Let me tell you about someone from Nashville, a professional player, a pitcher, and a pretty good one, too. Frank George Hahn pitched for Cincinnati between 1899-1905, and the New York Highlanders in 1906. He pitched in 243 games, made 231 star...

I have been curious about why Tom Wilson moved his ballclub when he did. First, to Cleveland in 1931 (renaming them the Cubs), then back to Nashville that same year, then to Columbus and Detroit and back to Nashville in 1935, Washington, D.C. i...

There are many side stories with a Nashville baseball connection. In this episodes, learn about how Boston, Nashville, and Cleveland were connected by a major league team owner who had his eye on a successful minor league manager he wanted to b...

Every once in a while, I am invited to speak to a civic group or in a school classroom about Sulphur Dell and Nashville’s excellent baseball history, including Negro Leagues baseball.When my friends at the Nashville Stars office allowed ...

In January of 1969, Herschel Greer, vice-president of Vols, Inc., the stock corporation that owned the now-defunct Nashville Vols and the property known as Sulphur Dell, announced the ownership group approved a sale to Frederic Gregg, Jr. Gregg...

Many Hall of Famers appeared in Nashville at Sulphur Dell or Tom Wilson Park, either in a regular season game, exhibition game, barnstorming game, or as a manager of one of the ball clubs.In this episode, let me take you to 1905 during a...

An African American a cappella ensemble consisting of students at Fisk University organized in 1871 to tour and raise funds for college. The Fisk Jubilee Singers became famous worldwide.In 1882, a baseball team was formed to become the ...

Jim O’Toole was a Cincinnati Reds” Bonus Baby” and sent to Nashville for 1958 for his first pro season.The Vols did not have a particularly good year, but the left-hander did. At season's end, he led the AA Southern Association in wins ...

I met Bill Greason in October of 2017, when the Friends of Rickwood hosted the inaugural Southern Negro League conference in BIrmingham. He spoke to us in the Rickwood conference room and told his story, then took questions from everyone until ...

In this episode, I discuss quirky plays, oddities, and noteworthy happenings at Sulphur Dell. Some are historic, while others are just plain funny.Listen to more great history from Nashville’s quirky yet famous ballpark!

A few days ago I got a chance to catch up with an old friend in North Carolina. His name is Rooster Narron. I Have known him a long time, but in the not too distant past we took in a few Nashville Sounds games together at Herschel Greer Stadium...

Baseball, as we know it, had its foundations in the 1800s, probably around 1835, a few years before the Mills Commission declared that Abner Doubleday drew out the playing field and wrote a few rules in 1939.How did softball start and h...

Fred Russell, Nashville Banner sportswriter, began a project in 1943 to select a Nashville Vols Hall of Fame. He did not complete the list, but he named a lineup of players through that season and later in 1950.Listen to this e...

Sam Smith, president of the South Atlantic League, was at the 1962 Old Timers banquet. Why, might you ask? Because the Southern Association had folded only five days before, and he was wooing Nashville to come to the SALLY League for 1962.<...

Today I umpired a game in Tennessee Vintage Baseball at Oaklands Mansion in Murfreesboro between the Stones River Scouts and Phoenix of East Nashville. These teams play the “gentleman’s game” (gentle ladies play these days, too) and it is one o...

Henry Kimbro was a stocky speedster who earned his living slap-hitting baseballs between third base and shortstop or into the outfield gaps. He served as the leadoff hitter for the Baltimore Elite Giants for 13 of his 18 seasons in the Negro Le...

Chuck Dressen stuck by his players and taught them to win. He studied them, and he played situational baseball. In Nashville he won over 200 games in parts of four seasons and led the Vols to a fourth-, third-, and two second-place finishes.&nb...

The first ceremonial opening day “first pitch” took place in National Park, later to be named Griffith Stadium, on April 14, 1910, by William Howard Taft, preceding the game between the Philadelphia Athletics and Washington Nationals.It...

Scrolling through online sources for baseball games (whether one word, “baseball,” or two “base ball,” every once in a while I come across something with added interest.I am going to take you back to October of 1868, Saturday, the 3rd, a...

Before Dick Sisler was Nashville Vols manager, his claim to fame was secured several years before as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies.In a previous episode I told about his career and events during his Nashville tenure. But his fea...

Tom Wilson built a ballpark for his Nashville Elite Giants and opened it in time for the 1929 Negro Southern League season. It became an venue for not only baseball, but family gatherings, festivals, and all sorts of events for all people, Blac...

I want to tell you about a great baseball player who came out of the ranks of the Nashville Interscholastic League and made his way to the major leagues for nine seasons and had about as much talent as anyone who came out of Nashville.T...

Even though the Nashville franchise would exist until the demise of the Southern Association after the 1961 season, the handwriting was on the wall. The excitement of a new era of Nashville baseball possibly being ushered in for 1955 seemed fle...

Negro Leaguers statistics for past years have been elevated equal to that of Major League players. Not all years, but in particular, seven leagues for various seasons. No easy task for researchers and historians who have been working on this pr...

This week I wondered about the number of knuckleball pitchers with a Nashville connection.I have seen videos of thrown knuckleballs with little or no rotation, haven’t you? Besides kids in your neighborhood, or having a catch in Little ...