Schley County GaArchives Photo Group.....Ellaville 1904-05 Baseball Team 1904
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Harris Hill harrishilol@starband.net January 31, 2006, 1:43 am

Source:             The Ellaville Sun  Friday, December 31, 1937
Photo can be seen at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/schley/photos/ellavill305nph.jpg
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OLDSTERS RANK '04-'05 "9" AS TOPS OF BASEBALL TEAMS

Baseball, recognized as the nations pastime, came early to Ellaville and had a 
glamorous heyday.

Verbal records alone are left to tell the story, but it is well established 
the town was represented by many fine teams; and that the populace literally 
went mad over supporting them.

And, the old timers contend, of all the clubs which took the diamond, the nine 
of 1904-04 was perhaps the best.

Just how many games the team won is not known, but they seldom dropped a 
decision.  Fans of that era testify it possessed the prime requisites of a 
great ball club, it was a great hitting outfit and boasted a jam-up defense.

For The Fun Of It
Those were the days of unspoiled sport.  The boys played because they liked 
the game.  All of them were country boys and their practice sessions were 
limited to Saturday afternoons.  Few games were scheduled before the "lay-by" 
time but after the farm work became light the locals took part in a heavy 
program, playing several contests a week.  Ellaville took on all comers which 
were in the range of the limited transportation facilities of the day.  Buena 
Vista, Talbotton, Americus, Englishville, Tazewell and other nearby towns and 
communities engaged.

It Was Sportdom's Golden Era
Everybody attended the games.  And when the team invaded Buena Vista the 
railroad was forced to add a second passenger coach to accommodate the 
supporters.  The train left during the early morning and returned during the 
late afternoon.

The outfit of 1904-05 is credited with compiling one of the largest scores 
ever registered in a so-called baseball game.  Ellaville produced 72 runs in 
an all-afternoon run-making orgy with Concord.

Bob Perry was the top distance hitter on the club, and is rated the hardest 
slugger of all time here.

There was a very distinctive age range on that club.  Lon Tison, a crafty 
pitcher, was just starting out his career while Edgar Morrison was rounding 
out 16 years of playing.

These boys were something more than teammates:  they were fine friends.  And 
they made a pledge to serve as pallbearers when a fellow player should die.  
Three---Walter Barrow, Earnest Sanders and Bob Perry---have gone on, and the 
promise has been (print missing)

Tison resides in Jacksonville, Fla.; Rainey moved to Texas and became a 
Baptist minister; Morrison is Schley County tax collector; Wall is chairman of 
the Schley County Board of Commissioners of Roads and Revenues; Murphy is a 
traveling salesman and occasionally passes through Ellaville; Mac Rainey is 
superintendent of schools for Dekalb County and Tondee is one of Schley 
County's best known farmers.

Years passed and the horseless carriage eliminated the transportation 
problem.  Several teams played heavy schedules, made great records and won the 
interest of the public.

On rainey winter afternoons oldsters hark back to faint legends of the cradle 
days of baseball.  The days when they could call for a "high ball" or a "low 
ball."  When they had no excuse for equipment and the catcher placed a slab of 
raw meat in the palm of his hand to prevent blistering.  Little is known of 
the players of the 70's and 80's but tradition claims the crack pitcher of 
them all, Buck Dixon, could hurl a ball through a knot hole at regulation 
distance (and) that the late Tom Tondee was one of the better players.
 

Additional Comments:
CAPTION UNDER PHOTO
Here Tey Are--Ellaville's baseballers of 1904!  Front row:  L-R Lon Tison, 
pitcher; Walter barrow, catcher; Mac Rainey, left field; "Dub" Rainey, center 
field; Edgar Morrison, first base; Clate Wall, shortstop.  Back row, Earnest 
Sanders, third base; C.A. Murphy, manager; Bob Perry, second base; Hill 
Tondee.  Barrow, Sanders and Perry are dead

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