Extra Innings

The process started while the Richmond Braves remained in town. Boosters would visit our offices to promote plans for a new baseball stadium. Architectural renderings would depict friendly confines in Shockoe Bottom. Everything looked and sounded so good, but the final questions never seemed to be answered. And the Braves left.

Stadium talk persisted. Sites were proposed, and hooted down. A sports-entertainment complex along the Boulevard always seemed a natural. Eyes turned elsewhere. An ambitious project for the Bottom returned and received the most attention. Again, the drawings looked great. Yet despite impressive swings in the on-deck circle, backers never drove home the winning run. They failed to generate confidence. Yesterday they withdrew their development plans. They made the right call. By the way, Mayor Dwight Jones has managed the city's role in this with the skills associated with Tony LaRussa.

If the score card for professional baseball in Richmond records strikeouts and runners stranded on base, then yesterday's announcement does not close the game. Baseball will return. Franchises are as mobile as all-star shortstops. They move around.

We love the summer game. The regulars at our neighborhood shebeen love it, too. This season the gang has talked of Justin Verlander, UVa's dash to Omaha, the latest scandal, A-Rod, Wrigleyville, the Dodgers, and the Woes. It is June, and not one word, in regret or any in other sense, has been said about the Braves and the absence of minor-league ball. Many fans miss summer evenings at the ballpark, that we do not doubt. Their time will come. Yet spare us, please, arguments that this region's future and its status among the cities of the world depends on a sport.