Herschel Greer Stadium
Herschel Greer Stadium was a Minor League Baseball park in Nashville, Tennessee, on the grounds of Fort Negley, an American Civil War fortification, approximately two mi (3.2 km) south of the city's downtown district. The facility closed at the end of the 2014 baseball season and remained deserted for over four years until its demolition in 2019. Following an archaeological survey, the land is expected to be reincorporated into Fort Negley Park.
Full name
Herschel Greer Stadium
534 Chestnut Street
Nashville, Tennessee
United States
10,300 (fixed seating)[4]
15,000 (plus standing room)
22,315 (August 18, 1982; Nashville Sounds vs. Columbus Astros)[5]
Left field: 327 ft (100 m)
Left-center field: 375 ft (114 m)
Center field: 400 ft (120 m)
Right-center field: 375 ft (114 m)
Right field: 327 ft (100 m)[6]
26.1 acres (10.6 ha)[4]
August 26, 1977[1]
April 26, 1978
August 27, 2014
2019
Stoll-Reed Architects
J. B. Regen
Greer was opened in 1978 for the Nashville Sounds, an expansion franchise of the Double-A Southern League who moved to the Triple-A American Association in 1985 and to the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in 1998. The stadium played host to the team until 2014. The subject of numerous upgrades and repairs to maintain its functionality, Greer became one of the oldest stadiums used by a Triple-A team and had fallen well below professional baseball's standards for a stadium at that class level by the end of its use. For over a decade, the Sounds attempted to secure agreements with the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County for a new ballpark to replace Greer, eventually resulting in the construction of First Tennessee Park, which became the Sounds' new home in 2015.
Amidst the Sounds' 37-season run, Greer simultaneously hosted two professional baseball clubs in 1993 and 1994, acting as a temporary home to a displaced Southern League franchise known during that period as the Nashville Xpress. The stadium also saw occasional use as a venue for college baseball, high school football, and charity softball events. It was the site of three minor league all-star games, eight no-hitters, including one perfect game, and a 24-inning game which tied the record for the longest game in Pacific Coast League history. The stadium was best recognized by its distinctive guitar-shaped scoreboard.
History[edit]
Planning and construction (1976–1978)[edit]
Larry Schmittou, the leader of an effort to bring professional baseball back to Nashville in the late 1970s, knew he would need to build a new ballpark as the city's previous ballpark, Sulphur Dell, had been demolished in 1969.[7] He learned from a member of the Metro Board of Parks and Recreation that neither the Parks Board nor the city of Nashville would be willing to pay for such a park.[8] So, Schmittou, along with help from country musician Conway Twitty, 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.[9][10] The Metro Parks Board agreed to lease to Schmittou a plot of land at the foot of St. Cloud Hill on the grounds of Fort Negley, an American Civil War fortification, approximately two mi (3.2 km) south of downtown, for a period of 20 years as long as he built a stadium with a minimum capacity of 6,500 at a cost of at least US$400,000 within 10 years.[11] The city would also relocate the city-owned softball complex that occupied the site.[11] Schmittou would be responsible for building the stadium, paying the property taxes, and paying the city seven percent of the team's total revenue in the second ten years.[11][12]
Stoll-Reed Architects advised Schmittou that construction of a suitable stadium would cost between $300,000 and $500,000,[11][12] but bids for the project ranged from $980,000 to $1.2 million.[11] 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.[12] The actual cost totaled $1.5 million.[13] The stadium was posthumously named for Herschel Lynn Greer, a prominent Nashville businessman and the first president of Vols, Inc., an attempt to keep Nashville's previous minor league baseball team, the Nashville Vols, alive as a fan-owned enterprise, and whose family donated $25,000 for stadium construction.[14]
The home opener for Greer's first tenants, the Southern League's Nashville Sounds, the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, was scheduled for April 25, 1978. Construction was underway, but Schmittou knew the ballpark would not be ready by that date. The team requested to open the season with road games and had to swap a series with the Chattanooga Lookouts in order to have more time to complete the stadium.[12] Even with this extra time, the ballpark was still behind schedule. Much of the sod that been laid that winter died.[15] By the time the replacement grass had arrived, the crew hired to lay the sod had left.[16] General Manager Farrell Owens organized a volunteer crew to lay the sod by calling a local radio station to announce the team was having a "sod party".[16] A group of approximately 50 people came out to lay and roll the sod the day before the scheduled opening game.[16]
Other events[edit]
In 1979 and 1980, Greer Stadium was the home of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) World Series. The Lipscomb Bisons of Nashville's Lipscomb University won the 1979 series, and the Grand Canyon Antelopes of Grand Canyon University won in 1980.[133] Until the 2011 opening of E. S. Rose Park, the Belmont Bruins baseball team played the majority of its seasons at Greer.[134][135]
In the early 1980s, Greer served as the home field for the Father Ryan High School football team.[136] Father Ryan returned to playing at Greer from 2006 through 2008, before moving to a new school athletic complex for the 2009 season.[137] In the football configuration, the field ran along the first base line.[136]
Greer was the site of the City of Hope Celebrity Softball Challenge from 1991 to 2014.[138] Two teams of country music stars participated in the game, from which proceeds went toward the research and treatment of cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Participants included Vince Gill, Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Billy Ray Cyrus, Sara Evans, Montgomery Gentry, and Phil Vassar.[139][140] Through the 2008 event, more than $1.5 million had been raised.[141] In 2015, the game relocated to First Tennessee Park.[142]
From 2001 to 2011, Greer was home to the Jeff Fisher & Friends Charity Softball Game.[143] Then-Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher and players from the team, past and present, competed in order to benefit local charities. Titans participants included Vince Young, Steve McNair, Eddie George, Frank Wycheck, Rob Bironas, and Keith Bulluck, among others.[144] Tomáš Vokoun and head coach Barry Trotz of the National Hockey League's Nashville Predators also took part.[145]
The Oak Ridge Boys, including Sounds' minority shareholder Richard Sterban, were photographed standing in the seats along Greer's left field line for the cover of their 1989 album, American Dreams.[146] In 2002, the music video for Steve Earle's "Some Dreams", a song featured in the motion picture The Rookie, was filmed at Greer. The video, intercut with clips from the film, shows Earle and his band performing the song on the empty ballpark's field.[147]
Specific
General
