Right around the time that the Atlanta Speedway was going belly up, Asa Candler, Jr., pulled a sour grapes move that was worthy of Aesop’s Fables.

When the community no longer showed the level of interest necessary to keep the expensive venture afloat, his interests turned a full pivot and he started leveraging the connections he’d forged through auto racing to enter a new field: athletics.

He’d used the track to get in good with famous drivers like Barney Oldfield, Louis Strang and George Robertson, then banked on his fame accrued from participating in this popular sport to connect with the growing popularity of baseball. In 1909 Georgia native and popular player Ty Cobb participated in the New York to Atlanta Good Roads Tour, which ended with a lap around the newly opened Atlanta Speedway. He was described in the Atlanta Constitution as “the warmest fan at the event,” and he and Buddie bonded over their mutual love of cars. In September of 1910 Buddie came up with an idea to drum up PR for the track by staging a car race between Ty and his fellow Georgia-grown baseball player Nap Rucker.

They were scheduled to compete in three heats, but at the last moment Cobb received a telegraph from the president of the Detroit Baseball Club, warning him not to compete. The race was off. But Buddie and baseball were now an item.

Also in October of 1910 Buddie gave a spin around the track to famed Southern Association baseball manager Charlie Frank. Charlie managed the New Orleans Pelicans at the time and visited the track during a visit to Atlanta. Buddie’s associates lured Mr. Frank onto the track and Buddie gave him a top-speed ride for laughs. Charlie Frank declared him “the worst” and said he would never get in a car with him again. But he rode back into town with Buddie, indicating that his outrage was for show.

And certainly they must have talked baseball. In 1909, the same year the Atlanta Speedway opened, the local baseball team called The Atlanta Crackers won the Southern Association pennant. It was their second in three years, but in 1910 they failed to rank high enough to have a shot at the pennant again. It was a time of high tension in Atlanta, and at the close of the season much talk was made of the current owners, the Georgia Railway and Electric Company.

In September of 1911 Charlie Frank and Buddie put their heads together to discuss the Cracker’s prospects and put forth a proposal to buy the Crackers and put them back on the winning track. The Georgia Railway and Electric company set their selling price at $40k, non-negotiable. Mr. Frank and Buddie estimated that it would take another $25k to recruit the players they needed to fix the team’s prospects, and that made the total investment price too high. Buddie took his money and walked.

But in November of 1915 they made another go at it and succeeded. This time they secured the team and players’ licenses for $38,500, but the team’s home field at Ponce de Leon Park was not included. Mr. Frank took the team to fifth place in 1916 and then won pennants in 1917 and 1919.

In February of 1915 Buddie made another athletics investment, this time in the Atlanta Athletic Club. The club had opened a new clubhouse and golf course and was struggling to make ends meet. Buddie attended a club meeting and offered to use his personal finances to set the organization straight, but only if they adopted his terms. He proposed an overhaul of their bylaws that would redefine their leadership team. He also offered to renegotiate the terms of their mortgage, which was held by his father, Asa Candler, Sr.

The club voted enthusiastically to approve his proposal. He was named president, and he named Preston Arkwright, president of the Georgia Railway and Electric Company (the same ones who owned the Atlanta Crackers) as one of the directors. It becomes easy to see how the path was then cleared for his purchase of the baseball franchise from Georgia Railway and Electric that same year. The change in club directors was the key sticking point in his offer, and may have been part of a backdoor deal by which Arkwright was willing to sell the Crackers for less than his original asking price.

Buddie stayed on as president of the Atlanta Athletic Club until 1917, when he stepped down without challenge or public fanfare. Evidence shows that he remained connected to the club in some way, either socially as a member or as a real estate advisor. His brother-in-law, Henry Heinz, took a turn as club President a few decades later. The Athletic Club was peripherally associated with the Piedmont Driving Club, of which Buddie was also a member. Many of the executives of Atlanta’s biggest moneymaking companies were members of the Athletic Club, including Coca-Cola, Atlanta Steel Hoop Company (Atlantic Steel), Georgia Electric Light Company (Georgia Power) and Industrial Aid Association (Life Insurance Company of Georgia).

In 1924 the Atlanta Athletic Club moved to new headquarters at Carnegie Way and Cone St. It was ornate, ostentatious, opulent, and overflowing with amenities, including telephones in every room. It has all of the hallmarks of an Asa Candler, Jr., real estate venture. It is coincidentally timed with the 1925 Fox Theater construction project, on which Buddie was an advisor. Both projects bear his hallmark, although the degree of his involvement is still subject to speculation.