There are seats that stretch the wall in left field next to the foul pole fifty feet from the opposing team’s bullpen. I was sitting four bar chairs down from the pole waiting for my friend to arrive so we could get a dog and a burger before there were any lines.
I’d wanted to sit near the foul pole ever since I saw the years-later replay on SportsCenter of Carlton Fisk’s 12th-inning home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. I wanted to take in a clutch performance like that with my own eyes. I’d never gotten the opportunity to sit that close to the foul pole before.
The view of the field was magnificent.
I moved from my chair and walked over to the pole and put my hand on it. It was cold from the wind and my hand looked old compared to its fresh, banana paint. I consider the foul pole to be something taken for granted that is essential to the game. When that 12th-inning blast down the line happens, that foul pole will mean a whole hell of a lot and so will which side of it the ball is on.
My friend got there before the first pitch. We got dogs and burgers and lemonade while we waited for the Flying Squirrels to take the field. Happy isn’t a good enough word to describe the crowd, maybe a better word for it is jubilant. Static electricity was in the air and it felt like a bolt of lightning would pop out of the stands. The Batter-Up Brass Band played as the sold-out crowd took in the beautiful new park and the view of the field from the hardfought seats they were able to secure before Opening Day. Grammy-winning trumpeter, Nabate Isles, played the National Anthem as hats came off and people watched the stadium take its first breath.
A week before CarMarx Park opened to the public on April 7th, RVA Magazine was taken on a twenty-minute tour inside the walls of Richmond’s brand new stadium. Before, most drivers from the city and surrounding counties only got glimpses from Arthur Ashe Boulevard as they headed towards I-95. Passengers got the best and longest view but it wasn’t anything to satiate the desire to see what had taken the city and the Gilbane Building Company the last year to keep hush-hush behind the chainlink fences. Much like cruising by Ourisman Toyota on Broad Street wondering when next year’s new vehicles will appear on the lot.
Going to a dealership, looking to buy a new car with all the wild new tech before it comes out, probably has the same effect as going to CarMax Park had prior to Opening Day. You sit in the driver’s seat and look through the spotless windshield at whatever is in front of you and maybe you dream about the places the car could take you and who would be along for the ride. The salesman gives you his pitch and it almost sounds like he’s singing Hallelujah.
The AA ballclub stadium, nest of the Richmond Flying Squirrels, still had the new car scent as we were led out of the team store and through the different seating sections and past the row of various concession stands and beer taps and told about each one. Richmond’s glowing Diamond sits in the distance over the left field wall and parking lot, which is all that separates the former from the new home of the Giant’s farmclub.
Looking at the Diamond is the same as looking at your old car parked in front of your house after driving a shiny, new one off the lot. Suddenly the tiny scratches appear to be deep gouges and the small dings and dents that only freckled the old car before now look like someone hit golf balls at the front fender. The places where the paint had faded and chipped seem so prevalent. The water in the headlight. The coffee stains on the armrest. The smell in the back seat. The way the seatbelt gets caught in the door and everything slides to the other side of the car when you make a turn. None of these things were as obvious to you as they were when you pulled that new whip into your driveway.
CarMax Park really is a beautiful new automobile. It has everything the Diamond had and almost everything it didn’t. The new stadium is smaller and more energy and fuel efficient. The backup camera and sound system are great. The paper floor mats are still down and the 30-Day tags are clean and displayed. BlueTooth replaced the six-disc changer and all of the seats are heated. The tires were fresh and the gas tank was filled up and the Squirrels were ready to push the ignition button at 7:05.
The only thing CarMax doesn’t have that The Diamond does is the nostalgia and that will only be a matter of time. Years from now the stadium will have its own abrasions and scuff marks just like the Diamond did in its infancy. Just like your old car did.
Hopefully the Squirrels will win a championship that they can bring back to Richmond this season. Manager Dennis Pelfry (the winningest manager in franchise history) leads the charge and those are the kinda odds the city needs to pull in all the chips.
I looked at the foul pole again, and I thought about all the little sluggers who would be experiencing their first baseball game in a stadium that night. Babies. Second graders. Nineteen year olds. I tried to imagine how people felt going to Shea Stadium for the first time after the Polo Grounds had been torn down. Going to Camden Yards after Memorial Park was bulldozed. Buying a ticket at PNC Park two years after Three Rivers Stadium imploded.
There were probably mixed feelings, which is natural and appropriate. I’m sure there were some on Opening Day in our city. I know I had mine, which is no fault of the franchise. The Squirrels needed their own identity, finally out from underneath the shadow of the Richmond Braves. The new car we got really is great, but I do miss the old one and the memories that I had driving around in it for years and years – but things change. Cars fall apart.
Omar Alfonso of Altoona hit a home run ten feet above where I was sitting in left field. It was the first time I had been that close to a ball hit out of the park. I imagine this will be the kind of memory that continues to sell-out the stadium like it did on April 7th. We need all the good memories we can get. It wasn’t Carlton Fisk but it was good enough.
Squirrels won 3-2.
Photos by R. Anthony Harris
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