It’s not enough to call Skip Nipper a baseball fan. He’s more like a baseball maestro, a historian, author and a collector of stories.
It was his dad who first taught him to play, and he continues that legacy as a member of a handful of groups like the Nashville Old Timers Baseball Association and the Society of American Baseball Research.
Nipper says these groups keep him roaming within the circles of baseball people, which is where we find him on April 1. It’s a beautiful Friday afternoon and skips tailgating ahead of the UT-Vandy game with fellow baseball fan Chris Bacon.
“I sit here when Skip talks I just sit there like a little kid, and I listen because he knows he’s forgotten more about baseball than I’ll ever know about baseball,” said Bacon.
At this tailgate, Nipper is in his element. There’s a food truck and an atmosphere of joy, and maybe a little post-winter relief.
Nipper – the collector of stories that he is – goes on journey through the crowd.
“This is Ro Coleman, who played at Vanderbilt. What’s on your mind when when Tim Corbin sends you up to the bat and … he needs a hit, and you gave him one and you’re old first base. What’s the thought process there?” asks Nipper.
“I mean, for me, it’s just baseball on a baseball field. That’s my playground. So it’s like, it’s no pressure. It’s like having fun. Like when get the job done, you pick the right guy, you know, I’m going to get it done for you,” said Coleman.
“What’s in the future for you?” continues Nipper.
“For me, just continue to grow within the community are providing more opportunity within the game of baseball, creating more diversity and just being where I need to be and helping others get to the places that they need to be,” responds Coleman.
“And this is going to be published, so when I ask you this question and you’re going to say yes. You’re decided never to move out of Nashville because you’re so important to the community here?” jokes Nipper.
“No, no. At this moment, I’m here in Nashville now, but I really love Nashville is growing a lot and I’m loving the way it’s growing and I don’t see myself moving or leaving anytime soon,” said Coleman.
Tasha A.F. Lemley Helen Barret, Mack Lipsey and former Tennessee State player Dwight Lewis tailgate at Music City Baseball before a UT/Vandy game on April 1.
Nipper moves on to reminiscing with Dwight Lewis, who played at Tennessee State.
“I played in the mid 60s, late 60s, played little baseball at Tennessee State, but I rode the bench mostly. I was not a good hitter … It was just fun. We played over where Hadley Park is located,” remembered Lewis.
Nipper then heads over to Mack Lipsey and his friend Helen Barret.
“Earlier, you said that you had seen a game at Sulphur Dell, which was Nashville’s old ballpark, which overlaps in the area of First Tennessee Park right now. It’s in the same vicinity,” remembered Nipper.
“I went there when I was 13-years-old and I’m 89 now, so that was 70 something years ago. My brother took me … I was telling him I remember two things. I remember how the right field went up a hill and the right fielder had to run up the hill to catch a fly ball. And I remember the ice cream bars they had in the stadium that were so good. I ate as many as I possibly could. But talk to Helen – she’s the baseball nut,” said Lipsey.
“Well, I wanted to play, but I was a girl and that girls didn’t play. … I played in the streets with the boys, but when they had made, you know, lineups for teams and got uniforms, they didn’t include me. But I played anyway, and I learned to throw … I’d stand in front of the mirror and I tried to throw like Don Newcombe, who a Brooklyn Dodger,” said Barret.
“I grew up in Brooklyn, and I never got over that perfect game that Don Larsen threw. I remember Jackie Robinson stealing home, and I just I loved to play. But listen to this. I still love baseball. I played with my kids. I would pitch batting practice in their Little League games. I about 15 years ago, I was watching a TV program and there were some women, like my age, out in Hendersonville and they were playing ball. … I found the team Nashville Senior Stars and they they said, ‘Well, where’d you play?’ And I said, ‘I never played.’ Not in college? High school? No, we didn’t have teams. They said, ‘Well, let me see you play at third,” she continued.
“they put me in third because I can make the throw to first. I had been warming up for that moment all my life and I was 60 years old.”
It’s stuff like this that makes Nipper love the sport.
“To be able to hear those stories, itt just kind of … Number one, it resonates with me deep inside because I love the game and I love to hear the stories,” he said.
For him, it’s the fans that are special and hearing these stories keeps the hope for a major league team alive.
“I think that’ll happen. I hope it happens in my lifetime because there’s no timetable for it, but it will help a young little boy that played baseball in his early years. I’m going to be that little boy again through my grandchildren, taking them to see Major League Baseball game in Nashville one day,” said Nipper.
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