Editor's Note: Ethan Bryan is a Springfield-based author of “A Year of Playing Catch.” In 2024, he is playing catch every single day of the year and chronicling his journey. This installment is about his visit to a Nashville Sounds baseball game as an official catch-playing ambassador.
I recently expressed my sincere conviction that baseball is magic, regarding my experiences in Cooperstown, New York, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. You can read that story on my website.
This the next chapter of that story.
Robert Benson was my writing mentor. The first time we met, we talked for hours over an incredible Italian dinner. At that dinner he told me, “This world is desperate for good sentences, for good stories, and for those who are willing to do the hard work necessary to bring them to life.”
Benson wrote a book called “The Game,” a narrative of faith and family detailing nine innings at a Nashville Sounds baseball game. Ever since our dinner and especially after reading his book, I wanted to visit the stadium with a guitar-shaped scoreboard. When an opportunity and invitation arose, I jumped at the offer.
“I think I’m going to go to Nashville this summer,” I said out loud to no one in particular.
“Well then, I think I’m going with you,” Kaylea answered immediately.
And that, as they say, was that. My oldest daughter Kaylea and I were going on a trip to Nashville to cheer on the Sounds, the Triple-A Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers.
We pulled into downtown Nashville and accidentally attended CMA Fest. CMA Fest is four days and nights of country music sponsored by the Country Music Association, the perfect experience for the ultimate country music fan. We accounted for two of the more than 100,000 visitors in downtown Nashville on Saturday, caught up in a sea of humanity and unexpectedly high parking prices.
I knew immediately what Kaylea and I needed to do.
Break out the gloves, toss the ball, meet the people
The Ryman Auditorium is the “mother church of country music.” Everyone who is anyone in country music has graced its stage facing the wall of stained-glass windows.
Standing on the other side of those stained-glass windows, in the heat and humidity and humanity, Kaylea and I played catch.
There’s more than one way to play at the Ryman.
After feasting and taking in the sights, Kaylea and I went to Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park where we were to connect with staff of the Nashville Sounds.
Enter Rae. With a quick smile and heart full of hospitality, Rae helped us find food and fun inside and outside the stadium. Rae, who patiently answered all of our questions, is the entertainment guru for the Sounds. Her job is to make sure everyone who comes to a Sounds game has a memorable experience.
And Neil. Neil always had a camera in hand. Or two. A 10-year Minor League Baseball veteran, Neil uses videos to help tell the story of the game on the field, as well as the impact the team has on its community.
And Kevin. Through Zoom calls, phone calls, emails, and texts, Kevin organized and coordinated the whole catch-playing experience. Unfortunately, he was out of town over the weekend, so we’ve yet to meet in person.
Mr. Catch 365 meets the Nashville Sounds
At Bicentennial Park, with Rae’s help finding catch partners and Neil behind a camera, Kaylea and I played catch and told stories in preparation to celebrate catch on the field after Sunday’s game. Alex from Oklahoma on his way to work with teenagers at a summer camp in upstate New York. Katie the soon-to-be ER nurse and her mom, Karin from Indiana, in town visiting her daughter. Throw. Catch. Laugh. Repeat.
Kaylea and I were well-beyond 10,000 steps for the day when we got in line for the Saturday night Sounds game, hoping to receive the giveaway t-shirt. It felt rather appropriate to make a political statement in Music City, showing our support for preferred candidates — Dolly and Reba in ’24.
A pitchers’ duel for most of the game, the Sounds lost in extra innings, 4-2. On the brighter side, we cheered for Neil as he walked from one dugout to the other in between innings.
Before Sunday’s game, Kaylea and I toured the Nashville Parthenon, where we joined other athletes — spike ball, bocce, and rugby — celebrating playing on the cool, overcast day. We played catch and I did the stereotypical dad thing, keeping my eye on the weather app and worrying that the incoming storms would rain out yet another catch-playing opportunity. We left as sprinkles started to fall.
Narrator: The rains were not a factor.
Kaylea wore her electric blue Sounds Dolly t-shirt to Sunday’s game, where she would be throwing out the first pitch. I wore my Sounds throwback jersey with “Catch 365” on the back. I would be catching the first pitch. Rae greeted us and escorted us onto the field, where she gave us a play-by-play of when to go where and do what.
A perfect fastball for a strike
Kaylea and I were both nervous for the first pitch. Apple, meet tree. We took several deep breaths and enjoyed the incredible on-the-field view as we stood next to the Sounds dugout. When Rae motioned, Kaylea walked toward the mound and I walked toward home plate, neither of us stepping on the freshly-painted white lines.
Moments later, my first-pitch dreams were completely fulfilled. Kaylea fired a perfect strike and I caught it. I do not think it is a coincidence that, on the day Kaylea threw out the first pitch, the Sounds scored in every single inning. They won the game 14-3.
Several innings later, somewhere in the middle of all of that scoring, Kaylea and I sat in the second-level pavilion, next to Steve the keyboardist. We enjoyed listening to him offer musical commentary on the opponents’ at-bats and correctly answered his questions about his song choices.
“I love your tattoos,” Kaylea told him. Steve had a treble and bass clef tattoo on his right forearm.
“I love your first pitch,” he replied.
Kaylea and I were enjoying the game and occasional light breeze when she nudged me.
“Do you hear that accent?” she whispered.
I focused my attention and heard what she heard. It was definitely not a southern accent.
The British Invasion of Nashville
Meet Elizabeth and Carl. They are from London and in the United States celebrating Elizabeth’s 50th birthday. The trip had to be postponed almost an entire year because Elizabeth broke her arm in seven places. We noticed the pins Elizabeth was wearing, celebrating her first game and her birthday, and quickly struck up a conversation.
“We’ve always wanted to see a baseball game,” Elizabeth said.
“Though we’re still learning what’s going on,” Carl added.
I tried to provide a simple explanation of the game while we visited with our new friends. Elizabeth commented on Kaylea’s t-shirt, adding that her favorite part of their trip so far was their adventure in Dollywood.
Thanks to Rae and other magicians, we were able to give Elizabeth a Dolly t-shirt birthday present. Elizabeth jumped and screamed and squealed and I’m surprised the game didn’t come to a temporary halt.
Ambassadorship after the final out
After the game, again thanks to Rae and other magicians, Kaylea and I went onto the field and played catch. In a short while, seemingly everyone in the stands came on the field to play catch. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, kids of all ages, creating a sea of baseballs flying overhead and underfoot and, occasionally, into one’s kneecaps or shins.
We were given a ball and gave it to Carl and Elizabeth to take home, and then invited them to play, too. Neither Carl nor Elizabeth had ever thrown a baseball before.
Carl is a southpaw. He works in the British Royal Navy and is regularly gone from home for months at a time. This trip was a special trip for he and Elizabeth to spend time making memories together.
“In the UK, things like this just don’t happen,” Elizabeth said, “The grass is too posh.”
We took so many selfies and gave hugs and slowly made our way out of the stadium. Kaylea and I had “miles to go before we sleep.” This week, she is heading to play at Carnegie Hall with the Missouri State University Symphony Orchestra. I encouraged her to pack her glove, just in case she needs it.
Thank you, Nashville Sounds, for sharing the magic of baseball with people from Missouri, and London, and Nashville.
Thank you Kevin, Rae and Neil — you are all in the Catch 365 Hall of Fame.
Have fun making memories, Carl and Elizabath, and happy birthday!
Playing catch brings the world together.
