My minor league catch up continued this past week with a visit to CarMax Park, the new home of the Richmond Flying Squirrels of the Eastern League. Richmond is just a six-hour drive from New York City, but with tolls and high gas prices, it was cheaper (and quicker) to fly down on miles. I arrived Wednesday afternoon and after dropping my bag at the hotel, headed over to Scott's Addition, the historic district that contains a number of bars and restaurants. From there, the new ballpark is a 5-10 minute walk. If you are coming from the west, you will walk over a bridge along Arthur Ashe Boulevard that provides an obstructed view of the exterior through a fence (below). If you are driving, you can park next to The Diamond, the previous ballpark, for $10.
If you already have your ticket, you can enter through the Left Field Gate; as you can see below there is still a lot of work to be done in the area. An Uber driver told me that The Diamond is to be torn down and an entertainment district built around the ballpark, but that is several years away from completion.
Most fans enter via the center field gate (below), next to which is the box office. The cheapest ticket is $10 plus tax for a lawn pass, and I asked if I could get a hard stub. I was told that there is a fee and I expected it to be $5, but it was only 50 cents. When the lady couldn't figure out how to print the ticket, she asked the grumpy gent next to her and he said "You are not supposed to give them the option [to print]" but it was too late, I had already paid my 50 cents and I got my hard ticket.
One of the things that really angers me about the digital ducat is you often need to create an account and the teams use your phone number and email address to spam you later in the season and even in future campaigns. I'm still getting emails from the College of Charleston despite multiple attempts at unsubscribing and the Lake Erie Crushers, who I saw three years ago nearly to the day, have suddenly started emailing me about their upcoming ticket specials.
Anyway, I was still happy to have the physical evidence of my visit and walked in. The first picture I took was from the concourse out in center field; this place is a bit unusual for a minor league park as there are several rows of seats just below.
These are known as the Knot Hole and comprise benches on both sides of the batter's eye. This is one of 14 named seating zones around the park, and there are also seven hospitality areas. Pretty much every area of the park has a special name and there are ushers holding signs to keep you informed.
For example, The Landing (below) is directly behind the left field fence, while the Rail Car Suites are above that.
The view from the suites is quite nice and gives you an idea of the structure of the ballpark, which is typical for those being built these days.
The visiting bullpen is in the left field corner and you can stand there and pester the players for a ball, as a few kids did during the game.
Just next to it is The Patio, an area with several tables that is open to the public, but pay attention as foul balls land here on occasion.
The concourse is mostly covered and has plenty of room to walk around. As is the norm in new ballparks, most concessions are built in alcoves, allowing for ease of passage. Wednesday is $3 beer night until first pitch, with PBR included as an option. It's a new park so the beer lines are still fresh and it was the crispest ballpark beer I've had in a long while. After that, you can get souvenir cups with 16-ounce beer for $10. Plus tax of course.
There are drink rails but these are sold as seats and you will need a ticket to sit there, at least early in the game. Some rails are for wheelchairs and you can stand there if no one claims the spot.
Near the left field entrance is a tribute to the Richmond 34, a group of university students who participated in a sit-in at a lunch counter back in 1960.
Just a few steps away is a giant mitt that is a great photo op if you have kids.
The layout is typical, with blue seats all the way around and an upper level of suites and private party areas. Capacity here is 9,585, quite large for AA and larger than nine AAA ballparks. Interestingly, capacity at The Diamond was 9,560 for Squirrels games, when the top of the sections was tarped off.
Directly behind the plate is a club area, so you cannot stand and watch the game from here, but it does offer an opportunity to put some artwork on the concourse (below). This is known as the
Backstop Mural and was painted by Matt Lively.
Looking back at the main entrance, you can kind of make out the stats board along one of the brick poles; it shows the batter's or pitcher's season stats.
The Diamond is in the distance beyond left field. It opened in 1985 and hosted the AAA Richmond Braves until 2008, and then the Flying Squirrels from 2010. I visited for both teams, with the
latter documented on the blog.
Below is a similar shot at night; I ended up attending two games here though not the two I expected to see.
The fancy seats have rails as well and you might have trouble sneaking into here as this is The Legacy Club and sold out to season ticket holders, but it is easy enough to sit a couple of sections away.
Out in right field, the Squirrels bullpen is covered, with a drink rail behind it. Not a great place to sit for the first few innings on a sunny evening.
Just next to here is The Lawn, a rather small area compared to some other parks.
Most new stadiums include a playground; this one looks pretty impressive. You can see the bleachers behind it; that is Sports Backers Stadium, a place I
visited for VCU women's soccer a few years ago.
The scoreboard is massive for AA, though both sides contain ads, which I've cropped out. Still, there is a lot of info there; Wednesday's game was Bark in the Park and the visiting players had their faces altered with dog ears and noses.
Behind the batter's eye is a mural of four large baseball cards, painted by Jason Ford. Each player has a deep connection to Richmond, with Ray Dandridge the only native of the city to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The Flying Squirrels have adopted a 'nutty' theme for promotions and a giant baseball-acorn highlights this connection.
The Mixed Nut Race features a variety of nuts (The Almond Brothers, Peanut, Johnny Cashew, Pablo Pistachio, Shelly Clarkson, and John Walnut) jogging around the warning track.
Even the groundskeepers are not immune as they must wear squirrel costumes when dragging the infield.
Overall, CarMax Park has a lot to offer for all types of fans and is an obvious improvement on The Diamond, which was from a bygone era. I certainly miss visiting the more charming older stadiums but times have changed and this ballpark fits the new template perfectly. You might want to wait a year to see how the surrounding area develops, but even now, this is a very good place to watch a very good team.
The Game
Binghamton is the AA affiliate of the Mets and like their parent club, struggling to start the season at 14-26, while Richmond (Giants) was 28-11. The Rumble Ponies sent Jonathan Santucci (2nd round, 2024, Mets #8 prospect, below) to the mound while the Flying Squirrels countered with Matt Wilkinson, a Vancouver native who was a 10th-round pick to Cleveland in 2023 but recently traded to the Giants in the Patrick Bailey deal. At 6'1, 250, Wilkinson is nicknamed Tugboat.
Tied at 2 in the third, Jacob Reimer (4th, 2022, Mets #4 prospect, below) led off with a double and after a walk to Jose Ramos, JT Schwartz (4th, 2021) homered to make it 5-2 Binghamton. Wilkinson was removed after just three innings.
Richmond got a pair back in the fourth only for the visitors to add another in the fifth. In the bottom half, Santucci was replaced by Gabriel Rodriguez who gave up a monster homer to Parks Harber (Giants #14 prospect despite not being drafted, below), who has a perfect name for a Giants player as their park is on a harbor. By the way, it was 97 degrees at game time and yet the Flying Squirrels were wearing all black uniforms.
The bullpens then shut things down until the bottom of the ninth, when Saul Garcia came in for the save. Unfortunately, he gave up a game-tying homer to aptly-named Ty Hanchey and extra-innings loomed. But Jack Payton walked, was sacrificed to second, and stole third. Jonah Cox (6th, 2023 to Oakland) struck out to bring Harber to the plate and he hit the first pitch up the middle for a game-winning single. Yay! No extra innings! Of course, the scoreboard changed before I could take a picture, but the final was 7-6 Richmond in a very exciting game.
My Player to Watch is Harber, who went 4-5 with a run and 2 RBIs. I hope he can make it to the Giants just due to his name. Meanwhile, Cox was called up to the Giants on May 31, hitting a double in his first major league at bat.
Notes
I also planned to see Thursday's game, but heavy rain was in the forecast and as I did not have a car, I would have been caught in the storm. They managed to get the game in, but the rain came late and Binghamton scored seven runs in the ninth on six walks and two hit batsmen, likely due to a slippery ball. But then fate intervened to get me a second game anyway. My flight home on Friday evening was delayed 90 minutes due to a sinkhole at LGA. Rather than risk further delays, I changed my flight to the next morning and made my way back to the ballpark to see Richmond win easily 10-5.
Next Up
A big west coast trip as I hope to finish the minors again with visits to Ontario and Hillsboro, plus MLB in Vegas and the Pioneer League in Long Beach. Check back for updates in a couple of weeks.
Best,
Sean
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