Sulphur Dell

Sulphur Dell
Athletic Park Suffer Hell
Sulphur Dell, with the famous right field incline visible.
Location	Nashville, Tennessee United States
Coordinates	36°10′23.31″N 86°47′7.39″W
Opened	1870 (grandstand built 1885)
Renovated	1927
Closed	September 7, 1963
Demolished	1969
Owner	Vols, Inc.
Operator	Vols, Inc.
Surface	grass
Capacity	8,500
Field dimensions	Left Field: 334 ft (102 m) Center Field: 421 ft (128 m) Right Field: 262 ft (80 m)
Tenants
Nashville Americans (SOU) (1885–1886) Nashville Blues (SOU) (1887) Nashville Tigers (SOU) (1893–1894) Nashville Seraphs (SOU) (1895) Nashville Vols (SA) (1901–1961) Nashville Vols (SAL) (1963)

Sulphur Dell is a former minor league baseball park in Nashville, Tennessee. It was used for baseball for nearly 100 years, from 1870 to 1963. From 1901 to 1963, it was the home of the Nashville Vols minor league team. The ballpark, demolished in 1969, was located in the block between present day Jackson Street, Fourth Avenue, Harrison Street, and Fifth Avenue.

History

Athletic Park was located near an area known to pioneers as Sulphur Springs Bottom, a bottomland or dell which had a natural sulphur spring, and was located in the area of French Lick Springs. The lands were used for trading, picnics, and recreation. Baseball was first played there shortly after the end of the Civil War. Eventually, a portion of the land was designated for baseball and called Athletic Park. It wasn't until 1908, when Grantland Rice, a local sports journalist for the Nashville Daily News and the Nashville Tennessean, referred to the ballpark as Sulphur Spring Dell—later shortened to Sulphur Dell.

The original grandstand was built in 1885. It was torn down in the winter of 1926 and 1927, and was rebuilt as a concrete-and-steel structure with a slightly different orientation.

Sulphur Dell was best known for having one of the most significant "terraces" or sloping outfields in baseball history, a steep incline that ran along the entire outfield wall, most dramatically in right and center fields. The right field fence was only 262 feet from the plate. Whenever games attracted very large crowds, fans sat on the shelf of the right field slope, cutting right field down to 235 feet from the plate. Most right fielders stood about halfway up the slope and were known as "mountain goats." The area was subject to flooding when the Cumberland River exceeded its banks.

The park was located near the city dump, which lent a unique fragrance to the surroundings. It was also known for being extremely friendly to hitters, which led pitchers to call it "Suffer Hell." Casey Stengel once joked that he could bunt a home run down the first base line, which was only 42 feet from the stands. The third base line was even closer, at 26 feet.

In 1963, the ballpark was vacated due to the folding of the Nashville Vols. It was converted to a speedway in 1964 but the speedway only operated for a year. In 1969 the decaying structure was demolished. Today it is the site of a number of parking lots north of the state capitol building.

References

• Nipper, Skip. Baseball in Nashville. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7385-4391-8

External links

• Sulphur Dell home page
• How did Sulphur Dell ballpark get its name and fame?
• Sulphur Dell pictures
• More Sulphur Dell photos
• Official History