History of professional baseball in Nashville, Tennessee

[1] On October 6, 1884, local investors met to establish the city's first professional baseball team, the Nashville Americans.

[4] After losing nearly US$18,000, the team's directors chose to cut their losses and withdraw from the circuit some two months before the season's end.

[4] The Tigers faced similar financial difficulties and surrendered the franchise to the league, which continued to operate it for the last three weeks of the season.

[11] Despite winning the city's first professional baseball title, the Seraphs declined to participate in 1896 when another of the league's club refused to put up its monetary guarantee to finish the season.

[4] Financial problems necessitated the team's transfer to Henderson, Kentucky, just over a month into the season,[13][14] and the league collapsed shortly thereafter.

[4] That changed in 1978 when Larry Schmittou and a group of investors purchased the rights to operate an expansion franchise of the Double-A Southern League called the Nashville Sounds.

[4][27] The Sounds played their home games at Herschel Greer Stadium, a new ballpark located on the grounds of Fort Negley.

[30] 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.

[41] Larry Schmittou, president of the Triple-A Nashville club, offered to let the displaced team play at Greer Stadium until a permanent home could be found.

[2] On October 10, President Henry Lucas came to Nashville to meet with the team's directors and survey the prospect of major league baseball in the city.

[2] That afternoon at the Nashville Fairgrounds, the Americans played their first exhibition game against one of the association's top teams, the Cincinnati Outlaw Reds.

[60][61] With the possibility of Union Association membership looking dim, the Americans opted instead to join the newly organized Southern League in 1885.

[63] In November 1985, a delegation from Nashville was one of 12 groups to make presentations to MLB owners and commissioner Peter Ueberroth regarding the viability of expansion in their cities.

[64] The delegation, which included Schmittou, Governor Lamar Alexander, and Mayor Richard Fulton, were encouraged with their reception but were concerned that people may not know Nashville well enough to make it a strong contender.

[64] The Governor's Commission on Major League Baseball entrusted Schmittou and other Sounds owners, including country musicians Conway Twitty, Larry Gatlin, Richard Sterban, Jerry Reed, and Cal Smith, with ownership of a potential franchise and responsibility for the financial requirement set forth by the expansion committee.

[71] Along with the submission of a 120-page proposal, the committee was shown a video narrated by Country Music Hall of Fame member Eddy Arnold, which extolled the suitability of Nashville for a major league team.

[74] After the failed 1993 expansion bid, Schmittou felt that the lack of a major league stadium significantly hurt Nashville's MLB viability.

[79] In January 2019, businessman John Loar announced plans to spearhead the next attempt at bringing an MLB expansion franchise to Nashville.

[81] The group includes Loar,[81] former United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,[81] Vanderbilt Commodores baseball head coach Tim Corbin,[81] retired MLB pitcher Dave Stewart,[81] manager Tony La Russa,[81] executive Dave Dombrowski,[82] musicians Justin Timberlake and Darius Rucker,[83][84] and former Tennessee Titan Eddie George.

[87] Music City Baseball is considering the campus of Tennessee State University in West Nashville as a potential stadium location.

[89] The group entered into a licensing agreement with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, which includes revenue sharing, a potential physical location in their ballpark, and the rights to use the Stars' name and related photographs and artifacts.

A green baseball field surrounded by its brown shale warning track and blue seats viewed from the concourse by the yellow left field foul pole on a sunny afternoon
First Horizon Park , located at the site of the historic Sulphur Dell ballpark, has been home to the Nashville Sounds since 2015.
A sepia photograph of twelve men arranged in two rows, standing and sitting. Ten are wearing light baseball uniforms with dark socks, while two are dressed in suits.
The Nashville Americans (1885) were the city's first professional baseball team.
A black and white photograph of seventeen men arranged in three rows. Most are wearing white uniforms with a dark "N" on the chests, but two are wearing dark suits.
The Nashville Vols (1908), won eight Southern Association pennants , nine playoff championships , and four Dixie Series titles over 62 seasons from 1901 to 1963.
A green baseball field illuminated for a night game
The Nashville Sounds played at Greer Stadium for 37 seasons from 1978 to 2014 before moving into a new ballpark .
A black and white photograph of a ballpark's grandstand filled with people during a baseball game.
Nashville's Negro league teams played at Sulphur Dell in addition to other parks.
A black and white portrait of a smiling man wearing a suit and tie
Larry Schmittou led Nashville's bid for a Major League Baseball team in the 1993 expansion .
Brick buildings set behind a green lawn with parking lot
A proposed MLB ballpark could be built on the campus of Tennessee State University in West Nashville.