Dave Stewart on why he is pushing to diversify Nashville's push for an MLB team | The Type Set

When Dave Stewart pitched in Jackson, Mississippi, a man tried to run him down with a car in the parking lot.

In Atlanta, he realized the fans taunted him by calling him a "crow," in reference to his skin color.

In Texas, he pitched a great game, and a man called him a "spear chucker."

"I remember everything that happened to me," the former major league All Star said.

He remembers when he was passed over for promotions as he tried to rise in baseball front offices. His memories fuel him.

Those bad experiences, he said, will shape his future decisions.

I wrote Stewart a letter about his effort to bring Major League Baseball to Nashville, and he invited me to meet him at his office near Vanderbilt University. He said his hope is that the Nashville Stars — named for a former Negro League team — will play their first regular-season game on Opening Day of 2026.

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Realistically, he said, that day is more likely to fall in 2027.

Being really realistic, no one is sure that day will ever happen.

Stewart is the public face of a diverse ownership group currently lobbying the MLB for a franchise. His preference would be a new team starting from scratch. Option No. 2 would be a current major league team moving to Nashville because it couldn't get a stadium deal done (that means the Oakland A's or Tampa Bay Rays).

I peppered Stewart and his team with tough questions about how they are going to pull this off without ruining the neighborhood in North Nashville (the site where they now want to build their stadium).

The dreams are big — ballpark/concert venue, hotels, restaurants, retail stores. They want to offer residencies to music stars (not only country stars) who would perform at the stadium.

I was so impressed with their answers, even though none of them are concrete. They are "ifs," Stewart said.

One of the Stars' board members is Nashville pediatrician Eddie Hamilton, who said he is committed to "community engagement in an intentional way."

The Stars management group, which would be the most diverse in Major League history, wants to lift the Tennessee State University area of North Nashville, rather than tear it down.

Stewart, Hamilton and Managing Director John Loar said they won't be just filling jobs for popcorn sales. They want TSU students to be property managers for multiple venues in a new sports/entertainment complex. They want Black-owned businesses to be granted concession rights in and around the stadium.

"The Black community lacks a civic infrastructure," said Hamilton, who is Black. "We want to build a healthy Black middle class. Who holds the beer concession rights? Do they look like me?

"We will focus on those things in a way that has never been done before."

The intention of the Nashville Stars, Stewart said, is to build a stadium with almost all private funding.

They have offered partial ownership positions for $25,000 investments and raised a total of $4.5 million. Forty-two percent of those investments came from Black people (falling short of their goal of 51 percent).

The management group said the goal is to partner with Tennessee State to boost the school's profile, its students' future opportunities and enhance the area around the university.

They want to focus on Black tourism "which is another driver of equitable development," Hamilton said.

Their dreams don't end with sports and entertainment.

The Stars would also like to be the driving force to develop a downtown rail line and a Cumberland River water transportation system that ends at the stadium.

"It's a blank canvas we can all work on together," Loar said.

Stewart, who currently lives in Phoenix, said he's starting the process of moving to Nashville.

"We need to get started," he said with a smile.

I don't know if they can do any of it. But I know if they achieve a majority of their dreams, Major League Baseball and Nashville will never be the same.

I'm looking forward to the day I can buy a bleacher seat and have a beer watching the Stars.

Project 88

This story is part of Project 88, which is named for the 88 characters produced on a Smith-Corona typewriter. The Tennessean’s Keith Sharon types letters on his 1953 typewriter and mails them to people all over the world with an envelope and stamp so they can write back. This story originated with a letter Keith received. The question Project 88 is trying to answer is: Will people communicate the old-fashioned way, through heartfelt letters about the best and most challenging days of their lives. This project is not for political rants, and any kind of snail mail letter (typed, hand-written or computer printout) is acceptable. Please include a phone number.

You can be part of Project 88 by writing to:

Keith Sharon

The Tennessean

1801 West End Ave.

16th Floor

Nashville, TN 37203

Reach Keith Sharon at 615-406-1594 or ksharon@tennessean.com or on Twitter @KeithSharonTN.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Major League Baseball Dave Stewart on diversifying push