The Nashville Vols were a Minor League Baseball team that played in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1901 to 1963.[1] They were established as charter members of the Southern Association in 1901.[2] Known as the Nashville Baseball Club during their first seven seasons, they became the Nashville Volunteers (regularly shortened to Vols) in 1908.[3] Nashville remained in the Southern Association until it disbanded after the 1961 season.[2] The team sat out the 1962 campaign but returned for a final season in the South Atlantic League in 1963 before ceasing operations altogether.[1]
Over the Vols' 62seasons, their pitchers threw seven no-hitters, which includes one perfect game.[4] A no-hit game occurs when a pitcher (or pitchers) allows no hits over the course of a game.[5] A perfect game, a much rarer feat, occurs when no batters reach base by a hit or any other means, such as a walk, hit by pitch, or error.[5] The feats were accomplished by a total of seven different pitchers.[4] Four occurred at Nashville's home ballpark, Athletic Park, better known as Sulphur Dell from 1908.[6] Three were pitched in road games. Six occurred while the team was a member of the Southern Association and one as a member of the South Atlantic League.
On July 11, 1916, Tom Rogers pitched the first and only perfect game in team history against the Chattanooga Lookouts at Sulphur Dell.[10] The Lookouts nearly recorded a hit in the second inning when Joe Harris led off with a sharp line drive to right-center field. Center fielderBilly Lee made a diving catch half-way up the notorious Sulphur Dell right field incline, saving the perfect game bid in its early stages.[11] A second defensive play was made by Vols left fielder Gus Williams in the top of the seventh when he crashed into the left field bleacher fence in the act of catching Jake Pitler's sharply hit ball to left.[12] With two outs in the top of the ninth inning, John Peters came in to pinch hit for Chattanooga pitcher James Allen. He hit a soft fly ball to second base, which was fielded by Tom Sheehan for the final out.[11] In all, Rogers struck out 4 of the 27batters he faced.[11] The game, a 2–0 Nashville victory, lasted 1hour and 25minutes.[12]
Thomas "Shotgun" Rogers climbed yesterday to the proudest pinnacle in the baseball world. The Gallatin Gunner, in the most gallant exhibition of slab work ever unfurled in this section of the more or less United States, reported with that fondly cherished dream of every gent who makes the diamond his habitat—a perfect game. One unmarred by either a run, a hit, or a hostile son of swat reaching the initial corner.
Nashville's fifth no-hit game was pitched by Zeke Lohman on July 25, 1920, versus the Atlanta Crackers in the second game of a seven-inning doubleheader at the Dell.[13] Lohman walked two and hit one batsman in the 6–0 win.[13] The sixth occurred nearly 31years later on July 21, 1951, when southpaw Umberto Flammini fired a 2–0 no-hitter against Atlanta, this time at Ponce de Leon Park in Atlanta, Georgia.[14] He finished one base runner shy of perfection when Alvin Aucoin reached first base on an error after shortstop Joe Damato bobbled the ball in the second inning.[14] Aucoin was retired after the next batter, Jack Dittmer, hit into a force out.[14] Dittmer moved to second on a wild pitch, but the inning ended following a pop out and a strikeout.[14] The game was scoreless until the ninth inning, when Jack Harshman drove in two runs off of Atlanta's Art Fowler.[14]
The Vols' seventh and final no-hit game was Edward Kikla's gem on July 17, 1963, over the Augusta Yankees in game one of a seven-inning doubleheader at Jennings Stadium in Augusta, Georgia.[15] The lefty allowed three runners in the fourth on a walk, an error, and a fielder's choice, but then retired the side and held Augusta hitless for the remainder of the 8–0 win.[15]
1 2 Weiss, Bill; Wright, Marshall (2001). "47. 1940 Nashville Vols". Minor League Baseball. Archived from the original on October 12, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2015.
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