1908 Nashville vs. New Orleans baseball game
The 1908 Nashville vs. New Orleans baseball game dubbed by Grantland Rice "The Greatest Game Ever Played in Dixie" was a 1–0 pitching duel to decide the Southern Association championship in the dead-ball era, on the last day of the season. The Nashville Vols won the game and thus the pennant by .002 percentage points, after finishing the prior season in last place. Both teams had the same number of losses (56), but the New Orleans Pelicans were in first place with 76 wins to the Vols' second-place 74. Carl Sitton used his spitball to out-pitch Ted Breitenstein for a complete-game, nine-strikeout, four-hit, shutout. According to one account, "By one run, by one point, Nashville has won the Southern League pennant, nosing New Orleans out literally by an eyelash. Saturday's game, which was the deciding one, between Nashville and New Orleans was the greatest exhibition of the national game ever seen in the south and the finish in the league race probably sets a record in baseball history".
A panorama of the field that day
The Nashville Vols were a Minor League Baseball team that played in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1901 to 1963. Known as the Nashville Baseball Club during their first seven seasons, they became the Nashville Volunteers in 1908 in reference to Tennessee's nickname, "The Volunteer State". The Vols played their home games at Athletic Park, which had been home to the city's professional baseball teams since 1885 and was renamed Sulphur Dell in 1908.
The 1901 Nashville Baseball Club won the first Southern Association pennant.
The 1908 Nashville Vols won the Southern Association pennant on the last day of the season.
Tom Rogers pitched a perfect game for the Vols at Sulphur Dell on July 11, 1916.
The Sulphur Dell grandstand and infield in 1927