Macon Peaches

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The Macon Peaches was the predominant name of the American minor league baseball franchise representing Macon, Georgia, during the 20th century.

Although Macon did not field teams during and immediately after World War I, the height of the Great Depression and World War II, the name Peaches was used continuously between 1907 and 1955, except for 1916–1917. The Peaches nickname was also used from 1961–1964, 1966–1967, and 1980–1982.^[1] Much of that time, the Peaches played in the original South Atlantic "Sally" League, although they made brief appearances in the Southeastern League and the Southern Association. During the 1980s, the Peaches were members of the modern South Atlantic League. After 1929, the team played at Luther Williams Field.

Macon was represented by professional baseball teams in the 19th century and joined the Sally League in 1904 as the Highlanders. From 1956–1960, Macon's team was known as the Macon Dodgers, adopting the name of their parent club.

In 1980, a new Macon Peaches team formed and after 1982, this franchise adopted the name Redbirds and then Pirates.^[2] This team relocated to Augusta, Georgia and became the Augusta Pirates and were renamed again to Augusta GreenJackets.

After the 1990 season, the South Atlantic League returned to Macon with the relocation of the Sumter Braves and the Sumter Braves became the Macon Braves, Macon's last affiliated team and last South Atlantic League team. The Macon Braves relocated to Rome, Georgia and were renamed Rome Braves.

From 1962–1964, the Peaches were an important upper-level affiliate (Double-A after 1962) of the Cincinnati Reds, producing Pete Rose, Tony Pérez, Lee May and Tommy Helms. All four were members of Cincinnati's first "Big Red Machine" team, the 1970 National League champions. Rose and Pérez would be cornerstones of the dynasty, while May and Helms would be traded to the Houston Astros after 1971 to obtain Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan, who would help lead the Reds to the NL pennant in 1972 and World Series titles in 1975 and 1976.

Macon was Rose's last minor league address before he launched his Major League career as the 1963 National League Rookie of the Year. He had batted .330 for the 1962 Peaches.^[3]

The Macon Braves were a class-A minor league baseball team associated with the Atlanta Braves and was the transplanted Sumter Braves. The team was known as the Macon Braves from 1991 to 2002.^[4] In 2003, the Macon Braves were moved to Rome, Georgia. The team is now known as the Rome Braves. Luther Williams Field was the home stadium for the Macon Braves. After losing the Macon Braves, Macon was home to an Independent professional team, the Macon Music in the South Coast League, for one season (2007) as well as a different independent league baseball team known as the Macon Pinetoppers (2010) that called Luther Williams Field "home". Many well known major league players came from the Macon Braves, such as Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, Rafael Furcal, Tony Graffanino, John Rocker, John Smoltz, and Marcus Giles.^[5]

An independent league baseball team called the Macon Peaches played in the 21st century Southeastern League in 2003.

• Macon Bacon

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