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.

When the Richmond Braves first pitched a stadium in Shockoe, the plans looked great. Although the Braves departed for the world-class environs of Gwinnett, plans for a stadium and related development look even better. The issue raises questions as readily resolved as the infield fly rule: financing, heritage, transportation. The stadium’s present incarnation has almost nothing to do with regional cooperation, so we will be spared that rain delay—or postponement.

WEEK’S END Thursday headline: “Board Lowers Grading Scale.“ Headline we would like to see: “School Board Raises Grading Scale.“  Yesterday the Shepherd’s Center of Richmond celebrated its 25th anniversary. The center does not inhabit a place in the physical sense but is a program for older citizens who take classes at area churches and, in the process, enjoy fellowship and nurture their commitment to serve. Retired faculty members from the region’s universities teach the courses. The Shepherd’s Center sponsors field trips and longer tours. Members volunteer. They drive people to the doctor’s office and to the grocery store. The group is ecumenical. Participants bless Richmond.

Proposals regarding sales taxes and a baseball stadium in Shockoe could prove difficult to sell—particularly during a perhaps protracted period of budgetary retrenchment. Although the plan, floated by Del. Manoli Loupassi, would not raise taxes, it would earmark revenue generated by baseball-related development. Citizens might resent such targeting.