Sweet was drafted in the 3rd round of the secondary phase of the 1975 Major League Baseball draft by the San Diego Padres. He spent six seasons in their organization, including one full season with the major league club in 1978, when he split time behind the plate with Gene Tenace. He batted.221 in 88 games. In 1979, he was replaced by Bill Fahey, who had been acquired from the Texas Rangers. On his 1979 Toppsbaseball card, Rick is laughing. This is because teammate and friend Gene Tenace asked him jokingly how it felt hitting only one home run, to which Rick started laughing and the photographer snapped the photo, and it was used for his baseball card. After two seasons with the Triple-A Hawaii Islanders minor league team, Sweet's contract was purchased from the Padres by the New York Mets. He spent another full season at Triple-A in 1981, this time with the Tidewater Tides, then began the 1982 season with the Mets. He played just three games in the first six weeks of the season before having his contract sold to the Seattle Mariners, where he was made their starting catcher. In both 1982 and 1983, Sweet played more games behind the plate than any other Mariners' catcher, appearing in a total of 181 games, batting.238. In November 1983, the Mariners acquired catcher Bob Kearney from the Oakland Athletics in a trade, and Sweet was released in March. Rather than return to the minor leagues, Sweet retired, and was named the Mariners' bullpen coach.
Post-playing career
After spending 1984 as a Mariners coach, he was moved into the scouting department for the next two seasons. In 1987, Sweet was named to his first managerial post, with the Bellingham Mariners of the Northwest League. He spent one more season managing in the Seattle organization with the Wausau Timbers, then moved to the Houston Astros system to manage the Osceola Astros. Over the next seven seasons, Sweet moved his way up the Astros chain. In 1993, while managing the Triple-A Tucson Toros, he won his first championship, as the Toros won the Pacific Coast League title. By 1996, he was named to the Astros' coaching staff under manager Terry Collins. After one season as Houston's first base coach, he was let go along with Collins, and landed in the New York Mets organization for 1997. After managing the Binghamton Mets in, Sweet changed organizations once more, moving on to manage the Harrisburg Senators, the Double-A farm team of the Montreal Expos. In 1998, Sweet won his second league championship as a manager, leading Harrisburg to the Eastern League title. Over the next several years, Sweet continued to manage, moving from the Expos organization to the Padres' system in 2001, the Detroit Tigers system for a season in 2004, and then finally the Reds' organization in 2005, when he was named as manager of their Triple-A farm team, the Louisville Bats. He led the team to three straight Western Division titles and was named the International League Manager of the Year in 2008 and 2009. Sweet was released from his managerial position with the Bats following the 2011 season. He stayed with the Reds organization as a roving catching instructor for their minor league teams. In December 2013, Sweet was hired to manage the Nashville Sounds, the Milwaukee Brewers' Triple-A club, beginning in 2014. Sweet became the 15th manager in the history of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox in 2015 after the Brewers moved their Triple-A affiliate from Nashville to Colorado Springs.
