Sounds show Salt Lake who's great

Surging Nashville takes its first series against PCL's finest
By MAURICE PATTON • Staff Writer(Tennessean) • May 5, 2008

It took the Nashville Sounds — losers of 19 of their first 26 games — to do what the rest of the Pacific Coast League hadn't done through the opening month of the season:

Nashville clinched its first series win of the season Sunday, defeating Salt Lake 5- for its first three-game winning streak of the season. For the Bees, the three losses are one more than they had through their first 26 games; their 24-2 start coming into the weekend was the best in the history of minor league baseball.

"I think it's obvious we have a good team," said third baseman Adam Heether, whose two-out, bases-loaded double in the fourth inning gave the Sounds a 4-0 lead following Russell Branyan's second-inning solo home run. "I don't think anybody was pressing too much; we were waiting for things to go our way, and it was a matter of time before that happened."

The Sounds improved to 10-19 with their fifth win in six games; it took Nashville 21 games to get its first five wins of the season.

"We were scuffling a little bit, but we've regrouped," Sounds pitcher Mark DiFelice said. "The team we have now is pretty solid. It took time for everybody to jell."

DiFelice pitched five innings of four-hit ball, struck out nine and allowed only a leadoff homer to Dee Brown in the fifth inning.

Student won't let cancer strike him out

Davidson Academy junior Nathan Stewart prepares to throw a baseball during practice. Stewart was diagnosed with Stage 3 melanoma earlier this year.

Davidson Academy junior Nathan Stewart leans on teammates as he battles melanoma

By LEA ANN OVERSTREET • Staff Writer (Tennessean0 • April 30, 2008

Finding out he had cancer didn't worry Davidson Academy junior Nathan Stewart too much because he knew he had three factors working in his favor: family, friends and baseball.

Last fall, Nathan found a spot on his head and eventually discovered he had Stage 3 melanoma. Melanoma is a type of cancer that is almost always curable in its early stages, but its seriousness lies in how quickly and how far it can spread.


After the diagnosis, Nathan underwent a six-hour surgery at Vanderbilt.
"I guess I had the worst kind you can get because it spread so fast. They had to take out a bunch of lymph nodes in my neck because it had spread to them," Nathan said.

What scared him the most was not having cancer, but the possibility of not being able to play his favorite sports, football and baseball.

"This would be really hard if I couldn't play," Nathan said.

Radiation took a toll

It also would have been hard for baseball coach Jim Carter, who says Nathan is one of a kind.

"I forget about the cancer most days because he plays hard, playing essentially every day, and he always performs at a high level," Carter said. "He gets treated the same as everyone else because he acts like everyone else. … That's a compliment to Nathan and the type of person he is.

"I've never had to coach in a situation like this, but if every kid handled themselves like Nathan … it's just unbelievable."

Elaine Goad, a fourth-grade teacher at Davidson Academy and mother of Ryan Goad, a teammate and friend of Nathan's, also has high praise for the left fielder.

"This young man has shown a great amount of faith during this trying time in his life," Goad said.

In the beginning, Nathan didn't think much about the disease, firmly believing he could beat it. But then the reality of his situation hit home when radiation treatments took a toll. He would take the treatments on weekdays and still go to school.

"It (radiation) does make you really tired. … It drains you. It also changes your taste buds. Your favorite foods just don't taste the same. Thankfully, that's finally going away," Nathan said.

His friends and teammates said finding out about the cancer was probably harder on them because Nathan was so nonchalant about it.

"He really didn't seem all that affected by it. He was just like Nathan," said David Roehrig, 17.

Taylor Hudson, 18, said, "When we first found out we didn't know what to expect. And then we worried that our power-hitting left fielder wouldn't be here anymore. It really hasn't seemed to affect him."

Mac Swann, 18, joked that any pain he may feel physically has been put in perspective since Nathan's battle with cancer.

"He's doing better than me right now," Swann said, whose knee was giving him some pain at baseball practice recently. "It makes our problems not so bad."

The team has rallied around Nathan, showing its support by wearing the familiar yellow bracelets that promote cancer awareness.

Nathan must guard health

Nathan is in remission now, but he must have PET scans monthly to make sure the cancer doesn't come back. A PET, or Positron Emission Tomography, scan involves injecting a form of sugar containing a small amount of radioactivity into the blood. The sugar collects in cancer cells, and a camera detects the radioactivity and shows the areas of cancer in the body.

During last week's practice, Nathan wore a different shirt from his teammates, light gray instead of dark maroon, to help deflect the sun's powerful rays. It's just one precaution he can take to fight the disease, along with eating more healthy foods and getting more exercise.

The disease might have struck at him, but Nathan's plans are to knock the disease out of the park by not giving up and going on with his life.

An outsider might get uncomfortable listening to Nathan's friends talk to him, calling him "cancer boy," making light of his condition, but that person wouldn't know these guys. It's all gentle ribbing, good-natured prodding at a friend with a problem. It's how they get by.

"It's funny, but I think cancer actually brings you closer to your friends," Nathan said.

Contact Lea Ann Overstreet at loverstreet@tennessean.com or 259-8205.

Sounds cover all the bases to ready ballpark for opener

Aged stadium needed major upgrade to be playable By RACHEL STULTS • Staff Writer (Tennessean) • April 11, 2008 The paint was still drying in the stands. And the sound of hammers and saws echoed through the ballpark Thursday as workers scrambled to get ready for the Sounds' home opener against the Iowa Cubs. Groundskeepers put the finishing touches on the pitcher's mound in preparation for tonight's game. And in the stands, a painter methodically stenciled row numbers on the concrete. It's show time for the aging Greer Stadium. The Nashville Sounds have spent more than $1 million during the off-season upgrading the stadium. Those fixes — a new clubhouse for players, better lights in the field, improvements to restrooms, walkways and seats — will keep it going for another three to five years. By then, the Sounds will need to make major renovations, build a new ballpark or consider moving out of Nashville. "If we had not spent the money we did over the last year it's safe to say baseball would not be played," said Sounds General Manager Glenn Yaeger. "We continue to express our need for a new ballpark, and how important that is for the future of baseball here in Nashville. We're hopeful we can identify a solution," The 31-year-old stadium was not meant to last beyond 30 years, Yaeger said. It seats 10,000 fans, typically draws 400,000 fans per season and is one of the oldest Triple A stadiums in the nation. "It was built as a Double A facility in 1977, and facility standards back then were much different," he said. "It was built on the cheap, and never would have been a facility that would have been approved today." This year marks the beginning of the Sounds' 11th season as a member of the Pacific Coast League and its fourth year as a Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. Nashville bucks trend Branch B. Rickey, league president, said Nashville's continued use of Greer Stadium bucks the national trend of building new minor-league stadiums. "There really has been a renaissance in minor-league facilities over the past 15 years," Rickey said. "Many municipalities have recognized (building new stadiums) is an opportunity to help local fans have access to outdoor recreation, access to live professional sports during the spring and summer." Metro Finance Director Rich Riebeling said that while city leaders are glad to see the upgrades, a deal to build a new one must be struck under the right conditions, in which the burden is not on taxpayers. "You can't neglect what you have," Riebeling said. "These were necessary improvements, and realistically speaking, we're more than a couple of years away from a (new) stadium under the best of scenarios, even if you started today." The Sounds have campaigned for more than five years to build a baseball stadium south of Broadway, on the west bank of the Cumberland River. A deal for the riverfront ballpark fell through last year, leaving fans wondering about the future of baseball in Nashville. But there are no immediate plans for relocating the stadium, and league officials say they must focus on working with what they have. Rickey said investing the money for improvements wasn't the best option, but one that was needed. "In order to be fair with home team players, visiting team players and with the umpires, something had to be done," he said. Clubhouse was too small Most of the upgrade dollars have gone toward building a new $750,000 clubhouse after Sounds management learned their facility was "unacceptable" by league standards. The old clubhouse, located under the stands, was too small for the players and in constant need of maintenance, especially when it rained and the roof leaked. The stadium's new 48,000-square-foot clubhouse is located behind the outfield and will be used by the home team, visitors and umpires. That clubhouse is still under construction and is expected to be ready by the April 28 home game. In the meantime, the Sounds will use the player facilities at LP Field while visiting teams will continue to use the clubhouse at Greer Stadium. Meanwhile, there are some improvements for the fans as well. Aged walkways and broken seats have been replaced. Lights in the infield and outfield have been upgraded. The scoreboard is fully functioning, and the restrooms have been improved with new fixtures and partitions. But there's still a lot more to be done. "It's a constant uphill battle," said Joe Hart, assistant general manager of operations. "We've been going at it hard since the first of January, but every time you walk through you see something else that needs to get fixed. We've got a things-to-do list about five pages long. But we're trying to be proactive."