While Todd Parnell was the general manager at Class AA Altoona, Pa., his gall bladder was removed. He wanted to give it away as part of a game-night promotion. The plan was vetoed. “My doctor got serious about Hazmat stuff,“ Parnell said. Instead, at an Altoona game Parnell distributed 500 color pictures of his gall bladder, then autographed them in the stadium concourse. Parnell said that during subsequent months, he was occasionally stopped in the area and told, “Hey, I’ve still got your gall bladder on my refrigerator.“ Parnell, now the vice president and chief operating officer of Richmond’s Class AA franchise, pledges that similarly inventive promotions—though probably not as personal—are coming to The Diamond.

Today is baseball fans’ first crack at season tickets for Richmond’s Class AA franchise, which will begin play next season. Club operators could have announced the date and simply unlocked the door to The Diamond’s ticket office. “That’s not fun,“ said Bill Papierniak, the franchise’s general manager. Richmond will experience its first Ticketpalooza. Full season-ticket packages will be sold ($568) in a carnival atmosphere at The Diamond. From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at no charge for participants, there will be games, inflatables, a petting zoo, pony rides, karaoke, pumpkin painting and other activities.

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.

About 18 months after the Atlanta Braves announced they were relocating their Class AAA franchise to Gwinnett County, Ga., Richmond could acquire a new professional baseball franchise this week. Eastern League President Joe McEacharn set Saturday, Aug. 1 as the deadline for identification of which of the league’s 12 Class AA franchises will relocate to Richmond next season.

Professional baseball won’t return to Richmond until next year, but its presence apparently will be noticeable starting next month. Minor League Baseball and the Eastern League plan to assign a Class AA franchise to Richmond before Aug. 1. When that happens, “somebody is going to go in there and somebody is going to take Richmond by storm,“ Joe McEacharn, the Eastern League president, said yesterday.