The Nashville Sounds Minor League Baseball team was established in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1978, after Larry Schmittou and a group of investors purchased the rights to operate an expansion franchise of the Double-A Southern League. The Sounds played their home games at Herschel Greer Stadium from its opening in 1978 until the end of the 2014 season. In 2015, the Sounds left Greer for First Tennessee Park, now known as First Horizon Park, a new facility located on the site of the historic Sulphur Dell ballpark, home to Nashville's minor league teams from 1885 to 1963.
The Sounds led all of Minor League Baseball in attendance in their inaugural season and continued to draw the Southern League's largest crowds in each of their seven years as members of the league. On the field, the team won six consecutive second-half division titles from 1979 to 1984 and won the Southern League championship twice: in 1979 as the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds and again in 1982 as the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees.
In an effort to position Nashville to contend for a Major League Baseball franchise in the future, Schmittou and team owners purchased the Triple-A Evansville Triplets of the American Association and relocated the team to Nashville before the 1985 season. The Triple-A Sounds carried on the history of the Double-A team that preceded them. They rarely contended for the American Association championship, making only three appearances in the postseason during their 13 years in the league.
The Sounds became members of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in 1998 following the dissolution of the American Association after the end of the previous season. In 23 years in the league, the team qualified for the playoffs on five occasions. They won their lone Pacific Coast League championship in 2005 as the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. In conjunction with Major League Baseball's reorganization of Minor League Baseball in 2021, Nashville was placed in the Triple-A East, which became the International League in 2022.
Prior professional baseball in Nashville
Nashville has been home to Minor League Baseball teams since the late 19th century. The city's professional baseball history dates back to 1884 with the formation of the Nashville Americans, who were charter members of the original Southern League from 1885 to 1886 and played their home games at Sulphur Spring Park, later renamed Athletic Park and Sulphur Dell. This ballpark was the home of Nashville's minor league teams through 1963. In 1887, Nashville's Southern League team was called the Nashville Blues. The Nashville Tigers competed in the same league from 1893 to 1894. In 1895, the Nashville Seraphs won the city's first professional championship in the Southern League. The Nashville Centennials played in the Central League in 1897 but relocated to Henderson, Kentucky, during the season before the league's collapse.
The city's longest-operating baseball team, first known only as the Nashville Baseball Club and later renamed the Nashville Vols (short for Volunteers, the state nickname), was formed in 1901 as a charter member of the Southern Association. They remained in the league through 1961, winning eight pennants, nine playoff championships, and four Dixie Series titles. The Southern Association disbanded after the 1961 season, and no team was fielded in 1962, but the Vols played one final season in the South Atlantic League in 1963. Sulphur Dell was demolished in 1969, and the city went without a professional baseball team for 14 years until 1978.
Getting a team and building a ballpark
Larry Schmittou, head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores baseball team from 1968 to 1978, was instrumental in bringing professional baseball back to Nashville. He was inspired to get involved with Minor League Baseball when he observed the large crowds the Chattanooga Lookouts drew after owner Walter Reed acquired the Birmingham Barons and relocated the team to Chattanooga in 1976. Schmittou was told by multiple Major League Baseball (MLB) teams that they would be willing to put a minor league affiliate in Nashville if he provided a suitable ballpark.
Schmittou learned from a member of the Metro Board of Parks and Recreation that neither the Parks Board or the city of Nashville would be willing to pay for such a park. So, along with help from country musician Conway Twitty, he put together a group of investors including other country artists Cal Smith and Jerry Reed, as well as other Nashvillians, to finance a stadium and a minor league team. Twenty shares valued at US$15,000 each were issued; Schmittou purchased 2 shares, or 10 percent of the team, and Twitty purchased 4 shares for a 20 percent stake. The Metro Parks Board agreed to lease to Schmittou the site of Nashville's former softball fields on the grounds of Fort Negley, a Civil War fortification, approximately south of downtown, for a period of 20 years as long as he built a stadium with a minimum capacity of 6,500 people at a cost of at least $400,000 within 10 years. In the second ten years, he would be required to pay the city seven percent of the team's total revenue.
Stoll-Reed Architects estimated that construction of a suitable stadium would cost between $300,000 and $500,000, but bids for the project ranged from $980,000 to $1.2 million. Schmittou looked to local suppliers to donate construction materials, took out a $30,000 loan from a bank, sold season tickets in advance of having a team, and even mortgaged his own home to help pay for the facility. The actual cost totaled $1.5 million. The ballpark would be named Herschel Greer Stadium in posthumous honor of Herschel Lynn Greer, a prominent Nashville businessman and president of the Nashville Vols, whose family donated $25,000 for stadium construction.
Having secured a stadium, Schmittou and general manager Farrell Owens attended the 1976 Winter Meetings in hopes of landing a major league affiliate. After sending letters to all 26 farm team directors, the pair received a response from Sheldon "Chief" Bender of the Cincinnati Reds. Bender met with them and agreed to put a team in Nashville provided a stadium was built. Schmittou was then granted a franchise in the Southern League, a class Double-A circuit, at an enfranchisement cost of $7,500.
Fans were invited to submit suggestions for the team's name which would be voted on by a group that included local sportswriters and country musicians. Among the finalists were "Stars", "Notes", "Hits", "Strings", "Kats", "Pickers", and "Vols". The chosen name, "Sounds", was a play on the term "Nashville sound", a subgenre of American country music that traces its roots to the area in the late 1950s. The team's wordmark and color scheme were lifted from the Memphis Sounds of the American Basketball Association (ABA), who used them from 1974 to 1975. When the ABA merged with the National Basketball Association in 1976, some of the copyrights were allowed to lapse, and Nashville's baseball team adopted the abandoned scheme. The color blue was added to Memphis' red and white palette. Nashville's original logo, which was used from 1978 into 1998, and was initially sketched by Schmittou, reflected the city's association with the country music industry. It depicted a mustachioed baseball player, nicknamed "Slugger", who has hit a baseball with an acoustic guitar, a staple of country music, in place of a bat. Further illustrating the city's musical ties was the typeface, with letters that resembled G-clefs, used to display the team name and the cap logo which resembled an eighth note.
Southern League Cincinnati Reds (1978–1979) With a team in place and a stadium under construction, the Nashville Sounds were set to begin play in 1978 as an expansion team of the Southern League. As the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, the Sounds played their first game on April 15, 1978, against the Memphis Chicks at Memphis' Tim McCarver Stadium, which they lost, 4–2. After falling behind in the first inning, 1–0, Nashville tied the game in the third and went ahead, 2–1, in the top of the sixth on first baseman George Weicker's single which scored center fielder Mickey Duval. In the bottom of the inning, however, Memphis answered with three unearned runs off of Sounds starting pitcher Bill Dawley and reliever Larry Rothschild, sealing the Nashville loss. The Sounds recorded their first win the next evening, defeating Memphis, 3–0. Pitchers Bruce Berenyi and Doug Corbett limited the Chicks to just three hits while catcher Mark Miller drove in a run with a third-inning double and later scored on second baseman Randy Davidson's sacrifice fly. The Sounds padded their lead in the fifth inning on outfielder Tony Moretto's RBI double.
Meanwhile, construction on Greer Stadium continued in order to be ready for the home opener. The Sounds had requested to begin the season on the road and had to swap a series with the Chattanooga Lookouts to have enough time to complete the stadium. Much of the sod that had been installed that winter died, and the replacement sod, which arrived late, had to be laid the day before the planned opening game.
The Greer home opener was scheduled to take place the evening of April 25, but was rained out and rescheduled for the next night. On April 26, the Sounds played their first home game, a 12–4 victory against the Savannah Braves in front of a sellout crowd of 8,156 fans. Tractors and grading machines were still preparing the field on game day, the electricity was turned on only 5 minutes before the gates opened, and the game's start was delayed 30 minutes because of traffic problems around the stadium. On the field, Sounds catcher Joe Griffin led the 16-hit Nashville offense with 4 hits of his own and 5 runs batted in while starter Bruce Berenyi got the win and closer Doug Corbett earned a save after he retired the last 11 batters in a row.
The Southern League used a split-season schedule wherein the division winners from each half qualified for the postseason championship playoffs. The Sounds, under manager Chuck Goggin, finished the first half of their inaugural season with a 28–36 record in fourth place out of five teams. This and another fourth-place finish at 36–41 in the second half kept Nashville out of the playoffs. Combining both halves of the season, the Sounds' composite record stood at 64–77 for their first season of play. All-Star pitcher Bruce Berenyi was selected for the league's Most Outstanding Pitcher Award.
The team had more success at the turnstiles than on the field. The Sounds led all of Minor League Baseball in attendance by drawing 380,000 fans to Greer Stadium in their first season. Nashville went on to lead the Southern League in attendance in each of their seven seasons of membership. Schmittou's business philosophy revolved around earning profits not from ticket sales, but from the sale of souvenirs and concessions. This approach also involved promoting family-friendly entertainment rather than baseball games. Through the mid-1980s, the Sounds offered nightly promotions and treated fans to a carnival-like atmosphere between innings. Schmittou and his team developed a promotional calendar that regularly featured giveaways ranging from T-shirts and trading cards to youth baseball equipment and even a player's used 1969 Buick Electra. Other promotions varied from discount ticket nights and buyout nights, where local businesses gave away tickets, to the more unusual "Tight Fittin' Jeans" Contest in which a woman judged to be wearing the tightest blue jeans would win a pair. The franchise was recognized for its promotion efforts when it won the Larry MacPhail Award for outstanding minor league promotions in 1978, 1980, and 1981. Schmittou was chosen for the Southern League Executive of the Year Award and Sporting News Double-A Executive of the Year Award in 1978.