In a stadium-use agreement, the Richmond Metropolitan Authority is leasing The Diamond to Navigators Baseball, Inc. Richmond’s Class AA baseball franchise still has no formal name. The team will have a name by Oct. 15, the result of a name-the-team contest. Navigators Baseball, Inc., refers to 2005, when Lou DiBella formed a partnership and purchased the Norwich Navigators for about $10 million. A year later, the franchise changed its name to Connecticut Defenders, a tribute to the military defense industry in that area.

Richmond’s new baseball franchise has a couple of connections that fans interested in major-league prospects and winning will find attractive. Class AAA, the level at which the Richmond Braves played from 1966 to 2008, includes more recognizable names because many players at that level bring major-league experience. But Class AA, the minor leagues’ second-highest rung and the Richmond club’s classification starting next season, usually features a greater number of up-and-coming talents.

An announcement of which Class AA Eastern League franchise is relocating to Richmond for next season will be made a week from today, sources said. Industry insiders identified Connecticut as the franchise on the move. Richmond’s new club will play at The Diamond for a minimum of two years while team owners and officials from the city and neighboring counties discuss a new ballpark. The franchise now in Connecticut is contractually bound to the San Francisco Giants through 2010.

Behind-the-scenes work apparently has already started as The Diamond readies for Richmond’s next professional baseball team. Sources said it will be the Class AA franchise now based in Connecticut. Those involved with the relocation process have been told by Minor League Baseball and the Eastern League not to comment publicly on the move until it is formally announced, Eastern League President Joe McEacharn said.

If the Connecticut franchise moves to Richmond next year—and that seems the most likely scenario—San Francisco’s Class AA club and its current fan base will likely part on a good note. The Connecticut franchise hasn’t made the Eastern League playoffs since 2002, the last season it was affiliated with the New York Yankees. But heading into last night’s activity, the Defenders were 49-34 and leading the Eastern League North Division. Connecticut has several well-regarded young prospects, especially on its pitching staff, and is led for the first season by Steve Decker, a former big-league catcher.

This column contains no mea culpa, no “I was wrong.“ Today, the operative phrase is, “I told you so.“ If I was mistaken in thinking Shockoe Bottom was a viable and inevitable location for a new baseball stadium, let me now point out that I began advocating a riverfront site for a new ballpark in October 2000. Now comes Reynolds Packaging Group, which owns almost 18 acres of property on the south bank of the James River between the Manchester and Mayo bridges. It’s pitching this site for a minor-league baseball stadium.

A man approached Charlie Diradour and shook his hand outside The Diamond yesterday. “Keep up the good work, Charlie,“ he said. Replied Diradour: “Thank you very much for coming out.“ Diradour, who arranged the appearance to announce the launching of his revamped Web site, looked as if a politician were the centerpiece. Diradour is not a politician—at least not yet.

Reynolds Packaging Group, the owner of almost 18 prime acres on the south bank of the James River, is pitching Manchester as the place to play ball in Richmond.

You are about to read three words you thought you’d never see in this space: I was wrong. Three months ago, I boosted Shockoe Bottom as the inevitable site of a new Richmond baseball stadium and all but urged Mayor Dwight C. Jones to grab a ceremonial chrome-plated shovel and break some ground, already. As it turns out, the stadium proposal was about to have dirt shoveled on it. It died last week when Highwoods Properties withdrew its $363 million redevelopment plan for Shockoe Bottom.

The ownership group moving a Class AA baseball franchise to Richmond next season will commit more than $1 million for short-term improvements to The Diamond, the Eastern League president said yesterday. “We want to bring a first-class product to Richmond,“ Joe McEacharn said. “We are going to show our good faith not only by coming with a team, but we are going to substantially upgrade the product for the short term.“

The continued lack of a ballpark plan “complicates” the Eastern League’s process of identifying a Class AA franchise and ownership group for Richmond, Eastern League President Joe McEacharn acknowledged yesterday, but he added “it’s a challenge that we are committed to meeting.“ McEacharn said he remains optimistic that one of the Eastern League’s dozen franchises will be based at The Diamond next season whether or not the Shockoe Center proposal and its $60 million ballpark gain city approval.

One deal is kaput. Formulating a fresh one is the next step for Richmond Baseball Club LC. RBC has a Sunday deadline to meet the $15.4 million sale price of the Double-A Connecticut Defenders. That transaction will not take place, RBC spokesman Pete Boisseau confirmed yesterday.

Reid and Reese Ryan, of Ryan-Sanders Baseball, will visit The Diamond and the proposed site of a Shockoe Bottom ballpark today and then attend an evening meeting with community leaders and Eastern League President Joe McEacharn. When the sons of Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan return to Texas, presumably they’ll do so with a better sense of whether they should continue exploring potential ownership of the Double-A Eastern League franchise coming to Richmond next season, and the possibility of building a stadium here.

Will baseball work in the Bottom? Apparently so, according to a new study that Richmond will release portions of today. Mayor Dwight C. Jones plans to release the executive summary of a review by Davenport & Co., which already had endorsed the concept of a minor-league baseball stadium in in Shockoe Bottom in an earlier study commissioned by then-Mayor L. Douglas Wilder.

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?