The final whistle has just blown on Nashville SC’s 5-1 rout of Swope Park Rangers and a handful of Nashville’s players are straggling over to the supporters’ section at First Tennessee Park. Defender Justin Davis grabs two cans of beer, cracks them simultaneously and sprays a fountain of froth all over himself and anybody else in his vicinity. The last few drops make it into his mouth.



The supporters begin to sing: “He’s having a kid! He’s having a kid!” Davis has recently learned that he’s going to be a father. His teammates join in, all of it unfolding along the third-base line of a rain-soaked minor-league baseball field, in the warm glow of a giant, 70-foot-tall, guitar-shaped scoreboard. One of the larger supporters’ groups here call themselves “the Roadies,” a nod to the hardworking grunts who toil in the shadows supporting the city’s musical talent. It’s a little on-the-nose, but it...