Erie SeaWolves (DET) @ Richmond Flying Squirrels (SF)
July 18, 2026
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
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!
Next ballpark: TBD 2027
