List of Nashville Sounds managers

George Scherger led the Sounds to win Southern League championship in 1979.

Playing in the Southern League as the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, the Nashville Sounds were managed by Chuck Goggin in their inaugural 1978 season.[5][6] Goggin had managed the Reds' previous Double-A team, the Trois-Rivières Aigles of the Eastern League, in 1977.[5] He was replaced in 1979 by George Scherger, a veteran manager of 18 minor league seasons.[7] He was chosen as a coach for the 1979 Southern League All-Star team and led Nashville to win their first Southern League championship that year.[8][9]

The Sounds became the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees in 1980.[10] Stump Merrill, who had been with New York's Double-A West Haven Yankees in the Eastern League the previous two seasons, led Nashville in the first two years of the new affiliation.[11] He was selected for the Southern League Manager of the Year Award in 1980 after the Sounds set a franchise-best 97–46 record.[3][12] Merrill's .622 winning percentage from 1980 to 1981 is the highest among all Sounds managers over a full season or more.[13] First-year manager Johnny Oates took over in 1982 and led the club to its second Southern League championship.[9][14] Doug Holmquist was promoted to Nashville from the Class A Greensboro Hornets of the South Atlantic League in 1983.[15] He was succeeded in 1984 by former Major League Baseball (MLB) manager and 1952 Nashville Vol Jim Marshall.[16]

The Sounds moved to the Triple-A American Association in 1985.[6] Affiliated with the Detroit Tigers,[17] Lee Walls was assigned to manage the team, but he was hospitalized with internal bleeding after seven games.[18] Outfielder Leon Roberts became the acting manager for the next seven games until being replaced by Gordon Mackenzie,[18][19] who was promoted from the Tigers' Double-A Birmingham Barons of the Southern League.[20] Roberts retired from playing at the end of the season and was hired to manage the 1986 club.[21]

Jack Lind was the first of five managers to lead the team over a five-week period in 1988.

Nashville became the Triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds in 1987.[22] Jack Lind, previously manager of the Reds' Triple-A American Association Denver Zephyrs, led the team from 1987 through the first three months of the 1988 season.[23] From June to July 1988, the Sounds went through five different managers.[24] Lind was fired on June 27.[25] Pitching coach and former Sounds starting pitcher Wayne Garland served as a fill-in manager for one game.[26][27] Jim Hoff, Cincinnati's minor league field coordinator, managed the next five games on an interim basis.[27] Former manager George Scherger was brought in on July 3, but he chose to retire after one game.[28] Garland managed two more games before Hoff returned for seventeen.[29] Finally, former big league skipper Frank Lucchesi was hired on July 25 to manage the Sounds for the last 39 games of the season.[24][29] He remained with the team for the 1989 campaign.[30] Pete Mackanin was hired to lead Nashville in 1990.[31] He was selected to coach the National League team in the 1991 Triple-A All-Star Game.[32] Mackanin was dismissed on June 28, 1992.[33] Dave Miley, manager of Cincinnati's Double-A Southern League Chattanooga Lookouts, was promoted to take his place for the rest of the season.[33][34]

The Sounds switched their affiliation to the Chicago White Sox in 1993.[35] Rick Renick, who had managed Chicago's Triple-A Vancouver Canadians in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) for two years prior, continued in that role at Nashville from 1993 to 1996.[36] Renick won the American Association Manager of the Year Award in 1993 and 1996,[37] and he was chosen to manage the American League team at the 1994 Triple-A All-Star Game held at Nashville's Herschel Greer Stadium.[32][38] He was succeeded by White Sox minor league outfield coordinator Tom Spencer in 1997.[39][40]

Nashville moved to the Pacific Coast League in 1998 following the disbandment of the American Association after the 1997 season.[41] As the Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates,[42] the Sounds were managed by Trent Jewett, who had spent the last two seasons with their previous Triple-A club, the PCL's Calgary Cannons.[43] He remained with Nashville until being named Pittsburgh's third base coach on June 6, 2000.[44] Sounds pitching coach Richie Hebner was made the manager for the rest of the season.[44] Marty Brown, a former Sounds third baseman from 1988 to 1989, was manager in 2001 and 2002 after two years leading Pittsburgh's Altoona Curve in the Double-A Eastern League.[45] Jewett returned to manage at Nashville from 2003 to 2004.[43] Over both stretches from 1998 to 2000 and 2003 to 2004, Jewett won 320 games, placing him first on the all-time wins list for Sounds managers.[13] Having managed the team for 625 games over five seasons, he is also the longest-tenured manager in team history.[13]

Steve Scarsone won the PCL Manager of the Year Award in 2016.

The Sounds became the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers in 2005.[46] Frank Kremblas was given the helm at Nashville after leading Milwaukee's Double-A Huntsville Stars in the Southern League for three years.[47] He led the Sounds to win the Pacific Coast League championship in the first season of the affiliation.[48] Kremblas was chosen as the PCL Manager of the Year in 2007 and remained with the club through 2008.[47][49] Four-time MLB All-Star Don Money, who had replaced Kremblas in Huntsville in 2005, led the Sounds from 2009 to 2011.[50] Mike Guerrero was promoted to Nashville in 2012 after two years at Huntsville.[51] He missed nine games of the 2013 season on bereavement leave, during which Charlie Greene, the Brewers' field coordinator and catching instructor, served as interim manager.[52] Guerrero returned to finish out the year, after which he won the Mike Coolbaugh Award in recognition for his contributions in developing and mentoring young players in the Brewers organization.[53] His .437 winning percentage is the lowest among all Sounds managers over a full season or more.[13] Rick Sweet, a roving catching instructor for Cincinnati and veteran manager of 24 minor league seasons, led the team in 2014.[54][55]

Nashville switched its affiliation to the Oakland Athletics in 2015.[56] Steve Scarsone managed the Sounds in 2015 and 2016 after two seasons in the same capacity with the Athletics' former Triple-A club, the PCL's Sacramento River Cats.[57] He won the PCL Manager of the Year Award in 2016.[49] Scarsone was succeed in 2017 by Ryan Christenson, who had spent the two previous seasons with Oakland's Double-A Midland RockHounds in the Texas League.[58] Fran Riordan was promoted from Midland to Nashville for 2018.[59]

The Sounds affiliated with the Texas Rangers in 2019.[60] Jason Wood, who had been with the Rangers' Round Rock Express in the PCL for the last four seasons, continued in the same role with Nashville.[61] Wood had also played for the Sounds from 2000 to 2001 at third base and shortstop.[61] First-year manager Darwin Barney was hired to manage in 2020,[62] but the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[63]

In conjunction with Major League Baseball's reorganization of the minors after the 2020 season, Nashville reaffiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2021.[64] Rick Sweet, who led Nashville in the final season of their previous term with Milwaukee, continued to manage the Brewers' Triple-A clubs in the six years between affiliations, most recently the PCL's San Antonio Missions from 2019 to 2020.[55][65] He will return to serve as Nashville's manager in 2021.[2]

• List of Nashville Sounds coaches

Specific

General

• "All-Time Sounds Managers" (PDF). 2018 Nashville Sounds Media Guide. Minor League Baseball. 2018. p. 14. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 15, 2018. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
• "Postseason History" (PDF). 2018 Nashville Sounds Media Guide. Minor League Baseball. 2018. pp. 178–179. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 7, 2015. Retrieved February 7, 2019.