A new Nashville ballpark in 2015 is finally a reality. The Nashville Sounds have moved into their new downtown ballpark after 37 years at Herschel Greer Stadium. To add to that history, First Tennessee Park is located on part of the Sulphur Dell ballpark, former home of the Nashville Vols that was demolished in 1969.

One person who would have been pleased of professional baseball being revived downtown is the late Nashville Banner sportswriter George Leonard. For a lengthy time, Leonard covered the Vols while enjoying train and bus rides with the club as they traveled to road games throughout the South. He was a fixture in the press box in Sulphur Dell.

Leonard was born in Lincoln, Neb. and attended the University of Nebraska and Northwestern University, until finally graduating from the University of Alabama in 1936. During World War II, he became an officer in the U.S. Navy then later became a sportswriter for the Nashville Banner until his retirement in 1981. He died in 2001 at age 86.

Leonard was a correspondent for The Sports Editor News and wrote for the Saturday Evening Post and Sports Illustrated. He won several awards and was even named National Sportswriter of the Year in 1968. Leonard served as president of the Nashville Old Timers Club and was recognized for 25 years of service in that organization. In addition to writing about sports, Leonard coached youth league baseball in Nashville. After leaving the Banner, he would become the Senior Editor at Athlon Sports, retiring after 17 years.

I was very fortunate to have known George in the mid-1990s when I worked for Athlon. George introduced me to Nashville Vols baseball and Sulphur Dell when he gave me a copy of the booklet he co-wrote with Fred Russell, "Vol Feats, 1901-1950." The booklet gives a brief history of the Southern Association member Vols ball club that folded after the 1963 season.

It was appropriate when the Nashville Sounds arrived in the city in 1978 that George was asked to write Nashville Vols highlights for their inaugural program. I feel somewhat honored continuing his passion for researching and writing about Nashville baseball history.

Longtime Athlon managing editor, Charlie Miller had this recollection of George,     

"There was an assistant editor who was a little brash, shall we say, talking loudly about the time his father took him to Yankee Stadium where he watched Mickey Mantle hit a home run. Very quietly, in his own way, George kept his eyes on his typewriter and said, 'The first time my father took me to Yankee Stadium, Lou Gehrig hit a home run.'

"It was not possible to outdo George with his sports stories. Very few tried, but were futile. I also remember George, who was in his mid-to-late 70s at the time, demonstrating Walter Johnson's pitching motion to me. At a company softball game, George showed up with a glove from the 1920s. No webbing just thumb and fingers. George was a mentor to me and a true icon. I love talking about him."

It is certainly true that nobody could outdo George when it came to talking about sports experiences. I had fun at Athlon sending the baseball magazine to former presidents hoping for a response and a signed letter. One day I went into George's office to proudly show him the hand-written note signed to me from President George H. W. Bush.

George glanced at the note and said, "One time I was in the Oval Office with President (Harry) Truman and some other sportswriters when he signed something for me. I don't know what happened to that signature."

Tennessee Sports Writers Association's Hall of Fame member Joe Biddle had a desk next to George when they both worked at the Banner.

"I got to the Banner shortly before George retired," Biddle said. "We rented a condo from him when we first moved to Nashville. He was a great guy, but overly quiet. Story was that George and another sportswriter drove to Knoxville to cover Vols football game. The guy decided to not say a word to George on the way back home. When they got to George's house, George got out of the car and said, 'See you Monday.'"

This column by Leonard appeared in a May 1958 Nashville Banner edition.

Creatures Of Superstition

 "Baseball is a game of superstition," Dick Sisler once said. The subject-you guessed it-was the superstitious practices of ball players.

They have been influenced, as players, by a belief in supernatural agents since a fine sugar tree bat was awarded to the winner of an ancient game at Sulphur Dell in 1866. Possibly even before that.

"Sure, I've got superstitions," Nashville manager Sisler admitted, "I've had a million of them. They're silly. But you do funny little things because you don't want to take a chance on changing your luck. Or maybe you do something differently than you've been doing to try and change your luck. It all depends on how you're going."

In some cases, superstitions repeated often enough lose their significance. They become nothing more than mere habits, such as Robin Roberts' custom of tugging on the right leg of his pants below the knee before each pitch.

Sisler's Routine

"Say we win a ball game handily or I have a good night at the bat," Sisler continued. "I'll drive to the park by the same route the next night. Maybe I'll wear the same pants or shoes.

"Then again, I'll suddenly change whatever superstitious routine I may be going through at the moment just to see what happens. One thing I never fail to do-and I doubt anybody has ever noticed it. When I go up to hit, I always grab the heavy red bat with the lead weights and swing it with the one I'm going to use. I loosen up with my own lighter bat under the big one if the pitcher is a right-hander and over it if he's a left-hander.

"I've played on a club or two where the manager really chewed you out if you don't take your same seat in the dugout. I don't think my players will tell you I'm any stickler for superstitions, though."

Hairpin Is A Rare Luck Piece

Superstitions among players have been, and are, almost as colorful, numerous and varied as nicknames.

When he went out to his position, Hugh Critz, the old Cincinnati and New York Giants' second baseman, never failed to pick up opposing second baseman's glove and toss it a few feet where it had been dropped. This, of course, was before rule-makers made everybody carry his glove to the dugout between innings. (Incidentally, I liked the sight of those gloves scattered around the field.)

Russ Meyer raised the dickens if anybody moved his glove after he placed it on the dugout bench. Bobo Newsom to the end of his long career traced a short double line with his fingers parallel to the foul line on his way to the mound. Only time Bobo skipped the procedure was when he had to be taken out.

Johnny Mihalic, the peerless second baseman, went through a lot of motions, touching his left shoulder with his right hand, then his right shoulder with his left hand and finally hitching up his pants with both hands-and before each pitch.

Eddie Lewis, the Nashvillian who played the outfield for the Vols, Chattanooga and Atlanta, would turn around before every pitch, sort of a double about face.

One of the most particular rituals is performed prior to each pitch by Lou Skizas. Extremely nervous, he goes through more movements than an Egyptian belly dancer. He occasionally kisses his bat, waggles his club, carefully wipes it off between his legs. Touches his cap, hitches his pants and stuffs his right hand in his back pocket-"just for luck," he says. Some maintain he touches a crucifix in his pocket.

Ducky Medwick would always step on the base nearest the dugout and kick it with his other foot, coming in from the outfield. Go out of his way to do it.

It used to be that a hairpin found by a player during the day was certain to bring base hits-or, if a pitcher, a sure win. It is possible that this superstition lost its worth when the wives left hairpins too frequently in easy-to-find places.  

How The Vols Feel

Not all players are superstitious. It's about half and half. Buddy Gilbert of the Vols put it this way for the non-conformists: "You get your hits by proper timing, level swing and all that, not because you wore an old sock with a hole in it. Things like that just don't help." Larry Taylor, Vic Comolli, Haven Schmidt, George Schmees and Jim Fridley quite agree. Among the pitchers, Ken Hommel, Jay Hook, Jim Sprankle and Jim Bailey do not indulge.

Bobby Durnbaugh says, "I step on third when I go to our dugout. I just wouldn't feel right if I didn't do it."

Jim Ludtka, plagued by an extended slump, confesses he's freely experimenting with superstitious devices. Tommy Brown makes two crosses in the dirt with his bat before he hits. Chuck Coles spits (or if that's too horrid: expectorates) in his hands, then goes for dirt always before hitting.

Gene Hayden says, "It's all in your head, this business of superstitions. But I might try wearing one blue sock and one green next time I pitch." (He's lost three straight). Darrell Martin wears different shoes and a different sweatshirt on days he knows he's going to pitch. Jim O'Toole delayed getting a haircut until after Friday night's game saying, "I won Monday. Didn't want to take any unnecessary risk last night."

Closing Thoughts

Buddy Gilbert played for the Nashville Vols in 1958-59, 1961. "George Leonard was a true gentleman," said Gilbert. "I never read anything in the paper where he ostracized one of the ball players or criticized them. He was very approachable and would never run you down or make you look bad. That's where he differed from other sportswriters. They might take a jab at you with an innuendo, but all the ball players loved George. George was our favorite sportswriter."

Jim Maloney pitched for the Vols in 1960 and said, "The only thing I can say about George is he never had anything bad to say about anyone. Of all the sportswriters I was around in my career, George Leonard always stood out. The Nashville Banner was so fortunate to have such a great sports writer on their staff."

This will be my 12^th year writing Nashville baseball history for the Nashville Sounds. This year's "Looking Back" will be devoted to historic games, events and teams that played in Sulphur Dell and the Nashville Vols. Stories will be told of the earliest baseball history in Nashville (pre-1900) and interviews with former Nashville Vols' players.  

I have interviewed several former Nashville Vols players each having respect for George who became their friend. And usually the first question they asked me in the interview was, "Whatever happened to George Leonard?"

If you have any comments or suggestion contact Bill Traughber via email [email protected]