Local
Skip Nipper’s research kept Nashville baseball history alive
Skip Nipper, a Mt. Juliet resident and leading chronicler of Nashville baseball, has died at 76. His work ranged from a book on the city’s baseball past to research that helped bring Sulphur Dell’s history into the ballpark experience at First Horizon Park.
Skip Nipper, a historian and author who spent decades documenting Nashville’s baseball past, has died at 76, the Nashville Sounds announced.
Nipper’s family remembered him as a devoted husband, father and grandfather as well as a teacher, speaker and friend. In a family tribute shared by his son Chris Nipper’s business, the family called him “a legend in the Nashville baseball community” and said his legacy would continue to affect those who knew him.
Nipper’s interest in the game began with his father, Virgil, who played high school and amateur baseball and had two brief minor-league stints. Nipper dedicated his 2007 book, “Baseball in Nashville,” to him.
A member of the Society for American Baseball Research and its Nashville-based Grantland Rice-Fred Russell chapter, Nipper contributed biographies and historical writing to the organization’s projects. He also served on the board of the Nashville Old Timers Baseball Association and spoke about the city’s baseball history at libraries, conferences and community groups across Middle Tennessee.
One of his specialties was Sulphur Dell, Nashville’s longtime baseball park. Nipper presented research on the ballpark at a 2010 Society for American Baseball Research convention in Atlanta. He later helped the Nashville Sounds identify historic images and descriptions displayed at First Tennessee Park, now First Horizon Park.
His research also covered Major League Baseball and Negro Leagues history, as well as players including R.A. Dickey and Bill “Willie” Pope. He shared his work with the Metro Nashville Public Library and Archives, helping connect local audiences with the people and places that shaped the city’s baseball identity.
Nipper lived in Mt. Juliet with his wife, Sheila. The family biography lists seven children and 17 grandchildren.