Atlanta, Ga.- Two rich histories linked together by one name: the Atlanta Crackers.  From 1901 until the team relocated to Richmond in 1965, the Crackers organization served as a minor league team for the city of Atlanta.  After the relocation and seventeen years of dormancy, the Crackers were resurrected as a semi-pro team by current owner and head coach Kevin Meistickle, and are still competing to this day.

Minor League Years: 1901-1965

When asked the question: “What 2 teams have the most championships in the history of organized affiliated baseball?”   The first answer is easy for the avid fan: The New York Yankees, but few would guess the Crackers fall in right behind the Bronx Bombers.  In their 64 years of play at various levels, the Crackers brought home 17 league championships, which indeed is good enough for second most in the history of affiliated baseball. The Crackers over the years competed in each of the three minor league levels (Single A, Double A, and Triple A) as an affiliate of the Boston/Milwaukee Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Minnesota Twins.

The name “Crackers” were thought to have been formed from the old Atlanta minor league team, the firecrackers.  Although the name has been criticized over the years, the original Crackers were named because of the meaning of the word “Cracker” in the early 1900’s meaning, “Someone quick and efficient at any task.”

The Crackers sparked the beginning of numerous Hall of Fame careers like that of Luke Appling, and Eddie Matthews; along with greats such as Tim McCarver, Chuck Tanner, and Tommie Aaron.  The organization was the spring board to much more than just on field careers, as legendary broadcaster for the Atlanta Braves, Skip Caray began with the, then, red, white and navy.  The broadcast booth would also be graced by the Hall of Fame tones of Ernie Harwell after a history making trade in 1948.  The 1981 Ford C. Frick Award (Hall of Fame award for excellence in baseball broadcasting) winner was traded by Brooklyn Dodgers general manager, Branch Rickey, for a player (catcher, Cliff Dapper) to mark the first and only time in the history of baseball that a player was traded for a broadcaster. 

Atlanta, from 1907-1965, called Ponce de Leon Ballpark home for 58 seasons, and the ballpark saw a number of historical moments as well in the franchise.  On April 10, 1949, the Atlanta Crackers hosted the first game in the state of Georgia in which African-American and white players played in the same game when Jackie Robinson played in front of the largest crowd in Ponce de Leon’s history of 25,221 fans. 

The Crackers were brought into affiliated baseball by Charles Abner Powell, who is credited with creating, the now common, “rain checks” and “ladies’ day”.  After Powell left the Atlanta area, the team was owned by a number of different commercial names like Georgia Railway and Electric Company (which would evolve into the Georgia Power Company), and the Coca-Cola Company.

The Crackers would win their final professional championship in 1962 as a member of the Triple A-International League as an affiliate of the Milwaukee Braves before moving to Richmond in 1965 to become the Richmond Braves.

Rebirth of a Legacy

The Atlanta Crackers were rekindled by the current owner and head coach Kevin Meistickle after his 10 year professional career.  Meistickle, the 34th round pick by the New York Mets in 1973 out of Thiel College (first player to be drafted in Thiel history), returned to the Atlanta area after finishing his career in the Mexican League with the Diablos and the Tigres in Mexico City.  With the idea of a semi-professional team already in mind, Meistickle was at an Atlanta Falcons game with Luke Appling, a former Atlanta Cracker himself, and the Crackers began to be re-born.  Appling, a former hitting instructor with the Braves organization when Meistickle was playing with the minor league Braves, had been friends with Meistickle for years, and the two began to throw the ideas of calling the team the Crackers.  A few days later in 1982, the two headed to the Atlanta Historical Society to find all they could on the history of the Crackers. 

What they would find is the storied history of the team from its inception and that sealed the deal: the Crackers would be reborn.

In the Beginning: 1983

The Crackers would begin their rebirth with a “Barnstorming” spree in the winter of 1983 with a team comprised of former professional players, along with some college players.  This “Barnstorming” team traveled all around the southeast playing a flurry of teams, many of which were college teams just finishing up fall ball.  The Crackers started off the modern era playing the likes of Florida State, Georgia Southern, Valdosta State, and many other teams.

Early on in the years of the Crackers, they were kept afloat by major sponsors.  Two of the first sponsors were Metro Ambulance and Columbia Pictures.  Meistickle made the connections in the limelight in his role in the movie, “The Slugger’s Wife” staring Randy Quaid and Michael O’Keefe.  Ray Stark, along with the help of O’Keefe and Quaid, brought Columbus Pictures into the game with the Crackers by helping them with many of the necessities of starting up an organization (uniforms, bats, balls, etc.)  Bill Hellstein was also a key contributor in many different aspects with the Crackers.  Hellstein was a player-coach for the Crackers from the start of the modern era until 2000, and also is credited with securing the Metro Ambulance sponsorship.  The key sponsors as well as key names in early history including Luke Appling, Hank Greenberg, and Dale Murphy helped Meistickle mold the Crackers in it’s infancy to make the organization what it is today.

Early Years: 1980’s-90’s

In the 80’s and 90’s, the Crackers competed in the Stan Musial League and played teams from all over the country made up of college players and former professional players.  Long bus, and train rides for the players and coaches caused some of the tightest bonds in players and coaches.  Those teams produced an overall total of more than 65 wins in Musial League games, and the Crackers remain to be the only team that has played in all 4 major amateur national championships: NBC, Stan Musial, Dizzy Dean, and NABF.  Those Cracker teams would think nothing of producing 100+ home runs over the 58 game seasons.  To put that into perspective, the Atlanta Braves in 2015 only hit 100 homeruns in 162 games. 

In 1987, The Atlanta Crackers retired the number of Mickey Mantle, a good friend of Coach Meistickle, in a ceremony at the Sporting Club in which Mantle signed autographs for all of Cracker Nation in attendance. 

The 1991 season saw the next contribution to the Crackers when Joe McDonald, General Manager of the Detroit Tigers, sent uniforms and more equipment to Cracker Nation.  McDonald had been the General Manager for the New York Mets when Meistickle was with the Mets organization, so when Meistickle reached out, McDonald was more than happy to oblige. 

Numerous players used the seasons that they had with the Crackers to move on to professional baseball.  Lee Upshaw used his 1988 season with the Atlanta Crackers to sign, at the time, the largest monetary free agent contract ever issued by the Braves organization.  Upshaw spent 5 years in the Braves minor league system and recorded 42 wins and a 3.53 ERA. 

In 1996, the Crackers would play a number of the Olympic teams in exhibition games, and defeated a number of them including the Nicaraguan team that finished 4th in the overall standings.

Today’s Crackers

In 2008, Kevin Meistickle would be approached by the Sunbelt League to join the league, which the Crackers would in 2009.  Since then, the Crackers have won the last four Sunbelt League crowns in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.  Their title in 2016 would be the first time in NACSB (National Alliance of College Summer Baseball) in which one team was crowned champion in four consecutive seasons.  The four Sunbelt League crowns increase the total number of championships to 53 overall spanning semi-pro, and Sunbelt League.  On July 26th, 2016, an 11-1 victory for the Crackers, in the first round of the 2016 Sunbelt League Playoffs, stood as their 1,000th victory since the rebirth in 1983.

Growing Young Men

One of the mantras of the Atlanta Crackers organization since Meistickle took over the name in 1983, has been “Growing young men.” All of the coaching staff of the Crackers have helped over 250 players sign with colleges to continue their careers in the college ranks, and over 180 have signed professional contracts.

With all of the wins, championships, and accolades the Crackers have picked up over the years, what the Crackers staff have hung their hats on, have been the lives that they’ve touched and the success stories of over 1,300 former Crackers becoming successful in life.  One of the tangible ways to see this at work is the fact of over 100 former players have gone on to share their knowledge of the game in the coaching ranks. 

Head Coach Kevin Meistickle has put together a coaching staff to help him with this goal.  Pitching Coach Steve Autry has been called the “pitching guru” and began his 17th year with the Crackers in 2016.  Autry is a former Cracker in his own right, as a pitcher in the mid to late 80s.  Autry, the former standout at Chattahoochee Valley, makes it his mission to make each pitcher a better pitcher and better person after their Cracker playing days come to a close.  The hitting coach for the orange and black is also a former Cracker player, Brad Ethridge is in his third season on staff.  Ethridge, former All-American at Lee University, handles the hitting performance and infield work with the Crackers.

The more you get to see of the Crackers and how they operate on and off the field, it’s not un-common to see a former Crackers player at a game and at the edge of the dugout or appearing as a guest coach, picking up the conversations with Meistickle and Autry as if they never ended.  The old cliché reigns the truest not only around the Atlanta area, but wherever someone that was touched by the Crackers organization may be: ONCE A CRACKER, ALWAYS A CRACKER!

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