|
|
|
|
|
|
NGE >> Sports and Recreation >> Individual and Team Sports >> Baseball >> Ralph "Country" Brown (1921-1997) |
 |
  |
             
 |
 |
Ralph "Country" Brown (1921-1997) One of the most popular professional baseball players in Atlanta history, Ralph "Country" Brown was a member of the minor league Atlanta Crackers from 1947 to 1952.
After winning consecutive batting titles and league Most Valuable Player awards with the Class C Tampa Smokers and AA Augusta Tigers, Brown spent a little time at AAA Newark, only to be demoted to Class A and switched to first base because his arm was too weak. At age twenty-six, he went home to Summerville, in hopes of being traded. Ten days later, Cracker team owner Earl Mann purchased his contract. Brown's salary was $500 a month, and he became one of Atlanta's most popular and beloved players. He led the Southern Association with thirty-three stolen bases in 1949 and was a member of the 1950 Atlanta Cracker Southern Association championship team. Brown was traded in 1952 to the Chattanooga (Tennessee) Lookouts. He finally retired in 1957, returned to Summerville, and eventually took a job in law enforcement. He died in 1997. "'Country' Brown stood for a whole way of life," Paul Hemphill of the Atlanta Journal wrote during a 1967 Old-Timers Game. "He was a Southern farm boy who had to make his own way. He did not look like a great ballplayer, but he darned near was. . . . They loved him everywhere he went because he had this easy, honest flair about him and he was a winner." Former Georgia governor and U.S. senator Zell Miller has said that Brown was his favorite Atlanta Cracker of all time. Tim Darnell, Atlanta Published 2/2/2004 |
|
||||
|
|
|
|
||||
|
Home | What's New | Index | Quick Facts | About NGE | Help | Contact A project of the Georgia Humanities Council, in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, the University System of Georgia/GALILEO, and the Office of the Governor.
|
