DEL.ICIO.USBraves will miss Richmond’s ‘Diamond’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, August 29, 2008
On Monday, the Richmond Braves will play their last game at “The Diamond” before the Braves move their Class AAA affiliate to Gwinnett next year.
And it’s not just people in Richmond feeling nostalgic, or any of the 10 million fans who’ve seen a game there in the last 42 years. Atlanta Braves players feel that way, too.
AP
Richmond was a jumping-off point to the major leagues for generations of Braves players.
Sure, some of the younger players know Richmond best for its cramped clubhouse and dilapidated stadium, but it wasn’t always that way. The Diamond was sparkling new in 1985.
The 12,000-seat stadium with the towering grandstand awed a 20-year-old John Smoltz when he was traded from Detroit to the Braves in 1987.
“It was the nicest stadium I’d played in,” Smoltz said. “Going from the Tigers to the Braves, I was like ‘Oh my gosh I’m closer to the big leagues than I’ve ever been.’ “
Richmond was a jumping-off point to the major leagues for generations of Braves players. It was their last taste of the minors, and with time, that taste gets sweeter.
Richmond is where Eddie Perez’s wife and daughter spent their first year in the United States, joining him from Venezuela. It’s where Glenn Hubbard used to try to light up frog eyes on an outfield fence ad — one each with four hits — to win $500 savings bonds. It’s where Smoltz nearly gave pitching coach Leo Mazzone a coronary the day he was called up to Atlanta.
It’s the backdrop to some funny moments, big moments, Braves players will always remember.
Smoltz was on a golf course in Richmond, having recently taken up the sport, in May of 1988 when he witnessed his first teammate getting called up to the majors. He was with Jose Alvarez.
“Some truck pulled up and said ‘Hey are you Jose Alvarez? You’ve just been called up to the big leagues,’ ” Smoltz said. “He was on the top of the world.”
Two months later, it was Smoltz’s turn. Soon after Richmond manager Jim Beauchamp gave him the news, Smoltz played a joke on Mazzone. He faked a hamstring injury while doing some running, figuring it was justifiable payback for being pulled out of his previous start after five perfect innings.
“54 pitches” Smoltz recalls.
“I went down, straight to the ground,” Smoltz said. “It wasn’t until (Mazzone) got over me, ‘Smoltzie, don’t you be doing this to me’ that I turned around with a big ol’ smile.”
For Perez, 1994 in Richmond was the first time in eight minor-league seasons he got to catch every day. Javy Lopez had been called up to the majors, and Tyler Houston played mostly first base that year.
Richmond beat Syracuse for the Governor’s Cup. And because of the major league strike that August, Richmond’s playoff run generated that much more excitement.
“TBS had to put some games on TV, so they went down there and got some games on TV,” Perez said. “It was awesome. All the games were sold out everywhere we went.”
Jeff Bennett helped Richmond win the Governor’s Cup last season for the first time since 1994. He won Game 1 of the best-of-five series. Then because of a rainout he pitched the first game of the clinching doubleheader sweep on three days’ rest. That playoff run helped get him a September call-up and a place on the Braves roster this year.
By the time Bennett got to the Diamond, it was one of the dingiest stadiums in the league. But it didn’t look too bad to him from the top of the stadium steps he used to run.
“For how old it is, I’ve definitely played in worse,” Bennett said. “I played in Fayetteville N.C., the old Greensboro stadium when it was the Yankees’, Lynchburg, oh my goodness, before they re-did it.”
Bennett figures he bottomed out in Class AAA Nashville in 2005, where the home clubhouse had moldy ceiling tiles.
Matt Diaz remembers veterans with five years’ major league service time sharing lockers when he came to Richmond with the Durham Bulls in 2003 and 2004.
“The field was awful,” Diaz said. “We got rained out four days in a row there, and there wasn’t a drop of rain. Some kind of water hose busted underneath and opened up sink holes in the outfield. Even though it was not that old, the stadium looked run down and beat up. The locker rooms were the worst in the International League. I can go on and on. …
“It’s probably the worst stadium in the International League but one of the best towns.”
It was no Rochester, he said.
“Richmond was a fun town,” said Tom Glavine, who played there in parts of 1986 and 1987. “Nice little college town. You had good restaurants, good places to go have a beer. I was still probably too young to have a beer actually.”
Oops.
It’s been 22 years; it’s probably safe for Glavine to say that now.
Richmond is the last of the four minor-league cities Glavine played in to be vacated by the Braves: Bradenton, Sumter, Greenville, and now Richmond.
“Wow, that’s hard to believe,” Glavine said. “It is kind of sad. All those memories are just gone-zo. It’s the ever-changing landscape I guess.”
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