Phillips pitched for the minor league Atlanta Crackers in the 1950s before the Braves moved to the city. The team played at Ponce de Leon Park, across the street from what is now Ponce City Market.

It was January 1986, and I had just turned nine the previous November. I remember the gray-skied Monday, as we sat in the First Baptist Church in Selma, Alabama, the town in which I grew up.