Baseball in Nashville

“Beezball been berry berry good to me!” is a comical phrase first heard across televisionland on November 11, 1978, in a Saturday Night Live sketch. The outstanding actor Garrett Morris proclaimed the famous words as fictional character Chico Escuela (“Little School”). Through the annals of time, the saying has become a beloved proclamation from fans from one end of the baseball world to the other.

More appropriately, in a unique way, “Baseball has been very, very good to me!” is precisely how I feel. While Escuela was extolling the impact on his life in a whimsical way that has gone from fantasy to legend, it has been the same for me.

Indeed, it’s not whimsical, but honestly, I am blessed by a brotherhood and sisterhood of baseball friends that I could not list even if I tried. Many have welcomed me into their baseball circles, and I am eternally grateful. I remember learning the game from our Dad, and how those experiences opened up a whole new world of friendships and camaraderie.

In my professional career as a sales representative for New Era Cap, I could sit in meetings with representatives from the major sports, including Major and Minor League Baseball, and to especially count Minor League teams in my territory as customers. Those relationships led to the opportunity to attend games by the Birmingham Barons, Memphis Redbirds, Huntsville Stars, Mobile Bay Bears, West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx, Knoxville Smokies, Louisville Bats, Nashville Sounds, and every Tennessee team in the Appalachian League.

Through New Era, opportunities existed to attend Buffalo Bisons games and many Major League games as I traveled through an extended territory. I have seen the St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Phillies, Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, and Boston Red Sox playing in their home ballparks.

As a member of the Old Timers Baseball Association of Nashville, I’ve had the joy of attending our annual banquets where guest speakers, including Hall of Famers, everyday players of special status, announcers, and team owners, have addressed our attendees. These were not just special times, but moments of pure excitement when I could shake hands with baseball stars.

But those were not the best baseball places to visit, the best games I have seen, or where I met my best friends. It is much more than that.

The most significant friendships with my baseball brothers and sisters have come from the stands, banquet tables, conference rooms, ballpark suites, college coaches’ offices, breakfasts and lunches, and, yes, even the concession stand lines. Historians, researchers, and members of the Society for American Baseball Research are instrumental influences along with Birmingham’s Friends of Rickwood and Southern Association Conferences – and I cannot leave out podcast guests.

These are not just casual acquaintances, but deep and meaningful connections that have enriched my life. Once again, I could never list them all, but sometimes I have had a photo with them, and I can share a few of those images with you.

I hope you will agree that I am a blessed man because I have known special people from a life of friendships. Each one has honored me with a hug or handshake or by just allowing me to be in their presence; from the die-hard fan who always sits in the same seat at every game, to the team owner who shared his insights with me, to the young player who looked up to me as a mentor, each person has left a mark on my heart.

I have to mention my wife, Sheila, who says baseball is my other woman. To her, and all others, I claim the blessings that baseball has brought me. Yes, “Baseball has been very, very good to me.” I am deeply grateful for the friendships, the experiences, and the memories that baseball has given me. I hope you can feel the same appreciation for the community and friendships that baseball can bring.

I was reading one of Raymond Johnson’s columns in the Nashville Tennessean from 1949, where he stated that “at least a half dozen of the Nashville Vols go by their nicknames.

These days, nicknames are not unusual, especially if you have an assumed name on one of your social media accounts. You get to be someone you are not, if you so choose, although I believe that is frowned upon and can be a little dangerous, can’t it?

I digress because this came to my mind. When I was a kid, even today, on some of the reruns, my parents and grandparents love “The Carol Burnett Show.” One of the skits was when she said something like, “People call me by my nickname.” When one of the other actors asked, “What is it?”, she replied, “Nick.”

Maybe that’s not exactly how it went, but that’s how I remember it.

I have had folks ask me how I came up with the handle, “Mr.  Sulphur Dell.” I didn’t give it to myself, but I’ll get to that in a bit. But first, let me go back to baseball nicknames.

In his column, Johnson writes “Chief reason is that their parents christened them with names that do not sound athletic. Some of them were tagged by teammates, others by sports writers.”[1]

He mentions Cleston Ray first. No one would have called him “Cleston.” C-l-e-s-t-o-n. It was not even listed that way on some of the rosters, but “Charlie Ray.” However, he was known as “Bama,” and I’ll bet you can guess why.

Yes, he was born in Jemison, Alabama, in 1920. Jemison is between Calera and Clanton, just west of Interstate 65.

Pitcher Pete Mallory was also from Alabama, and although his given name was German, he was, too referred to a “Arab,” as that was the city he was from.

“Bobo” Holloman was from Georgia, but his nickname had nothing to do with where he was from. He had three seasons with Nashville, his best in 1949 when he was 17-10. Manager Larry Gilbert gave him the nickname “Bobo” because the pitcher reminded him of Bobo Newsom, who had a 22-year career in the majors but had three pretty good seasons with Chattanooga and Birmingham.

We are often familiar with some of the great baseball names from days gone by: “Babe,” “Pee Wee,” “Big Six,” “Big Train,” “Hack,” “Dazzy” and “Dizzy,” “Kiki,” “Mule,” “Rube,” – well the list goes on.

There are great names for ball clubs, too. Did you know the Dodgers’ name comes from when the team was in Brooklyn and was named “Trolley Dodgers?” Can you guess why?

In 1921, there was some effort to change the name of the Nashville Volunteers, or Vols, a name associated with the team since sportswriter Grantland declared it. Folks could fill out a form printed in the newspaper and mail it in to Nashville Banner sportswriter J. L. Ray or Nashville Tennessean sports editor Blinkey Horn to run for eight days. Nashville’s manager, Hub Perdue, suggested the effort as he thought “Vols” had become a jinx.

Names submitted were Capitols, Hermits, Old Hickories, Jacksononians, Limbers, Dells Boils, Ain’t-it-Hell-Club, Invincibles, Aces, Bearcats, Tigers, Wampus-Cats, Wizards, Rockies, Liniments, Jags, Hubs (I wonder if Hub Perdue submitted that one), Spokes, Cumberlands, Pioneers, Rebels, Confederates, Rabbits, Tigers, Gamecocks, Vamps, Hellcats, Knockouts, and Eagles.

The list was honed down to five: “Bobcats,” “Bulldogs,” “Hornets,” “Vols,” and “Wildcats.”

Thank goodness none of those won out, and the team continued as “Vols,” perhaps thanks to the fan who wrote in: “Call ‘em Vols, damn a change.”[2]

Which brings me to answering a question someone asked one time:

“Why do you call yourself “Mr. Sulphur Dell?”

Well, I never have but let me explain.

When my book, “Baseball in Nashville,” was first published, I was invited to be on “The Plus Side of Nashville,” a daytime show hosted by Tuwanda Coleman on NewsChannel 5+, to discuss local baseball history.

I was told that if I would like to have a copy of the program, I should bring a VHS tape with me, and I could leave with the audio of the interview.

Waiting in the wings for the first guest to wrap up during a commercial break, Tuwanda pointed to me and asked the young musician if she knew who I was.

“Yes,” she replied, “that’s Mr. Sulphur Dell.”

I had no idea who she was, floored that she knew something about me, but like Grantland Rice’s moniker of “Vols” placed on the Nashville baseball team in 1908, I took “Mr. Sulphur Dell” and ran with it.

That’s my moniker on social media. I am proud of it, and am glad that there is some connection to me and the old ballpark.

My efforts to research and report baseball history have reached a full circle when folks appreciate what I have written about. Most importantly, I hope each one has learned something new.

That is the best tribute to “Mr. Sulphur Dell” I could ever hope for. By the way, you can follow me here:

https://www.facebook.com/mrsulphurdell

https://www.instagram.com/nashville_baseball

https://twitter.com/mrsulphurdell?lang=en

Listen to my weekly Nashville Baseball History podcast episodes here:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1966141

Sources

Nashville Banner

Nashville Tennessean

Newschannel5.com

Newspapers.com

References