Boys and Girls Clubs of Richmond works to build youth baseball field

A quiet, ambitious effort to build a new ballpark in South Richmond is under way, but it won't cost millions of dollars or provide a home for the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond have partnered with the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation to renovate a youth baseball field behind the club's Southside Unit on Bainbridge Street.

The refurbished field would mimic Boston's Fenway Park, with a tall, Green Monster wall in left field. It also would employ synthetic turf to minimize maintenance and be designed to accommodate soccer, flag football and other sports.

While a $1.3 million fundraising campaign is ongoing, officials hope to break ground in mid-2010, allowing play to begin late next fall -- about six months later than initially planned.

So far, officials have raised about $400,000, with hopes of having $750,000 by year's end, said Chuck Brady, deputy executive director of the Ripken foundation and a former director of the local Boys & Girls Clubs.

"You can't hide the fact that it's been a little slow," he said of fundraising in a plodding economy. "Folks that we've talked to really like this project and see the value it will bring to that South Richmond neighborhood."

The ballfield project is an outgrowth of a three-year relationship between the Boys & Girls Clubs and the Ripken foundation, which was established in 2001 to honor the late manager, coach and player in the Baltimore Orioles organization and the father of former major-leaguers Cal Ripken Jr. and Bill Ripken.

The foundation is working in 135 cities and towns to implement programs that use baseball to teach disadvantaged youths how to be good citizens and to make good choices, Brady said. A dozen cities, including Richmond, were identified for additional funding and attention.

At the Southside Unit on Bainbridge, the idea is to transform a weedy, gently sloped field with battered bleachers into a bustling community asset. The field would be wrapped by an exercise trail with a dozen stations along the way emphasizing a life lesson.

"This is probably one of the nicer ones I've seen in these neighborhoods," Brady said on a visit to the field. "They keep it mowed so kids can play on it."

If all goes as planned, the field could attract scores of youths -- even in weekend tournaments. While designed for youths, the field project has already drawn strong interest from the Flying Squirrels, the relocated minor-league team that'll play at The Diamond starting next spring. The organizations have started talking about working together.

"I've personally seen what they've done with kids," said Todd Parnell, the Flying Squirrels' vice president and chief operating officer. "I'm a big believer in what the Ripken foundation is doing."

Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or .