As best as I can tell, 92 former major league players passed away in 2024, and there are some great names among them, such as Mike Cubbage, Billy Gardner (who played for the Nashville Vols in 1953), Rico Carty, Ed Ott, and Don Wert among them. But quite literally, an All-Star team could be built around some of these names. In this episode, I call o…

You may already know this, but "Donnie Baseball", the "Hit Man", is returning to Nashville for a special night in January. He will be the featured guest at the 87th Annual Old Timers banquet to be held on Sunday evening, January 19th, at the Sheraton Music City Nashville Airport. He will join a long list of notable basball players, coaches, scouts,…

My book was a labor of love for more than one reason. Dedicated to my father, Virgil Nipper, and supported in a special way by my mother, Dorothy, in this episode I talk about how the concept began and the encouragement I received to bring it to fruition! If you wish to purchase a copy: https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/9780738543918/?quer…

Word has come of the passing of one of Nashville’s best all-time pitchers, Bob Kelly. His obituary begins by saying, “Bob went to the diamond in the sky on Wednesday, November 27, 2024, at the age of 97.” Kelly was a dynamic pitcher with the Nashville Vols during two seasons before his career ended in 1958. Kelly led the Southern Association in los…

With the possibility of major league baseball coming to Music City, it begs the question: “where would a team play?” A better question is, who’s going to build it? In this episode, I compare special ballparks built in Nashville while looking forward to the next one! Want to stay in touch? Find me here: Twitter: Skip's Corner Instagram: @skipscorner…

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 starts, had 212 complete games and pitched 25 shutouts. And he was called “Noodles.” He was born on April 29, …

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. in 1936 and 1937, before settling in Baltimore beginning in 1938. In this episode, I refer to Bob Luke's ex…

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 become his manager. Had he achieved his objective, the Nashville Vols’ baseball trajectory might have not 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 me an opportunity to speak to kids, I immediately said, “Yes!” Two fourth-grade teachers, Ms. Plemon and Mr. Fie…

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 was a financier and owner of Lin Broadcasting Group. According to Greer, Gregg paid $255,000 for the land…

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 five-day period when five Hall of Famers appeared here. You might be surprised at one of them! Want to stay in …

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 Fisk University B. B. C. (Base Ball Club), playing other Black college and independent teams. In this episode, le…

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 with 20, complete games with 21, 280 innings pitched, and 189 strikeouts. He became a dependable starter in the m…

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 it was time for him to return to his home in Birmingham. Before he got up to leave, I asked him if I could…

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! Want to stay in touch? Find me here: Twitter: Skip's Corner Instagram: @skipscorner Facebook: Skip Nipper Email me: 262downright…

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. Those visits turned into a writing opportunity for me as I learned Rooster’s dad and an important part h…

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 how did it become so popular? In Nashville, softball leagues once rivaled the number of area baseball leagues, and…

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 episode as I tell about Russell’s choices, then consider helping me complete the Hall of Fame for players through 1962 - I …

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. Birmingham decided to pull its club over the use of Negroes, and the Detroit Tigers, the Barons major league a…

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 of the most rewarding things I have ever done. The rules are different from what we may know, and in this e…

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 Leagues as his 5’ 8”, 175- pound frame could generate quite a punch when he chose. On Saturday, August 10, t…

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. He became a well-loved, no nonsense Nashville manager. In this episode you will hear about the career of Chu…

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 began a tradition by presidents, dignitaries, entertainers, and other special guests before games in the major l…

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, and then fast-forward to an article in the Sunday, July 10, 1927 edition of the Nashville Banner, entitled “C. S.…

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 feat on October 1, 1950, his home run that sealed the National League pennant, broke the spell of expectations for t…

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, Black or White. In this episode, I give background about Tom Wilson's life, including when he demolished his b…

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. That player was Bobby Tillman, a 6’4” right-hander, signed out of Middle Tennessee State College by Red Sox scout,…

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 fleeting, even with a new Vols/Reds affiliation. Were the opening-day rainouts the precursor to the last year…

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 project, it now brings to light the on-the-field efforts of many Black baseball players, as the stats now ch…

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 League practice, how many of them were thrown by someone with a connection to Music City? In this episode, I tell…

Once the Civil War was over, local teams began to flourish in Nashville. These base ball clubs formed the foundation of future teams in the late 19th Century, including the non-professional Nashville Maroons. One of the claims for the earliest teams included a long-time battery, Robert "Lefty" Corbitt and Ed Mrzena, in 1891. I have the photograph t…

Today’s subject is the Chinese University of Hawai‘i and its baseball team – in 1914. I am sure you are wondering what this team has to do with Nashville, and I know you know I always talk about Nashville’s baseball connections. There is one. Vandy’s 1914 baseball schedule listed May 18 and 19 against the “Chinese Team of Hawaii.” Wait a minute. Di…

In a rare occurrence, the pennant-deciding game between Nashville and New Orleans on the last day of the 1908 season was halted in the middle of the seventh inning for a ceremony to honor Nashville’s most popular player: Doc Wiseman. He was awarded a gold pocket watch for eight years playing with the local team. It was inscribed with the following:…

Sulphur Dell was not just a baseball venue. Concerts by Tex Ritter, Jackie Wilson, and James Brown were held at what was Nashville's event center. Dick Clark’s Cavalcade of Stars, Esther Williams’ Water Follies, and the Shrine Circus drew large crowds, and barn-storming baseball exhibitions were held at the memorable ballpark before its demise. In …

I wrote a story this past week about Jeff Peeples, one of the most dominating athletes ever from Nashville. If you would like to read it, you can find it at baseballinnashville.com. In writing that story it brought back memories I have of playing as a 15-year-old in the Nashville Babe Ruth League. Today, I can look back on that season as a special …

In what must be one of baseball’s most productive offensive games ever in Sulphur Dell, Chattanooga outlasted Nashville, 24-17, in the second game of a doubleheader on Wednesday, June 12, 1946. Nashville won the first game that day by a score of 4-3, but the nightcap was one for the record books. Listen as I tell about this and other high-scoring g…

Have you ever wondered what ballplayers did during the off-season back in the day when salaries were not exorbitant like they are now? What did Nashville Vols do in the offseason? In this episode, hear how players would be spending their winter once the 1952 Southern Association season ended! Want to stay in touch? Find me here: Twitter: Skip's Cor…

Hugh Hill was born on July 21, 1879, in Ringgold, Georgia, and signed with Newt Fisher’s 1901 Nashville baseball club in the inaugural season of the Southern Association. As a pitcher, he won six games while losing five, playing in 51 games because he was also an outfielder. The ball club won the pennant that season, and when 1902 rolled around, Fi…

Today, April 1st, marks a day of notoriety all its own. I have heard of pranks on April Fool’s Day that run the gamut, and if you have had fun with it, been the butt of a joke, or if you have made a family member mad, it is a fun day in most cases. Unless it is taken to an extreme, which I do not forgive. Some are funny. Others? Not so much. Baseba…

It was going to be the trip of a lifetime, and boy, was I excited about it. For most of my life, I had dreamed of visiting Cooperstown, and finally, it was going to happen. In this episode, I tell about a special visit that rivals two spring training trips, MLB World Series and All-Star games, and the birth of all four of my children. Well, maybe n…

Tennessean sports editor Dave Ammenheuser coordinated a spring training trip in 2016, and I tagged along with high school teammate Bart Leathers and everyone’s “Mr. Nashville Baseball”, Farrell Owens (both deceased). Dave has moved on to various assignments, but eight years later, here we are to talk about that great six-games-in-five days “immacul…

Betty-Jane Taylor and I have known each other through her husband Larry, who not only played for the Nashville Vols, but was basketball and baseball coach at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Larry passed away not quite two years ago, on April 21, 2022, at the age of 91. He was a good baseball friend and loyal member of the Nashville Old Timers Baseb…

Tony Rankin loves the game of baseball as much as anybody, both as an autograph collector and with a passion for its purpose. A clinical therapist, speaker, and author, in this Skip’s Corner episode Tony explains how we like to remember things that take us back to a fun place in life that we don’t necessarily have today when he says: “Baseball is t…

As we bring Black History Month to an end, I want you to know about a special player with a special talent. Ray Dandridge never had the chance to play in the majors, but the record shows he was clearly one of the greatest third basemen of all time. And, he had a brief connection to Nashville baseball. Elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame i…

If you have never been to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, it is worth a few hours of your time. It honors athletes, teams, coaches, sportswriters, and sports executives for their contributions to sports in our state. In celebraton of Black History Month, it is important to highlight inductees who played Negro Leagues baseball, and to call attent…

Clinton “Butch” McCord was destined to be one of baseball’s greatest players. The color of one’s skin was a factor in many baseball careers throughout the United States, and Butch ran into many roadblocks along the way, too. But never did he let them get him down. I have spoken about Butch many times, but never have I made him the subject of an ent…

Michael Thurmon was one of the organizers of the Tennessee Vintage Base Ball Association. His love for history led him to study early base ball, as it was played in the middle of the 19th Century. Today, he has taken his love for The Game to coach a team of youngsters who he teaches baseball skills, but he goes a step further, too: He teaches him a…

You are really going to enjoy this Nashville Baseball History podcast episode. Joey Hale, who coached the Southeast regional team from Goodlettsville to the 2012 Little League United States Championship, is my guest. He describes the journey to Williamsport and tells about each player. His passion for baseball and teaching youngsters the game is ev…

Nashville’s reading public who relied on the written word from the newspapers, the morning Nashville Tennessean and evening Nashville Banner (the Banner is long gone and the Tennessean is no longer the up-to-date version, through no fault of its own) knew they could trust the writers to deliver the best coverage, the best detailed account of a game…

When the Nashville Baseball Club needed a manager to bring the team out of the Southern Association cellar, Bill Bernhard was just the man to do it. With nine seasons of major league experience, and nearly Cleveland's big league manager, Bernhard immediately made an impact. The man known for his genteel demeanor, he learned his craft from Hall of F…