(No Longer) Home of the Braves

About a year and a half ago, I created a strip for Richmond Magazine about our local minor league baseball team, the Richmond Braves, and the questions about the stadium in which they play, the Diamond. It was mainly a bitch-fest...since I can't stand the team's parent club, the Atlanta Braves, I find it nearly impossible to root for a team that shares their name. Their colossally dickish policy of making all the minor league teams share their name is even more galling. Similarly, the stadium in which they play is a shithole, and pretty much has been since the day it opened, a soulless, cavernous concrete bowl that lacks personality of any kind. It's typical Richmond...not that great, but it'll do. It was not a fun place to watch a game; I live less than two miles away and went to exactly one game last season, on opening day.

Anyway, negotiations have been going on forever as to when and how the city would replace the existing ballpark. The Richmond city government, in their usual style, has been unable to get anything done or come to any kind of conclusion. The Braves, in turn, have been hinting at picking up and leaving town. Today, it was announced that they will move, and will play in a suburb of Atlanta starting in 2009. On one hand, I'm glad to see them go...unlike most minor league teams, the R-Braves were owned by their parent club and not a local organization, and were usually treated as an afterthought. On the other, I'm pretty sure (despite what I say in the strip) that Richmond will not be able to get its shit together and get another team, so baseball in the city is pretty much dead for the foreseeable future.

Shame on the city government of Richmond for being such a bunch of useless, do-nothing idiots, and fuck the Atlanta Braves (and their parent corporation, whoever it is this week) for being a bunch of thoughtless, apathetic dickholes who never gave a shit about Richmond in the first place.