Nashville Sounds manager Rick Sweet is currently on pace to amass the most wins by a minor-league manager early next season.
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By Tyler Kepner
June 11, 2026 6:15 AM (EDT)
Link to original article: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7344721/2026/06/11/rick-sweet-nashville-sounds-minor-league-wins/
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A red Corvette convertible. That is the big-league car. That is the dream.
That is not what sits directly across from the clubhouse gates on Junior Gilliam Way here, at the home of the Nashville Sounds. It’s impressive, though, this silver Chevrolet Camaro SS, with the convertible top and the thick black racing stripes down the hood. It has given its owner 100,000 miles and looks like it would be fun to drive. It’s powered by a Corvette engine.
This is what Rick Sweet takes to work. His spot is unmarked, but nobody else shows up for night games at 10:30 a.m. And it is work, managing a minor-league baseball team. It’s not the same as pipe fitting at underground construction sites, as he did in the winter as a minor-league catcher. But it’s long days and low pay and eight-hour bus rides with players who’d rather be somewhere else.
“Triple-A manager is the hardest job in baseball,” said Terry Collins, who did it for nine years. “Because half your team isn’t happy.”
Maybe more than half. If you’re on the way up, you’re desperate to finish the climb. If you’re on the way down, you ache because you know what you’re missing. Now try leading those players, decade after decade, while silently sharing their ambitions.
That is Sweet, a 73-year-old former major-league catcher with two knee replacements, a bushy handlebar mustache and a knack for doing this job better than anyone ever has. He wears number 16 and gets a pan of freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies in his office after every home victory. Sweet 16, indeed.
Considering his record, it’s a wonder his teeth are intact. Through Wednesday, Sweet has 2,478 career wins, 18 from moving into second place on the all-time minor-league list. He is 52 away from breaking the record held by Stan Wasiak, who managed from 1950 through 1986, mostly in Class A.
“I like the fact that I’ve adjusted with the game — not to the game, with the game,” Sweet said last month over breakfast. “I can honestly say I’ve never lied, I’ve never deceived. I think my reputation with players is: ‘When Sweetie tells you something, that’s the way it is.’”
Sweet has managed in the minors for 36 seasons in 13 states and one Canadian province. He has been a Mudcat and a Mission, a Toro and a Timber, a SeaWolf and a SkySock, a Bat and a Beaver. He has guided teams in Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, too, but record-keepers only count his wins for affiliates of MLB organizations.
Eight have trusted Sweet with their futures — including, for the last 13 seasons, the Milwaukee Brewers, a low-budget marvel that depends on a rich talent pipeline. Sweet is a critical cog who keeps the spigot flowing.
“He’s been so valuable to us in player development; he’s been indispensable there, honestly,” said Matt Arnold, the Brewers’ president of baseball operations. “There are certainly so many things in this game that we try to quantify, but Rick has all this wisdom that isn’t on a spreadsheet.”
Sweet links the players to a part of baseball’s past they don’t often see anymore. The sport once teemed with managers and coaches seemingly born in double-knits, men who taught through lore and time-tested traditions. Now the instruction is more precise and individualized, often from younger people who love the sport, but don’t live it.
Rare is the leader who has seen everything but stays current, open-minded and vital. The Nashville players recognize it when they see it.