Rebirth Of A Legacy

Todays team is a "tribute" to the Atlanta Crackers who won 17 Minor League Championships from 1901-1965.

Below is an excerpt From "The Atlanta Crackers: A Storied History of Excellence on and Off the Field", by Colin Lacy

"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 MLB Hall Of Famer 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."

Hall Of Famer and former Braves coach Luke Appling with Kevin Meistickle.

Barnstorming / semi-professional baseball

In the Beginning:

The "official“ rebirth of the Crackers began in 1983, but around 1982, Kevin Meistickle started building a team of ex-professionals and former college players. Some were looking for a chance to return to professional baseball while others just missed competing and playing baseball. Eventually this would lead to a "Barnstorming" team that traveled around playing colleges, providing competition for Fall and early Spring games. These "Barnstorming Crackers" would win much more than they lost! The team traveled all around the southeast playing the likes of Florida State, Georgia Southern, Valdosta State, and many other teams.

The early 80's teams were known for the trademark black jerseys.

A Little Help Along The Way

(From "The Atlanta Crackers: A Storied History of Excellence on and Off the Field", by Colin Lacy).

"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 Columbia 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.

Bill Hellstein and Kevin Meistickle

From "The Atlanta Crackers: A Storied History Of Excellence On And Off The Field", by Colin Lacy

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.

Teams of the 80's & 90's were known as road warriors, traveling hundreds of miles playing 50+ games.

Cracker Manager Kevin Meistickle with Micky Mantle and player and friend Mark Rothstein.

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.