Formation of 1887 was organized on October 7, 1886, at the
Maxwell House Hotel in
Nashville.
Professional baseball was first played in
Nashville, Tennessee, by the
Nashville Americans, who were charter members of the original
Southern League from 1885 to 1886 and played their home games at Sulphur Spring Park, later renamed
Sulphur Dell. This ballpark was to be the home of Nashville's
minor league teams through 1963. The Southern League of 1886 gained a disgraceful reputation from the way clubs and league officials engaged in fraudulent activities, gambling, deals, and bargains with seemingly no law or justice being maintained by President Alexander Proudfit. League representatives met at the
Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville on October 7, 1886, to discuss the affairs of the previous season and lay the groundwork for a more principled league in the next. Nashville was represented by local baseball magnates John Morrow, who was elected to serve as the league's president, and William Cherry. It was decided that each team would pay monthly dues of US$150 plus a $2,000 deposit to guarantee they would play the entire season. No limit was placed on player salaries. The meeting adjourned without having finalized the league's membership, but at the January 20, 1887, meeting in
Birmingham, teams were granted to
Charleston,
Memphis,
Mobile, Nashville,
New Orleans, and
Savannah. Also, the guarantee was reduced to $1,000, as other candidate cities, finding the sum too high, refused to join. The Nashville Base Ball Association, a corporation which would operate and finance the local team with $15,000 of capital stock, met on December 21 to elect William M. Duncan as its president. The group hired as the team's
manager George Bradley, a veteran player with 10 years of
major league experience. Nashville's team has come to be known as the Blues. There are no contemporary references of this moniker being attributed to the team, but it is likely an allusion to the light blue shirts and pants they wore. Occasionally, they were termed the "White Sox" because of their white stockings. As was common at the time, clubs were usually called by the names of their cities. Newspapers generally referred to them as simply Nashville, the Nashville club, or the Nashvilles. There was a team of amateur players from
Vanderbilt University known as the Blues concurrent to the professional team.
Spring training ,
manager and
third baseman of the Blues|alt=A black and white portrait illustration of a man with a long mustache wearing a suit and tie
Player-manager Bradley wasted no time in beginning to acquire players for the coming season. Eight of the 12 players who began the season with the Blues had prior experience on major league teams. The most seasoned members of the roster were Bradley,
Larry Corcoran, and
Jackie Hayes, who had each appeared in at least 275 big league games. Bradley's men were to report to Sulphur Spring Park on March 15 to begin practice. Their
spring training regimen included several series of exhibition games against amateur, minor, and major league teams, many of which traveled south to prepare for their seasons in a warmer climate. The first series was against the minor league
Syracuse Stars of the
International Association from March 23 to 25. The Nashvilles lost the first game, 15–8, but won the next two games, 7–5 and 11–10. Their next opponents were the
Memphis Browns. The cross-state Southern League rivals planned a best-of-seven series to decide the "championship of the state". Memphis took the first game, 5–3, but Nashville tied the series with an 8–1 game-two win. The Browns handily won the next pair of games, 13–1 and 20–5. Nashville, on the brink of defeat, won game five, 12–3, but lost a decisive game six and the series, 4–0. From April 7 to 9, the Blues won all three
games played against an amateur team from
Evansville, Indiana, 3–0, 7–1, and 13–1. The
National League's
Detroit Wolverines came to Nashville for a three-game series from April 11 to 13. Detroit narrowly won the first game, 4–3. The next two meetings were easily won by the National Leaguers, 8–0 and 12–2.
The season Under Bradley (April 16–May 17) The Nashville Blues were slated to open the Southern League championship season of 1887 at Sulphur Spring Park on April 16. Their
Opening Day roster consisted of pitchers Larry Corcoran and
Al Maul;
catchers Bud Manion and Frank Nicholas;
first baseman Michael Firle;
second baseman Steve Matthias;
third baseman/manager George Bradley;
shortstop Robert Burks;
left fielder Jim Clinton;
center fielder Icicle Reeder; and
right fielder Jackie Hayes. An additional right fielder,
Mortimer Hogan, began the season on the
sick list. The game was attended by about 1,000 people. Cold weather and muddy conditions at the ballpark prevented the playing of the next game on April 18. On the off-day, Bradley selected Matthias as team captain, and he chose Clinton as second captain. The Nashvilles concluded the opening series with a 12–8 win on April 20. The park was so crowded with patrons who were normally unable to attend games on working days that several hundred were allowed to view the game from the field. Nashville won, 15–12, without incident or police interference. A group of 35 ministers met two days later and resolved to circulate a petition among citizens demanding that the government enforce the law forbidding Sunday baseball. The
Davidson County grand jury later indicted the involved players as well as the directors and officers of the Nashville Base Ball Association. Under examination, irregularities were found in the passage of the law's bill, leading lawyers in the service of the team to believe it to be unconstitutional. Judge Granville Ridley ruled to the contrary, finding the law was passed legally. Jackie Hayes was tried as a test case, convicted, and fined $25. The case was appealed to the
Tennessee Supreme Court after a retrial was denied. The locals made no further attempt to play on Sundays. Frank Nicholas was one of nine men to play the entire season with Nashville.|alt=A black and white portrait illustration of a man with a mustache wearing a bowler hat and checked suit Nashville's first roster changes began after the controversial Sunday game. On April 25, amateur Robert Greene was given a trial at shortstop but was not retained by the team. That same day, Matthias was badly injured while sliding into
home plate and had to be removed from the game. New pitcher
Bill Mountjoy led the Nashvilles to a 7–5 victory over Memphis in his debut on April 29. Corcoran was scheduled to pitch on April 30 against Memphis, but was replaced by Bradley at the last moment. Before the game, Corcoran was found to be drunk. Memphis manager
John Sneed and pitcher
Bob Black allegedly got him intoxicated to help the Browns win, thus aiding individuals from Memphis who had wagered a large amount of money against Nashville. When Bradley heard rumors of the plan, he removed Corcoran from the game, and pitched Nashville to a win himself. The directors of the club fined Corcoran $50 for his drunkenness and unsatisfactory play, suspended him indefinitely, and eventually sold him to the National League's
Indianapolis Hoosiers for $500 on May 9. Through the first month of the young season, the Blues were playing well and held an 8–3 (.727) record, putting them in second place. On May 7, competing for the first time in 10 days since his injury, Matthias was severely injured again when a
Mobile Swamp Angels player collided with him at second base as he attempted to turn a
double play in the third inning. Once again, he had to be removed from the game and was released sometime before May 22. Shorthanded from this injury and with Bradley and Mountjoy temporarily sidelined by illnesses, former
Vanderbilt Commodores pitcher Perian Smith was recruited for the May 11 game versus Mobile in which he held opposing batters to four runs on nine hits in the 10–4 Nashville victory. Mortimer Hogan, on the sick list since before Opening Day, found it his duty to play against doctors' orders and help his teammates, Even in the midst of illness and injury, the Blues won 12 consecutive games from April 28 to May 14, and moved into first place on May 9. He had been sick since May 7, Looking to remain sharp for the resumption their championship schedule, the Nashvilles defeated the H. W. Gradys, an amateur team from
Atlanta, 17–6 and 9–6, on May 25 and 26. Beginning with the May 27 game at Charleston, telegraphed descriptions of road games would be provided at the Masonic Theater in Nashville. The
Birmingham Ironmakers assumed Mobile's place on June 1. The resulting five-team league made for an awkward schedule with President Morrow initially instructing teams to treat scheduled games against Savannah as off-days, but the schedule was altered a week later to remedy the problem as well as possible. Additional team changes included the release of pitcher Mountjoy on June 1. The Blues also gained pitcher Patrick Kelly, formerly of the Mobiles, On June 13, Nashville's ace pitcher Al Maul was sold to the National League's
Philadelphia Quakers for $2,500. His 9–3
record and 2.91
earned run average notwithstanding, with no protection granted to Southern League players the offer was too grand for the club to pass up. but was released on July 2 after going hitless in three games. Even with the managerial change and several roster moves, the Blues maintained their hold on first place through their return to Sulphur Spring Park on June 15.
Al Maul was sold to the
Philadelphia Quakers for $2,500 on June 13.|alt=A black and white portrait illustration of a man wearing a suit Nashville, however, soon hit a slump with no sign of improvement. A six-game losing streak to Charleston and Memphis dropped the team to third place by July 4, and more losses caused them to fall to fourth by the end of the homestand on July 16 at 30–21 (.588). They completed the series at home with a 9–2 win over the Pelicans. The team that had done so well in the early part of the season had not been the same since Bradley stepped down as its manager. The loss of Maul, for both his on-field performance and encouragement given to players, was a follow-up blow. The shorthanded and strained pitching corps was the area most in need of improvement. Gibson dislocated his ankle on July 8 and was done for the season. Poor outings by Kelly and Masran and a failure on the part of the team's directors to bring in new twirlers seemed to hint at Nashville's fate. Rumors began to circulate through the city that the ball club would disband before hitting the road, but the team's directors met and resolved to play the season through to the end. In dire need of new arms, pitcher Alexander joined the team on July 25, but he was released on July 31 after three disastrous outings. The Blues lost their August 2 game at New Orleans, 8–4, in 11 innings. The August 3 game was rained out, so the team returned to Nashville that night to wait for their next-scheduled home game on August 10. The team, still standing in fourth place with a 33–31 (.516) record, had taken to the field for the last time.
Dissolution On August 6, the directors of the Nashville Base Ball Association decided to withdraw from the Southern League after having lost nearly $18,000 on the venture. This meant the forfeiture of their $1,000 guarantee, but saved them the approximate $4,000 to $6,000 that would have been necessary to finish the season. Unlike the poorly patronized Nashville Americans in late 1886, who were so far down in the standings as to be virtually out of pennant contention, the Nashville public did not support the Blues even when they held a sizable first-place lead in the early goings of the season. The four-team league concluded the season on October 10 without losing any more members. New Orleans won the pennant. On January 10, 1888, the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the "Sunday base ball law", making it a misdemeanor to play on Sundays. == Season results ==