"Bobby Dews takes you on a literary journey from the roaring twenties to the bittersweet forties into the volatile sixties -- a journey you'll never forget"

Beginning in an era before traffic jams, air-conditioning, and Atlanta's ascension to international fame, Tim Darnell chronicles the emergence of amateur and minor-league baseball in various forms in Atlanta from just after the Civil War through the rise of the Crackers (1901-65).Through never-before-published player interviews, rare illustrations, extensive charts and statistics, and thorough research, Darnell examines the drama and politics that affected the Crackers over the years. Also profiled is the Black Crackers, Atlanta's Negro Southern League franchise whose success and popularity paralleled those of their white counterparts.The Crackers is a light-hearted, fun, and engrossing history of a time, a people, and one very special centerfield magnolia tree whose stories are legend to this day.Includes a Crackers Trivia Quiz, and appendices with records and statistics.

"Bobby Dews takes you on a literary journey from the roaring twenties to the bittersweet forties into the volatile sixties -- a journey you'll never forget"

A collection of stories from a quintessential southern writer, Bobby Dews. An Illusion of Victory, influenced by Dews' small-town Georgia upbringing and background, is an experience. In your journey through this collection you will feel as if you are recounting stories and debating and discovering poetry on the front porch over a glass of lemonade on a lazy summer afternoon.