MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS: Can Richmond renew romance with baseball?

Sometimes, a jilted lover needs a one-night stand. So a group of us left baseball-dry Richmond one evening in July and headed to Petersburg.

From our vantage point in a beer garden -- no brew allowed in the bleachers -- we watched the home-team Generals come from behind to beat the Edenton, N.C., Steamers at the Petersburg Sports Complex.

These Coastal Plain League teams, composed of college ballplayers, were not International League-quality. There were no more than a couple of hundred fans in the stands.

Perhaps the austerity and purity of this baseball experience made it more memorable than any night I'd spent at The Diamond, which somehow managed to lack both modern amenities and old ballpark charm.

The Generals' game left me wanting more and wondering why more Richmonders hadn't felt compelled to make the trip.

As the end of the minor-league season nears, I must ask -- did we miss baseball?

"Yes, very much," said Crystal Caudle, a manager at Bill's Barbecue across from The Diamond. "We did miss it. And the Fourth of July was really weird without having the fireworks. That's one of our busiest times."

"No, not really," said Idealease general manager Jan Cross, who had grown accustomed to roping off the company's parking lot on July 4 to prevent Braves fans from stealing spaces.

Meanwhile, Gwinnett County, Ga., has embraced our old team -- sort of.

The Gwinnett Braves, who play in a new $64 million ballpark, are in first place in their division. But off the field, the move hasn't been a grand slam.

The team is averaging a modest 5,879 per game. The Richmond Braves exceeded that average in all but six seasons at The Diamond, though in its last three seasons, attendance failed to crack 5,000 a game.

Does our experience this summer suggest that baseball here is on permanent hiatus?

"Mayor [Dwight C.] Jones is fully committed to having baseball in Richmond," said spokeswoman Tammy D. Hawley. "The commitment from the Eastern League stands and we are confident that there will be a team on the ground in The Diamond next spring."

But yesterday, the sign at The Diamond still wistfully advertised it as the "Home of the Richmond Braves." Inside its padlocked gates, "Connecticut," the ballpark's fiberglass Indian brave, had the expression of someone plotting an escape.

Lying on his back on a shady grass slope behind the box office, Bob Battle, a soft-drink vendor at the Greyhound bus station across the street, chilled during a lunch break and lamented the lost summer.

"Yeah, I miss it," he said of baseball. "I did come to a few games. I hated to see the Braves go. But folks don't seem to support sports teams here."

I'd like more evidence that a summer without the Braves has stoked the area's ardor for baseball. If time apart has not inflamed our passion for the game, why build a new love nest?

Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or .