The title is not a misprint. If you are a fan of the Rams, whether it be the Los Angeles Rams or the Virginia Commonwealth Rams or the University of Rhode Island “Rhody” Rams, wow were you in luck these past few days. The URI baseball team traveled to Virginia again this past week (ending yesterday), this time to face Virginia Commonwealth University, and this time I was home and was not going to miss an opportunity to see them play live. And with a doubleheader scheduled for Saturday (yesterday, 03/15) starting at 1pm, I had time to spare to get to Richmond to see VCU (Rams) play the URI Rams. And check out a Virginia baseball treasure called The Diamond.

So, most college baseball teams have a home ball park with lights, bleachers, dugouts, bullpens, press box, maybe a concession stand area via a food truck or foldable table. Virginia Commonwealth University has a Minor League Baseball stadium as their home field – The Diamond. The Diamond is a Richmond baseball tradition dating back to its inception in the Atlanta Braves days circa 1980s. After the Atlanta Braves moved their AAA Richmond Braves to Lawrenceville, GA (to become the Gwinnett Stripers), the San Francisco Giants organization swooped in like a Flying Squirrel and took over the stadium. They became the Richmond Flying Squirrels, I gathered from the park attendants yesterday, via a local team naming contest that produced the Flying Squirrels name. So, the Richmond team for the AA Affiliate of the San Francisco Giants is officially the Richmond Flying Squirrels. A theme I would get to know often as I entered the main gate area of The Diamond.

I should mention that the drive from VA Beach to Richmond and The Diamond could not have been more simple. 264W to 64W to Arthur Ashe Blvd, can’t mess that one up. Unless you are dealing with the traffic nightmare of 64W near the Hampton Roads Transit Tunnel, which continues to try to impede my baseball experience progress in the car. After navigating through the traffic, it was smooth sailing up past Newport News, Williamsburg, and into the City of Richmond, a few rights and lefts and Rachel and I were parking the VW and heading for the main gate entrance. The weather at game time was trying to cooperate. For the morning and most of the ride (1 hour 45 minutes), it was mostly cloudy with brief appearances by the sun here and there. No rain in the forecast on Saturday because it is storing up for a gigantic rain event today (Sunday), thus the pivot to a doubleheader on Saturday and no games on Sunday in this matchup of Rams.

I believe we finally got into The Diamond and found seats at or around the 2nd inning, maybe the top of the 2nd. So that’s not too bad considering the traffic situation back home. Rachel and I found seats just about behind home plate, about 30 rows up. The VCU dugout was to our left (third base side) and the URI Rams dugout was to our right (first base side). Fans for both teams had showed up in decent numbers. URI did have a good number of fans/parents in the stand and I scanned over to see if I recognized anyone in particular. There are about 10 players or so on the URI team that I used to cover back in my RI Baseball Experience days. And several from my high school alma mater, North Kingstown High School, that I know very well. So, I was eager to check them out and see how they were progressing in their baseball journeys.

The URI Rams were already up a few runs as we sat down to watch the game. Without much notice, the sun came out and the clouds disappeared somewhere else. The sun was hot and bright and my photographs became instantly better. See what good lighting will do for an amateur like me???

One thing I noticed at The Diamond, in addition to the game on the field, was the incredible artwork and mural paintings that covered a good portion of the concrete walls of the concession stand area. From the few folks that I chatted with, most were under the impression that a local group of artists were allowed to come in over the years and paint/draw/showcase their work on the walls of the concession stand area. There were some pretty powerful images and some really interesting murals, some of which I photographed yesterday. Amazing work, so creative!!!

As I was returning to my seat to soak in some much needed rays, I stopped to pay tribute to the POW/MIA seat, which was positioned with a great view of the entire field. I always seek out these tribute seats and thought it was so awesome to that The Diamond had one. As the inscription states “You are not forgotten.”

With the score now 8-1, URI Rams, heading into the 5th inning, I decided to explore some more views of the field. And the game. I had spent a lot of time actually checking out the murals, the history of the park, and chatting with this incredible baseball guy, Mike Goleski. Goleski is an NCAA, ACC baseball umpire, once umpired a series for the Savannah Bananas, and was a living novel of information about Richmond, The Diamond, and baseball in VA. Plus, his son was a VCU Ram, so he was playing Dad and fan for the day as well. Cool guy, I hope I connect with Mike again on baseball stuff!!!

So, I stretched my legs and headed over to the URI Rams side first for a few photos and to possibly catch a glimpse of some RI players in the dugout. I remember a lot of them from Little League and to be honest haven’t had too much interaction with them for a few years, so I was sort of reaching in my player search. Still, it really is a great accomplishment to play Division 1 baseball in Rhode Island for URI if you are a local RI kid.

After grabbing a few hot dogs from the concession stand, Rachel and I made our way over to the VCU side of the bleachers. The URI starter, Mike Levesque, had pitched a great game and was laboring a bit going into an important bottom of the 5th inning. After a pretty significant VCU charge at the plate, scoring 4 runs, URI made a pitching change and brought in North Kingstown High School’s Braeden Perry to hopefully end any further charges. Perry was up to the task, as was the URI defense, as a double play sealed the deal for VCU’s bats in the bottom of the 5th. More on Perry in a bit, but one quick note – I went to NKHS with Perry’s Dad Rob, who was quite the football player!

At this point, the sun was really out and feeling tremendous. After a misty morning of near 40 something degrees, the weather had made a nice U-turn to clear skies, light breezes, and gorgeous sunshine. Rachel and I watched a few more innings from the left field area and I was able to get a few more photos from this spot. One thing to note, if you can pick it out, is the presence of a construction crane in the background, behind the stadium seating out in the upper deck of right field. That is because The Diamond is getting a neighbor, one who will eventually replace it as the Richmond Flying Squirrels home. Again, from what the folks told me that I spoke to, probably looking at sometime in 2026 for completion. It will be called CarMax Park. Here is a link to what it will look like – CarMax Park.

After the VCU Rams’ surge in the bottom of the 5th, the URI Rams put up 4 of their own in the top of the 6th inning. Perry was up to the challenge for the next few innings, striking out 3, facing 12 batters, giving up just 1 hit, and ultimately earning the Win for the Rhody Rams. VCU did make another surge in the bottom of the 9th inning with an impressive 6 runs, but fell short to the Rhody Rams by a final score of 15-11. The two Rams teams combined for 27 hits, but the bigger story (for me at least) was the 5 errors by the VCU Rams defense. Double plays, timely hitting, costly errors, solid pitching out of the bullpen, making the routine plays – these all factor in when teams are looking for answers as to why they won or lost a close game. URI Rams looked to have the edge in many categories yesterday, from what I observed.

It was a exciting and interesting afternoon in Richmond yesterday watching the VCU Rams take on my hometown Rhode Island “Rhody” Rams. The game was played at a ballpark named “The Diamond,” which is actually the minor league home field for the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the AA Affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. The Diamond has a ton of character, reminded me a bit of the late, great McCoy Stadium. A new ballpark for the Flying Squirrels is already being constructed, just a short walk from The Diamond. I hope that all those great murals can be saved or moved or something (I’m not a construction expert) because they are unique and impressive and so wonderfully drawn. The game on the field, Rams vs. Rams, was exciting and had a lot going on each inning. It was great to see NKHS’s Braeden Perry on the mound doing well and eventually getting the W for the visiting Rhody Rams. Also great chatting with VCU Dad, Bananas Umpire, and cool baseball guy – Mike Goleski. And getting to feel the wonderful sunshine on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in mid-March. Overall, it was an awesome Richmond baseball experience there at The Diamond, current home of the Virginia Commonwealth Rams and the Richmond Flying Squirrels.