{"id":770079,"date":"2026-08-04T21:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T21:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/770079\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T21:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T21:03:20","slug":"atlantas-iconic-baseball-magnolia-tree-falls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/770079\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta\u2019s iconic baseball magnolia tree falls"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) \u2014 An iconic tree closely tied to Atlanta\u2019s baseball history has fallen<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The hulking magnolia, which sat almost in dead center field of the old historic Ponce de Leon Park \u2013 home of the Atlanta Crackers baseball team for decades \u2013 appeared to have blown over this week, though no one has confirmed if it was weather, age or something else that brought down the sports landmark. <\/p>\n

The tree collected plenty of lore while it was the unique, in-play feature of the old ballpark but silently sat in an unassuming spot in the back of a shopping center for years after the park closed down and the team relocated. <\/p>\n

\"InIn this image, you can see the young magnolia tree in center-right field. The tree was in play and sat about 500-feet from home plate.(WANF)<\/p>\n

Ponce de Leon Park, also called Spiller Field, played host<\/a> to the Atlanta Crackers between 1907 and 1964 and the Atlanta Black Crackers between 1920 and 1937 and 1940 to 1952. The Georgia Tech football team also played at the park under legendary coach John Heisman.<\/p>\n

For many familiar with the tree\u2019s history, it was a sad sight on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is definitely a hidden part of Atlanta history \u2013 this tree \u2013 but to baseball enthusiasts, they know what this tree means,\u201d said Paul Crater with the Atlanta History Center. \u201cIt is such a unique trait of a ballpark to have a tree in play You certainly don\u2019t see any trace of that now in today\u2019s modern ballparks and haven\u2019t for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

All day, baseball fans stopped by the felled tree to pay respect to the unassuming character in Atlanta\u2019s sports story<\/a>. Some even grabbed a piece of the tree to salvage as a keepsake. <\/p>\n

Sarah Chase and her family came all the way from Forsyth County to see the tree that played a big part of her family\u2019s history, especially her dad\u2019s own connection to the Crackers. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe used to work at the old SEARS building across the street and they would come to the games,\u201d Chase said. \u201cIt is a big piece of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just hope this doesn\u2019t put any bad juju on the Braves,\u201d she joked. <\/p>\n

\"InIn this image, you can see the young magnolia tree in center-right field. The tree was in play and sat about 500-feet from home plate.(WANF)<\/p>\n

Patrick, a baseball fan who had stopped by earlier in the day to grab a sapling, did so with a good reason. He is friends with the owner of Spiller Park Coffee, a restaurant chain that owes its name to the ballfield where the magnolia once stood. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe owner named his daughter Magnolia,\u201d said Patrick. \u201cSo maybe he could propagate it in his backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick Purdy is co-president of Wild Heaven Beer and stopped by to grab a sapling. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt Wild Heaven Beer, my partner Eric Johnson is a propagation physiologist, so we\u2019re just hoping that maybe he could make something out of this,\u201d said Purdy. <\/p>\n

\"AA historic photo of old Ponce de Leon Park, also called Spiller Field, during the Atlanta Cracker’s stint there that lasted from 1907 until 1964.(WANF)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WANF. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) \u2014 An iconic tree closely tied to Atlanta\u2019s baseball history has fallen. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[80719,95112,95113,5,3313,193,95106,95105,95108,95110,95111,95114,95107,95115,185,95109,95116],"class_list":["post-770079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-atlanta-black-crackers","tag-atlanta-crackers","tag-atlanta-history-center","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-field","tag-history","tag-ponce-city-market","tag-ponce-de-leon","tag-ponce-de-leon-field","tag-ponce-de-leon-park","tag-ponce-de-leon-park-magnolia","tag-sarah-chase","tag-spiller-park","tag-spiller-park-coffee","tag-sports","tag-trees-atlanta","tag-wild-heaven-beer"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117039268336324402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}