three or four times a year," Hope said.
"I'm sorry to hear that. It seemed like she was always at the games, the first one in the ballpark," Braves first base coach Glenn Hubbard said Tuesday.
Sandow, a supervisor with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development in Atlanta, was born into a baseball-loving family.
In 1936, she bought season tickets to the Atlanta Crackers. She missed only one home game from then until the team disbanded in 1965.
"She missed a game in 1961 when her mother had a stroke," Patterson said.
In 1990, Sandow fell and broke both shoulders and ruptured an artery. She was unable to attend Braves games afterward but kept her seats. Her seat at the new Turner Field—Seat 1, Row 15, Section 207, which she never used—remains empty, marked with a plaque in her honor.
A lifelike papier-maché statue of Sandow was created for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, but she was never able to make the journey to see it.

RIP to the old lady, but the Braves used to be called the Crackers!?

Worst. Name. Ever.

[General]

That was prolly a KKK AAA farm team for the Braves...

[riverdunesrat]

Funny.....I'd a thought you'd like that name.......

[ATLien]

Nah, dunes. LOL. I know what you sayin, though. But nah.

The Braves moved from Milwaukee, no? This must have been an amateur league. Still funny ass name.

[General]

Yeah, Boston, Milwaukee, then Atlanta.

[DirtyKash]

Atlanta Black Crackers is the name. My fantasy group uses all old team names from the past, one of the dudes in there is the Atlanta Black Crackers, heh.

[Providence A's]

negro league team dude, nothing to do with the Braves

http://www.negroleaguebaseball.com/t..._Crackers.html

[ATLien]

From Wikipedia:
The Atlanta Crackers were a minor league baseball team that played in the Southern Association for several decades until the Atlanta Braves moved from Milwaukee in 1966 and became the first major league baseball team based in the Southeastern United States. Their home games were played in Ponce de Leon Park. A Negro League counterpart team was referred to as the Atlanta Black Crackers, which is somewhat ironic as the term "cracker" is a racial slur for an illiterate white person. (Supporters of the team used to cite the existence of a bakery of the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) being located in Atlanta as the true origin of the name. This is disputed.)

There's your history lesson for the day..

[General]

Heh. Black Crackers...that has so much potential...

[Providence A's]

I stand corrected. I knew there a was negro league team with that name.