R-Braves fans still finds ways to get baseball fix

They arrived at The Diamond about 90 minutes before the first pitches of Richmond Braves' games. To the edges of the dugouts they gravitated for autographs and chats with players after batting practice.

A half-dozen or so Diamond die-hards, almost all season-ticket holders, would then take their seats in the last couple of rows in the lower deck, behind home plate, and talk. About their kids. About the weather. About corked bats or wine corks. About where a new ballpark should go, or if Richmond really needs one.

About that 1993 season that Chipper Jones played shortstop in Richmond. About how long it takes for an autographed baseball card to dry. About gardening. About death, taxes, and the infield-fly rule.

"We'd start talking and talking, then realize there was a ballgame going on," said Ed Loyd, a regular at Parker Field, then The Diamond, which opened in 1985.

Loyd badly misses baseball in Richmond, as do Allen Moser, Janice Tapia, Tom Schaefer, Lee Ross, Harold Messler and others who came and went with this group that gathered behind home plate to watch R-Braves games for a decade or more. But mostly, they miss the camaraderie.

"It was our social life in the summertime," Tapia said.

The R-Braves relocated to Gwinnett County, Ga., following last season, a decision by the Atlanta Braves that was strongly influenced by the organization's dissatisfaction with The Diamond. "Just a shame," said Messler, 65. "We lost a Triple-A ballclub. One step below the major leagues!"

These devoted R-Braves' fans -- "I always just call us The Baseball Gang," said Ross -- determined that the absence of a baseball franchise in Richmond wasn't going to deprive them from such enjoyable times. A few of them have traveled together this season to ballparks in other parts of the state, or farther, to watch pro games.

Tapia makes sure her trips involve the Atlanta Braves' system in some way. She went to see Myrtle Beach, Atlanta's Class A team, play at Potomac, went to Baltimore to watch the Atlanta team play, and later this season plans to watch the Braves in Washington.

A room in Tapia's Henrico County home features hundreds of mementos from the Richmond Braves, which she followed as a season-ticket holder for 15 years. She still keeps in touch with some former Richmond players.

Tapia was heavily involved with the events sponsored by Richmond Braves' Booster Club and continues in a leadership role though the team no longer exists. She e-mails news and notes to those who consider themselves members of this loosely affiliated collection of fans/friends from behind home plate. One message may be a commentary on Atlanta's southpaws. The next could bring information regarding the hospitalization of a former R-Braves' usher.

This group, mostly of 50-and-over men, also periodically meets for breakfast at a local establishment to extend conversations that may have started at The Diamond last August. They plan road trips and ask Schaefer about his 13-year-old son, John. He grew up with The Baseball Gang, watching his first game at The Diamond at 4, and returned perhaps 40 times a year.

Tom Schaefer, 55, owned R-Braves' season tickets since The Diamond opened in 1985. He is among the Gang members planning a trip to the Arizona Fall League, in which top prospects compete. Schaefer figures he needs a fall fix after a summer without hometown hardball.

Loyd, at 69, is old enough to have been through this torment twice. He remembers going to Richmond Virginians games in the early 1960s, then that franchise leaving for Toledo after the 1964 season. The Braves' top farm team came here in 1966, leaving Loyd with no pro ball to watch in '65.

"I don't think it was as big a shock to me then as it is now," he said.

The Baseball Gang seems highly supportive of efforts to promptly return baseball to Richmond. The Eastern League pledged that one of its 12 franchises will be at The Diamond next season. Moser believes that's better than Triple-A. More prospects, he contends. Messler remains partial to Triple-A.

Good talking point for April, back behind home plate.

Contact John O'Connor at (804) 649-6233 or .