(Knoxville, TN) Home Runs & Home Teams: A History of the National Pastime in Tennessee opens to the public on Saturday, March 22, 2025 at the Museum of East Tennessee History.

As Tennesseeans, baseball is in our DNA, and although the game is common to us, it has never remained the same during anyone’s lifetime.

  • Who were among the first to play baseball in Tennessee?
  • How did 31 Tennessee towns come to host a MiLB team?
  • What makes a day at a Tennessee ballpark an iconic experience?

Home Runs & Home Teams provides an overview of the national pastime as it has played out in the Volunteer State. For every story included in the exhibition, there are hundreds more–from players to pennants, from bat makers to bat boys–that could have been shared. So as you “round the bases,” think about your connections to the game, your ties to the past. What does baseball mean to you and to your community? What baseball stories should libraries and museums preserve to share with future Tennesseans?

Home Runs & Home Teams is presented by Boyd Sports with support from Denark Construction, Knoxville Utilities Board, Chris and Donna Kinney, Ed and Lisa Shouse, and Downtown Knoxville Alliance. 

For more information about this exhibition, visit https://www.easttnhistory.org/exhibitions/home-runs-home-teams/.

Media Inquiries
Kelley Weatherley-Sinclair
Community Engagement Manager
East Tennessee Historical Society
kelleyws@easttnhistory.org 
865-215-8883

About the Museum of East Tennessee History
The Museum of East Tennessee History is located on the first floor of the East Tennessee History Center in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, and is comprised of four galleries: the introductory East Tennessee Streetscape, the signature Voices of the Land: The People of East Tennessee, the family-oriented, hands-on History Headquarters, and the ever-changing feature gallery. The Museum’s permanent collection is comprised of more than 16,000 objects. Its mission is to preserve, interpret, and promote the history of East Tennessee’s 35 counties and is operated through a public-private partnership between Knox County Public Library and the East Tennessee Historical Society.