Ed Lafitte Photograph

At the turn of the century, baseball was the nation's most popular sport, in terms of revenue and attendance. Georgia Tech first fielded a baseball team in 1895. Without a field on campus, the team had to take a trolley car to Brisbine Park to practice for the first several years. They also played at Piedmont Park, Tech Park, and Grant Field. Not until 1930 did the team have its own playing field - Rose Bowl Field.

In 1904, Georgia Tech hired John Heisman to coach the football and baseball teams. Both sports teams immediately posted their first winning seasons. The 1906 season was uneventful, although the team posted a championship season. In 1907, the team won both the pennant awarded by the Atlanta Journal and the state championship. However, several controversies marred the team. Two games were contested. Georgia Tech lodged a formal protest over an alleged erroneous umpire decision in a game against Mercer University. Georgia Tech lobbied successfully for the game to be thrown out.

The second incident involved a game with the University of Georgia (UGA). In the first game of a two-game series near the end of the season, UGA vehemently protested a call by the umpire. The Athletic Director at UGA accused the umpire of fraud and refused to play the second game on the following day unless the first game was thrown out or replayed. Georgia Tech was willing to submit the game to a panel review, but UGA refused to agree to that solution. Consequently, the teams never played the second game. Because of this squabble, Tech and UGA did not compete in athletic events for the following two years.

Ed Lafitte was a member of the Georgia Tech baseball team in 1906-1907.