Looking Back: Vols and Sounds Attendance Records

  Attendance records are important to a baseball club. The numbers can determine its survival. Throughout baseball history, teams have folded or moved to other cities due to poor attendance figures. The Nashville Vols fielded a team beginning in 1901 in the Southern Association. The league and the Vols would disband in 1961 due to years of declining attendance.
   The Vols would miss the 1962 season, but remerge the next year as members of the Sally League. That lasted for one season. Eventually the Sulphur Dell ballpark would be demolished in 1969.
   When the Nashville Sounds began operations in 1978, they led all of minor league baseball in attendance that first year. With the new ballpark in 2015, First Tennessee Park has attracted more fans than the last years of Herschel Greer Stadium. These are the high and low attendance records for both the Vols and Sounds.
   On April 12, 1932, the Vols set an attendance record that would never be topped with 14,502 fans. The Tennessean reported on that Opening Day:
   "A record shattering crowd of 14,405 watched Jo Jo Klugman's Vols yesterday crush the Crackers in the thirty-second opening of the Dixie flag fight. The score was 6-3. A blazing single which Gilchrist hammered to center in the fifth frame, washing in Zach Smith and Johnny Gooch, turned the tide to Those Vols. Every marker the Crax secured resulted in the generosity of George Milstead, the Texas southpaw. He forced in three tallies in the second when he signed five tickets to first.
   "The hordes of humanity not only was the largest in which ever gathered in this community to gaze upon a baseball combat but it excelled any opening day turnout in all of Dixie yesterday, so far as attendance records disclose. The vast assemblage surpassed the 12,457 gathering in Chattanooga.
   "A year ago, the Lookouts capped the cup for a class town with a multitude exceeding 17,000. Only 7,834 viewed the Pelicans open up the campaign yesterday, although the champion Barons were present to sweeten up the lure. There were 6,806 cash customers on hand to see the Chicks trim Little Rock in Memphis."
   It was reported that the previous attendance record in Sulphur Dell was 11,000 in the final game of the 1908 season where the Vols defeated New Orleans 1-0 to capture the league crown by percentage points.
   On September 10, 1937 there were more runs scored (22) in the game than fans (21) in attendance at Sulphur Dell against New Orleans. The Tennessean reported:
   "Nashville and New Orleans opened a three-game series in Sulphur Dell before what is believed to be the smallest paid admission crowd in Southern League annals. Only 21-nineteen in the grandstands and two in the bleachers-purchased ducats to see the free-hitting, comically contested combat which the visitors won 13 to 9.
   "The less said about the affair, the better. The Birds obtained 20 hits of the deliveries of Woody Johnson and Sharky Elland. Three of them were homers, two by 'Ducky' Weatherly, and one by Tom Drake, who pitched until the ninth. Nashville also made the homer column; Cal Chapman for the second day in succession hit one over the wall. Willie Duke obtained his 18^th home run. Both downtown wallops came in the ninth when the Richbourgers racked up three tallies."
   Lance Richbourg was the Vols manager and it was reported that New Orleans and future Vols manager Larry Gilbert "sat in the box seats and gabbed with Owner Fay Murray of the Nashville club."
   The Tennessean's story ended with "Incidentally the season croons its swan song Sunday. It will be the last chance to see the Vols this year. They dare you to come."
   The Nashville Sounds were in their fifth season when they recorded an all-time high attendance record. On August 18, 1982 the Sounds toppled the previous mark set earlier in the season. The Tennessean wrote:
   "For the second time this season, the Nashville Sounds had more fans than they knew what to do with. A new Greer Stadium record crowd of 22,315 spilled out of the stands and into roped-off areas in the outfield last night to root the home team on to a 3-0 win over Columbus.
   "The record turnout erased the former stadium and league mark of 21,141 that showed up July 27 for a game with Charlotte. A good portion of last night's crowd was in on freebies, thanks to a Kroger promotion ticket giveaway."
   Sounds Erik Peterson said the mammoth crowd had an effect on the play of the team. Said Peterson, "Gosh, yes. You look around and see a big crowd like that and the adrenaline starts flowing-you just can't beat this place."
   Any ball hit into the outfield fan area was ruled a double. The next year the Sounds recorded their all-time low attendance on April 18. The Tennessean reported:
   "Even 36-degree weather couldn't cool off the Sounds bats last night at Herschel Greer Stadium. The Sounds ripped three Orlando pitchers for 13 hits and moved over the .500 mark for the first time this season with an 11-0 victory against the Twins in front of just 419 fans, a record low attendance for the Class AA club.
   "The temperature at game time was 40 degrees and it dropped to 36 by the fourth inning, forcing the smallest crowd since the franchise was founded in 1978. The previous low attendance at Greer was 897 on May 19, 1981 against Savannah. Unlike Orlando manager Phil Roof, Sounds skipper Doug Holmquist was satisfied to play the game despite the cold weather.
   "'What are you going to do, call it off and play a double-header the next day under the same conditions? We started one last year at Greensboro at 30 degrees and a wind chill factor of 18. It's tough on the pitchers because they have to come in between innings and their arm might stiffen up. The only problem I saw tonight was the bases. They were slick as ice and somebody could have gotten hurt,' he said."
   To warm things up, the Sounds placed kerosene heaters in their dugout.
Traughber's Tidbit: In April 1867, Candy Cummings who pitched for the Brooklyn Excelsiors and later the Booklyn Stars displayed a curveball for the first time. Purists of the game protested the pitch as "unfair." Cummings overwhelmed batter after batter striking them out with the mysterous movement on the ball. Said Cummings, "Every time I was successful I could scarcely keep from dancing for pure joy. The secret was all mine. For awhile, anyway."
   Overhand throwing was not legal until 1884, so it was curious, including to baseball historians, as to how Cummings could toss such a demoralizing curve back in 1867. Author Harry Grayson, in his book "They Played the Game," states that Cummings "Hurled in the underhand, cricket-bowling motion then in vogue." Cummings said that his idea of the curveball came about while studying the movement seashells made when thrown. He tried to make a baseball do the same where he was successful. Though Cummings had a career pitching record of 145-94 with a 2.49 ERA, he was enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939 as his curveball revolutionized the game.
Tidbit Two: On sale now is the book "Nashville Baseball History: From Sulphur Dell to the Sounds." The paperback book consists of 227 pages, 33 chapters covering 19^th century Nashville baseball through the Nashville Vols and Nashville Sounds through First Tennessee Park. There are 86 illustrations and the book can be purchased at Parnassus Books (Green Hills), Barnes & Nobles, Amazon and Summer Game Books. Nashville baseball enthusiast and the first Sounds general manager Farrell Owens wrote the foreword to the book.
If you have any comments or suggestions contact Bill Traughber via email, [email protected].