The Nashville Vols were a Minor League Baseball team that played in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1901 to 1963. Known as the Nashville Baseball Club during their first seven seasons, they became the Nashville Volunteers (regularly shortened to Vols) in 1908 in reference to Tennessee's nickname, "The Volunteer State" (a name now mostly associated with the University of Tennessee). The Vols played their home games at Athletic Park, which had been home to the city's professional baseball teams since 1885 and was renamed Sulphur Dell in 1908.
The Nashville club was formed as a charter member of the Southern Association in 1901 and remained in the league until it disbanded after the 1961 season. The circuit operated at several classifications: Class B (1901), Class A (1902–1935), Class A1 (1936–1945), and Double-A (1946–1961). Over 61 seasons in the Southern Association, the Vols won eight league pennants, nine playoff championships, and four Dixie Series titles. The team sat out the 1962 season, primarily due to the league's collapse, but returned for a final campaign in the Double-A South Atlantic League in 1963 before ceasing operations altogether.
During 35 seasons, Nashville was not affiliated with any Major League Baseball team. Across 27 seasons, they served as a farm club for six major league franchises: the New York Giants (1934–1935, 1952–1954), Cincinnati Reds (1936–1937, 1955–1960), Brooklyn Dodgers (1938–1940), Chicago Cubs (1943–1951), Minnesota Twins (1961), and Los Angeles Angels (1963). A total of 28 managers led the club and its more than 1,200 players. Over 62 seasons, the Vols played 9,015 regular-season games and compiled a win–loss record of 4,569–4,446 (.507). They qualified for postseason playoffs on 16 occasions in which they had a record of 108–74–1 (.593). Combining all 9,198 regular-season and postseason games, Nashville's all-time record was 4,677–4,520–1 (.509).
History 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. The ballpark was located just north of the Tennessee State Capitol in downtown Nashville on the block bounded by modern-day Junior Gilliam Way, Fourth Avenue North, Harrison Street, and Fifth Avenue North. It 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.
Early days (1901–1907)
Following a three-year absence from professional baseball, the sport returned to Nashville in 1901. On December 15, 1900, baseball leaders from across the South met in Atlanta, Georgia, to establish the Class B Southern Association (sometimes referred to as the Southern League). A franchise was granted to Nashville's representative, Newt Fisher, who would be the team's first manager. The Nashville Baseball Club, as they would not become known as the Nashville Volunteers until 1908, played their home games at Athletic Park, which also gained its Sulphur Dell moniker in 1908.
The team began the regular-season on May 2, 1901, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, at Stanton Field with a 15–14 win over the Chattanooga Lookouts in 10 innings. In the bottom of the tenth with the score tied, 14–14, Nashville's Doc Wiseman drew a walk, stole second base, and came home to score the winning run on Andy O'Connell's hit to right field. The Nashvilles won the next two games in Chattanooga before playing their home opener at Athletic Park on May 6. With over 2,000 spectators in attendance, Nashville lost their inaugural home game versus Chattanooga, 9–7, in 10 innings. They recorded their first home victory the next day, defeating Chattanooga, 4–0, behind the pitching of War Sanders, who allowed only three hits in the complete game shutout. At the conclusion of the season, Nashville stood in first place with the Little Rock Travelers a close second. Following a dispute between the two teams in which each claimed to be the rightful pennant winners, the league's board of directors awarded the first Southern Association pennant to Nashville with a win–loss record of 78–45, one game ahead of Little Rock.
In 1902, the Southern Association was elevated to Class A status. On July 9, Nashville's Bill Dammann pitched the club's first no-hitter against the visiting Shreveport Giants at Athletic Park. The game was called due to rain in the fifth inning with Nashville leading, 8–0. Fisher led the 1902 team to win a second pennant with an 80–40 season, placing six games ahead of the second-place New Orleans Pelicans. From 1903 to 1907, the Nashvilles had losing seasons in all but the 1904 campaign. During this stretch, they posted their all-time lowest winning percentage in 1906, when they went 45–92 (.328).
Becoming the Volunteers (1908) In 1908, Nashville American sportswriter Grantland Rice held a contest to name the team. The public was invited to mail-in votes for one of three monikers: the "Limerocks" (from the abundance of limestone in and around Nashville), the "Rocks" (a shorter version of "Limerocks" and a reference to Nashville being called "The Rock City"), and the "Volunteers" (from the state's nickname, "The Volunteer State"). The winner and new official team name was Volunteers, though this was and is often shortened to Vols. Rice also gave Nashville's Athletic Park a new name: Sulphur Dell, a reference to the location's earlier name of Sulphur Springs Bottom due to the presence of an underground sulphur spring at the site.
Nashville's John Duggan tossed the team's second no-hitter on September 10, 1908, in a 1–0 home win over Little Rock. The Vols, under manager Bill Bernhard, entered the final day of the season with the pennant on the line. The championship was to be decided by the last game of the season between Nashville and New Orleans at Sulphur Dell. Both teams had 56 losses, but the Pelicans were in first-place with 76 wins to the Vols' second-place 74. Some 12,000 spectators witnessed Vols pitcher Carl Sitton hurl a three-hit, 1–0 shutout, giving Nashville their third Southern Association pennant with a 75–56 record. Their lone run came in the seventh inning when Doc Wiseman drove in Ed Hurlburt from third base with a sharply-hit bouncer over the second baseman. Rice called it "the greatest game ever played in Dixie." One account recalls, "By one run, by one point, Nashville has won the Southern League pennant, nosing New Orleans out literally by an eyelash. Saturday's game, which was the deciding one, between Nashville and New Orleans was the greatest exhibition of the national game ever seen in the South and the finish in the league race probably sets a record in baseball history."
1909–1933
On August 31, 1909, Vols pitcher Charlie Case threw a 1–0 no-hitter on the road against New Orleans at Pelican Park. The team finished the season in second place, five-and-a-half games behind the pennant-winning Atlanta Crackers. From 1910 through 1915, Nashville finished no higher than fourth and had winning records only in 1911 and 1914.
Tom Rogers pitched a perfect game against Chattanooga on July 11, 1916, at Sulphur Dell. He retired all 27 batters in the 2–0 victory—the first perfect game in the Southern Association and the only perfect game in the Volunteers' history. Under the leadership of manager Roy Ellam, the Vols captured their fourth league pennant with an 84–54 record, nine games ahead of second-place New Orleans. Nashville closed out the 1910s by placing fifth at 77–73 in 1917 and incurring losing records in the next two campaigns.
On July 25, 1920, Zeke Lohman tossed a 6–0 no-hit game against Atlanta in the second game of a seven-inning doubleheader in Nashville. The Vols posted an even number of winning and losing seasons in the 1920s. The closest they came to hoisting pennants were in 1925, when they placed third at 81–72, five-and-a-half games behind Atlanta, and in 1929, when they wound up in second place at 90–63, three games behind the Birmingham Barons. Conversely, Nashville finished seventh at 62–90 in 1921, forty-one-and-a-half games behind the Memphis Chickasaws, and seventh in 1922 at 59–96, forty games behind the Mobile Bears. In 1928, the Southern Association tried out a split-season schedule wherein the winners from each half qualified for postseason championship playoffs, but Nashville did not win either half.
Nashville started the 1930s with three losing seasons in a row. The 1931 team incurred a franchise-high 102 losses. That season, the Vols played their first night game at Sulphur Dell on May 18 in front of an estimated 7,000 people. The home team lost to the Mobile Marines, 8–1. This was not the first night game to be played in Nashville. The Nashville Tigers of the original Southern League competed in a night game thirty-seven years earlier on July 6, 1894. It was, however, the city's first official night game, as the Tigers' game was contested as a novelty exhibition. The 1933 Volunteers turned in their first winning record in four seasons. That year, the league utilized a split-season schedule, but Nashville did not capture either half's pennant.
New York Giants (1934–1935)
The Vols became the Class A affiliate of the National League's New York Giants in 1934. Chuck Dressen managed the team to win the first-half of the season with a 46–26 mark, six games ahead of New Orleans. After being hired to lead the Cincinnati Reds in late July, he was replaced by Vols outfielder Lance Richbourg. Following the conclusion of the regular-season, they met New Orleans, winners of the second-half, in a best-of-five-games series to determine the Southern Association champion but were defeated by New Orleans, 3–2.
The circuit abandoned the split-season format in 1935 and instead adopted the Shaughnessy playoff system in which the top four teams at the end of the season participated in a tournament to determine a champion. The 1935 Vols began the season with Frank Brazill at the helm, but he was dismissed in early June and replaced by Johnny Butler. The team qualified for the playoffs with an 82–69 record, placing fourth, but they were eliminated in the first round by Atlanta, 3–0–1. Perceiving the affiliation with New York to benefit the Giants more than the Volunteers, Nashville discontinued its working agreement after the season.
Cincinnati Reds (1936–1937)
Nashville entered into a new affiliation with the National League's Cincinnati Reds in 1936, enticed by their larger roster of younger players who could help the Vols. The Southern Association was also elevated to Class A1 status at this time. With Lance Richbourg returning to manage in 1936, the Vols posted an 86–65 record, good for second place and postseason berth. After losing the first game of the first round, Nashville won two-in-a-row to take control of the series, but two consecutive losses to Birmingham resulted in a 3–2 elimination. The 1937 team finished fifth, missing the playoffs. The affiliation with Cincinnati came to an end after these two seasons.
Brooklyn Dodgers (1938–1940)