'Funn Is Back'

High up in the stands at The Diamond in Richmond.

I swear to you that my early draft of this post had “The Fun Is Back” as a title, but then I arrived at the stadium in Richmond and saw this souvenir magnet schedule emblazoned with the team’s own twisted version of the phrase. I was told the extra “n” is for the extra fun fans will have when they come to a ballgame here. 

Tonight’s matchup is the Richmond Flying Squirrels vs. the Bowie Bay Sox. The first thing I think of when I hear “flying squirrel” is our cartoon friend from Rocky and Bullwinkle. That would be enough to make me smile, but the San Francisco Giants' AA baseball team in Richmond steps it up a notch with a fierce superhero mascot named Nutzy, complete with cape. He’s come to save the day, like Mighty Mouse, that other tough cartoon rodent we remember. Nutzy has a female friend named Nutasha. Hmmm.

Adam Duvall, a former Flying Squirrel, now in the big leagues.
A Funn Fact about other former Squirrels.
A distancing label in the grandstand. There's that squirrel again.

The award-winning logo came from the design team at Brandiose. They’ve had great success with logos for other minor league teams as well, including the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp and the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, and multiple alternate team identities that frequently involve a local favorite food, like the Philly Cheesesteaks.

This kind of fun (or funn) permeates the world of minor league baseball, and it keeps me going on my quest to visit as many of stadiums as I can. I arrived tonight a few minutes before the Squirrely Gates opened, just in time to hear the team’s anthem, “Hail to the Flying Squirrels,” as the ticket takers let us in.

The half-sign on the far right says, "Welcome to the Squirrelly Gates."

“Whoa-oh-oh, boys and girls.
Let’s all cheer our Flying Squirrels.
Whoa-oh-oh, make some noise.
We are Richmond, hear our voice.”

The sheer size of the stadium is striking. With a capacity of 9,560, it’s one of the largest in the minor leagues, and it's especially large for a AA team. It's big partly because it was home to the Atlanta Braves' AAA team before they moved to Lawrenceville, Ga., about a decade ago. They left behind a big white elephant of a stadium. It’s the old-fashioned kind, where the concessions are crammed in beneath the stands. You can’t see what’s happening on the field while you wait in line for your delicious BBQ nachos.

The sparse early crowd before the game. More than 3,000 fans showed up, and they made noise. The very top rows are covered so they won't count as vacant seats.

But back in your seats, the lofty scale of the structure is impressive too. The small crowd of 3,000-plus sounded like 30,000 thanks in part to the acoustics of a giant concrete overhang that stretches from one end of the seating bowl to the other. They call the place Funnville (two “n’s” again), but it’s official name is simply majestic: The Diamond. Even its address, 3001 North Arthur Ashe Boulevard, speaks of sports royalty. 

Boo was one of many dogs, many big dogs, in the stands.
Wednesday was Barktoberfest night,
a promotional combination of pets, beer and baseball.

Many major league teams were able to eliminate their long-distance relationships with affiliates when Major League Baseball took over the minor leagues and reduced the number of teams from 160 to 120. The Flying Squirrels and the San Francisco Giants are probably the furthest apart of any other major league club and minor league affiliate. The Bowie Bay Sox and the Baltimore Orioles, on the other hand, are about as close as you can get. All of the Orioles' teams are nearby, the furthest being the Norfolk Tides, about 250 miles away from Camden Yards.

It was a good game, but not quite good enough for the Flying Squirrels fans. Final: Bowie 2, Richmond 1.