CarMax Park - Richmond Flying Squirrels

Erie SeaWolves (DET) @ Richmond Flying Squirrels (SF)

July 18, 2026

Flying Squirrels 7, SeaWolves 6 (10 inn.)

W: Ryan Vanderhei
L: Wandisson Charles

HR: E.J. Exposito (ERI)

Attendance: 7,651
Time of Game: 3 hours, 11 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Richmond, VA
Opened: 2026
Capacity: 10,000
Level: Double A
League: Eastern

While Richmond is one of the nearest minor league cities to me, I intentionally saved this one for the third season of my minor league tour to see a game at the brand new CarMax Park, which just opened this year.  It being my final minor league game of 2026 was mostly a coincidence though.  As it turned out, I saved one of the nicest parks and one of the best games for last.  I drove down to Richmond for a Saturday night game in mid-July.

CarMax Park is located a few miles northwest of downtown Richmond, just off of I-95 and right in the shadows of its predecessor, The Diamond, which remains standing for the time being.  It sort of reminded me of seeing the New Comiskey Park towering over the old stadium during its final season on the South Side of Chicago.  Except, just the opposite.  Here, the old concrete behemoth towers over left field of the brand new stadium with a sunken field below street level.  It has a really neat design to its 360 degree concourse.  There is ample outfield bleacher and lawn seating, with rail seats along the outfield wall and overlooking the home bullpen.  There are patio and party areas down each line as well.  Plenty of premium seating options are available, as you might expect in a brand new park.  There is a dugout suite right next to the visitors' dugout.  The second level is lined with suites and a large indoor lounge on the third base side.  Of course, there is plenty of regular seating sections in the lower level as well, stretching well beyond first and third base on each side.  This park features a huge video board in right field with all the bells and whistles.  There is also an interesting tall and narrow auxiliary board in left, though it could use some fine tuning on what information it actually displays.  It is a really impressive ballpark.  I never went to a game at The Diamond, but from the external visuals it presents, I've got to think this is about as big of a ballpark upgrade as possible in the minors.  Richmond has to be on the short list for potential promotion to AAA should expansion occur anytime in the near future.  There was a huge crowd on hand for this Saturday night game.  The largest crowd of any minor league game I attended this year, in fact.  There were postgame fireworks, which I didn't stick around for but noticed they were shooting them off from inside the ballpark.  They made news for a fireworks fiasco less than a week later.  Thankfully, nobody was seriously injured.  I'm guessing they'll move the firework launch point outside the stadium once construction in the area is complete.

This turned out to be a memorable game to close out my 2026 journey as well, between two of the Eastern League's top teams.  Southpaw Charlie McDaniel started this game for the Flying Squirrels.  He pitched pretty well overall, but gave up a home run to left by E.J. Exposito in the second inning to put the SeaWolves on top.  Then in the third, Erie started wreaking havoc on the bases.  Patrick Lee walked to start the inning, stole second and third and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Peyton Graham.  The SeaWolves stole three bases in two separate innings with a total of nine in the game, adding to their Eastern League stolen base lead.  They also got a great outing on the mound from Hayden Minton.  The righty pitched five scoreless innings.  He left with a 3-0 lead as the SeaWolves added a bit of a gift run in the top of the sixth.  They scored on a pop-up to shallow center that was dropped by shortstop Gavin Kilen allowing the runner from third to score.  Kilen was not charged with an error though because he did get a force out at second on the play.  Kilen, the Giants '25 first round pick, had just made his AA debut the night before.  Richmond got their offense going almost immediately after Minton departed the game.  Kilen reached base on an error to start the bottom of the sixth.  He would then score when fellow AA newcomer Dakota Jordan lined a double to left-center to make it 3-1.  Charlie Szykowny would then follow with a RBI double of his own down the right field line.  Three batters later, the Flying Squirrels would tie the game on a groundball single up the middle by Ty Hanchey.  The next inning, a sacrifice fly by Sabin Ceballos put Richmond ahead for the first time.  Erie pulled even the following half inning though as Graham continued his productive night with a leadoff infield single, stole second and scored on a single by Justice Bigbie to make it 4-4.  The Squirrels kept on hitting the SeaWolves bullpen.  In the bottom of the eighth, they scored a pair against former Notre Dame pitcher Tanner Kohlhepp.  Zane Zielinski's single to right put Richmond back ahead.  A Kilen double off the right field wall, his first AA RBI, gave them a two run lead heading to the ninth.  Cristian Alvarado was not able to nail down the save for the Flying Squirrels though.  The SeaWolves got three hits against him.  The first was a one out single by Lee who proceeded to steal second, a risky decision at the time since he was not even the tying run.  But I guess this team has the green light to run at all times.  A two out RBI single by Seth Stephenson cut the lead to one.  That was immediately followed by a Graham double to tie the game, his third hit of the night.  Richmond wasn't able to answer this time as they went down in order in the bottom of the ninth.  That sent this game to extra innings, the first and only minor league game I saw this year that went beyond regulation.  Erie was unable to score the free runner in the top of the tenth, opening the door for Richmond.  They appeared to be on the verge of blowing their scoring chance too as they failed to score before two outs had been recorded and nine hole hitter Diego Velasquez came up to bat and quickly fell behind 0-2.  But he then lined a base hit to center for a 7-6 walk-off winner.  Let's go Nuts!

It was an exciting conclusion to my 2026 minor league tour.  It also brought to a close my tour of the Eastern League.  These rankings were a little tougher to do than the other two leagues I completed this year, because 10 of these 12 ballparks I visited over two years ago and Richmond was the only one this year.  Before I get to the rankings, a general observation:  I think AA is the sweet spot of minor league baseball.  It features ballparks that are almost exclusively high quality facilities.  Yet they are a lot more intimate than their AAA counterparts, many of which feel like just slightly smaller versions of MLB parks.  So if you want to see high quality baseball, both on the field and in the stadiums, but in a more intimate setting, AA is where it's at.  And now, here are my Eastern League ballpark rankings.

Eastern League Ballpark Rankings

1. Hartford

2. Richmond

3. Altoona

4. Akron

5. New Hampshire

6. Portland

7. Reading

8. Erie

9. Somerset

10. Harrisburg

11. Chesapeake

12. Binghamton

On the whole, if I were to rank the two AA leagues I've completed together (Southern and Eastern), the Southern League would probably fair better.  That's in large part to it having on average significantly newer parks than the Eastern League.  Some of the Eastern League classics are pretty cool though.  Hartford and Richmond were easy choices for the top two spots, with Hartford getting a slight edge on location (closer to downtown).  I think both are candidates for promotion down the road.  Altoona is a really cool setting and ballpark design.  The next handful were tough calls on a specific order.  Harrisburg and Chesapeake I liked at the time I visited, but would probably put them below the entire Southern League.  And Binghamton was an easy choice for the bottom of this list because it would rank near the bottom in each of the criteria I considered.

And with that, I'm done with year three of my minor league ballpark tour.  This was always going to be the point where I had a decision to make about where to go from here.  I only have one or two trips left that wouldn't require hopping on airplanes.  That said, while I have not yet committed to doing the entire 120 affiliated minor league ballpark tour, I have decided I am definitely in for another year.  At the very least, I want to close out the three leagues that I am at least halfway through already:  International, Midwest and Carolina.  So that's my goal for 2027.  Perhaps I'll even start knocking out parks in another league or two.  Come back next year to find out!

Photo Album

Next ballpark: TBD 2027

Perdue Stadium - Delmarva Shorebirds

Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (CHW) @ Delmarva Shorebirds (BAL)

July 11, 2026

Shorebirds 8, Cannon Ballers 0

W: Christian Rodriguez
L: Alexander Martinez

HR: Felix Amparo (DEL), Jose Perez (DEL), Andres Nolaya (DEL)

Attendance: 3,537
Time of Game: 2 hours, 28 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Salisbury, MD
Opened: 1996
Capacity: 5,200
Level: Single A
League: Carolina

I took a few weeks off from minor league baseball after my marathon June trip down south.  That left me with just two parks left to visit this year, both of which were close enough to home to do single day trips.  The first of those came the Saturday in July following Independence Day weekend.  I drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge for the first time in many years, and on down to Salisbury, Maryland.  The "Delmarva" geographic identifier for the Shorebirds refers to the tri-state region of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.  Salisbury is located near the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but it is just a short drive north to Delaware or south to Virginia.

Arthur W. Perdue Stadium is named after the founder of Perdue Farms chicken company, which has its headquarters basically across the street from the stadium.  This 30 year old stadium has nothing particularly special about it, but is perfectly decent for Low A baseball.  It has a brick exterior with staircase entrances behind home plate that open up to the concourse that sits above the 200 level.  This concourse is mostly open air and allows you to see the action on the field from it.  A walkway bisects the 100 and 200 sections in the seating area that runs from just beyond first to third bases.  An interesting feature of this split section walkway is that there is an open space along it right behind home plate that contains a couple concession stands.  It is also possible to take a 360 degree walk around the perimeter of the playing field, even though there are no seats or amenities anywhere in the outfield.  This does provide standing room vantage points from the outfield though, located between the outfield wall and the advertising boards beyond it.  There are picnic and party areas further down the first and third base lines beyond the main seating bowl.  The second level situated above parts of the concourse contains the press box, a handful of suites and a club section.  Much like the Braves affiliates, three of which I saw on my June trip, the Orioles have all of their minor league clubs in close proximity to Baltimore.  It was quite noticeable how closely tied this organization is to the parent club, from all the O's gear I saw being worn by fans, to the singing of "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" during the 7th inning stretch.  I had concerns about potential summer storms rolling through this night, but fortunately that never materialized.  It turned out to be a nice night for baseball with a pretty good sized crowd on hand for this Saturday evening game.  It was Margaritaville Night in Salisbury, so the Shorebirds were wearing island themed jerseys.

Last I saw Kannapolis, they got no-hit in Hickory on the first game of my June trip.  So they had an extremely low bar to climb over for a better offensive performance.  They just barely cleared that bar.  Right handed pitcher Christian Rodriguez got the start for Delmarva and had himself an evening.  However, the first pitch he threw ensured the Cannon Ballers wouldn't be no-hit again.  Jaden Fauske lined one into right center and right fielder Junior Aybar just missed making a spectacular diving catch.  Instead it wound up being a leadoff double.  A couple batters later, Fauske failed to advance on a single to left as he seemed to think the shortstop was going to be able to make a play.  That proved to be costly because he never reached third base, nor did any other Kannapolis player the entire evening.  In fact, the first inning was the only time they would have multiple base runners in an inning all night.  Different story for the Shorebirds.  They were facing Kannapolis starter Alexander Martinez and quickly got on the board against him in the bottom of the first.  Braylon Whitaker led off with a double off the wall near the left field foul pole.  He would then score on a sacrifice fly by Jordan Sanchez.  In the bottom of the third, nine hole hitter Felix Amparo led off with an opposite field homer to right, his first home run of the season.  Whitaker followed with a single and would eventually come around to score to give the Shorebirds a 3-0 lead, thanks in part to Martinez's third balk of the game that advanced him to third.  Delmarva continued to string hits together in the sixth inning.  Jose Perez hit a towering opposite field two run homer to left-center to pad the Shorebirds lead to five.  Meanwhile, Rodriguez continued to cruise through the Kannapolis lineup.  He completed seven scoreless innings, allowing five hits, one walk and four strikeouts.  If this were a big league game, he probably could have kept going as he only threw 89 pitches.  Not that it was really needed at this point, but Delmarva put together their best offensive inning of the night in the seventh.  Doubles by DJ Layton and Adriander Mejia preceded a two run homer by Andres Nolaya.  They had more extra base hits (six) than the Cannon Ballers had total hits (five).  While Kannapolis was at least able to put the ball in play most of the night, that changed in the last two innings.  The last five Cannon Ballers to step to the plate all struck out.  The Shorebirds cruised to an 8-0 victory.  I must be bad luck for Kannapolis because they failed to score in either game I attended this year.  Delmarva had really been scuffling heading into this game too.  They hadn't had as much as a lead at any point of the first four games of this series.

This was my ninth and final minor league game of the year involving a White Sox affiliate.  They went an ugly 2-7 in those games, with Birmingham of all teams earning the only two wins.  Birmingham has been the Sox worst affiliate over the full season this year.  Just one more minor league game to go overall for me, which would be the following Saturday night in Richmond, Virginia.

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Next ballpark: CarMax Park in Richmond, VA

Gwinnett Field - Gwinnett Stripers

Louisville Bats (CIN) @ Gwinnett Stripers (ATL)

June 21, 2026

Stripers 10, Bats 1

W: Connor Thomas
L: Sam Benschoter

HR: Jim Jarvis (GWN), Brewer Hicklen (GWN)

Attendance: 2,738
Time of Game: 2 hours, 28 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Rome, GA
Opened: 2009
Capacity: 10,115
Level: Triple A
League: International

I made it!  The finale of my 16 day, 13 ballpark journey.  Originally, I was scheduled to go to a game in Gwinnett County, Georgia on Saturday night and then was going to spend most of Sunday driving home.  Well, I still spent most of Sunday driving, but included one last baseball game into the mix.  The drive from Rome to Lawrenceville, the northeast suburb of Atlanta where the Stripers call home, took me right past Truist Park where the Braves were playing a game that same afternoon.  Which brings me to an observation.  While it makes all the sense in the world from the big league club's perspective to have all of their minor league affiliates so close, I'm not sure how great that is for the franchises themselves.  Yes, they are all located in cities that love the Braves and many fans probably enjoy seeing the future Braves stars as they progress up the system.  But it also might hurt attendance a bit when some fans could opt to just make the drive to Atlanta to see the big league team instead.  The three Braves affiliate games I attended on this trip were all weekend games, yet had mediocre sized crowds at them.  I especially wonder how much Gwinnett suffers when they are home at the same time as the Braves, playing just 35 miles apart, as they were this day.  Anyway, just something that crossed my mind.

Either '25-'26 was an offseason with an unusually high number of minor league ballpark naming rights deals expiring, or I just happened to hit all of them this year.  I assume Gwinnett Field is only a temporary name until a new corporate sponsor can ben found.  While I have not visited Low A Augusta yet, I feel pretty confident in saying Gwinnett Field is the crown jewel of the Braves minor league ballparks.  It is a very nice facility, and a good one to close my trip with.  The lower level has almost a big league ballpark feel to it with ample seating nearly running from foul pole to foul pole, with luxury seating sections right behind home plate.  A spacious concourse encircles the entire park.  The outfield has no standard seating, but considerably sized berm seating areas in both left and right field, as well as plenty of standing room vantage points all the way around.  Because of the larger lower bowl than is typical in the minor leagues, the second level situated above the main concourse is a bit further from the playing field.  It is lined with suites and party decks at the end on each side.  High rise residential buildings surround the park all the way around the outfield.  I already mentioned a downside of having an AAA team so close to the big league team.  But on the positive side, it means the fans are heavily invested in the team and its players.  That makes the game itself more of an attraction than it is some other places in the minor leagues.  That said, there is plenty of the traditional minor league fun to be had here too.  This was a very nice, sunny afternoon in Georgia.

As a neutral, the highlight for me going into this game was getting to see Elly De La Cruz make a rehab appearance for Louisville.  The Reds All-Star shortstop had a rough game on this day though, both at the plate and in the field.  He went 0-for-3 and committed a costly error that caused the Bats to give up a pair of runs in the first inning.  Louisville did score first though.  Former highly touted prospect Hurston Waldrep got the start on the mound for the Stripers.  In the first, he allowed a two out double to Hector Rodriguez, who then came around to score on an Ivan Johnson single to left.  Turns out, that would be the only run the Bats would score on this day.  The Stripers, on the other hand, kept scoring all afternoon.  They were facing Bats righty Sam Benschoter.  A Brett Wisely triple down the right field line preceded the aforementioned fielding error on De La Cruz that tied the game.  Two more singles followed to score a second unearned run of the first inning that gave the Stripers a 2-1 lead.  In the third, Aaron Schunk doubled to left to score Wisely.  Gwinnett took full control of the game in the fifth inning.  Jim Jarvis started the frame by clubbing a home run into the Louisville bullpen near the right field foul pole.  A couple more singles and then a sacrifice fly by Schunk put the Stripers up 5-1 through five.  They would go on to score in every inning in which they batted the rest of the game.  In the sixth, it was a RBI double by Jarvis.  The Bats defense contributed to their pitchers' struggles all afternoon.  In the seventh inning, Gwinnett had already tacked on two more runs on a two run homer slugged into the home bullpen by Brewer Hicklen before an error eventually led to a third run in the inning.  For good measure, De La Cruz's late game replacement, Garrett Hampson, also committed an error in the eighth inning to push another unearned run across.  Three Bats errors in the game allowed four unearned runs to score, turning what probably would have been a loss anyway into a blowout.  Gwinnett won this one by a final score of 10-1.  Waldrep and the three relievers who followed all had nice outings on the mound for the Stripers.  They allowed just six hits in the game, with five of them being singles.

Not the most exciting game to end the trip with, but I was not going to complain at this point.  I definitely had a sense of accomplishment pulling off my most ambitious baseball trip to date, which made the long drive home that evening quite tolerable.  With 13 ballparks crossed off my list on this trip to add to the five I hit earlier in the year, I was already through 18 of the 20 ballparks I had intended on visiting this year with more than a week left to go in June.  Those last two stops were drivable day trips for me, both of which I wound up doing on consecutive Saturdays in July.

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Next ballpark: Arthur W. Perdue Stadium in Salisbury, MD