Squirrels fans toast a successful season

At 16, Claire Gerloff of Richmond comes by her love of baseball the old-fashioned way: She inherited it — from her father.

So even as the Flying Squirrels closed their second season in Richmond losing the Double-A Eastern League championship to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Gerloff still had something to cheer about: growing local enthusiasm for the Squirrels.

"After the Richmond Braves left town, people started getting more involved," said Gerloff, a junior at St. Bridget School and daughter of the late Gary Gerloff, a rock musician-impresario and fixture at The Diamond who fumed over the departure of the Atlanta-affiliated team. "It was a wake-up call … and now there's a greater sense of support."

Despite a dreary outcome Saturday matched by the weather, Squirrels fans across the Richmond area Sunday cheered the season that was and cast a hopeful eye toward next year.

"You've got a number of die-hard baseball fans here who would've supported a lot of teams, but you also attract a lot of casual fans," said Braves-turned-Squirrels season ticket holder Allen Moser of Richmond, a marketing representative for a company that sells wheelchair ramps.

"That's because of the marketing the Squirrels have done and the family atmosphere out there."

Fans said steady attendance this year was fueled not just by staged curiosities — Parker the Rally Pig, a monkey in a cowboy suit astride a black-and-white dog, and regular fireworks — but sports talent: Eric Surkamp, a pitcher called up last month by the Squirrels' parent team, the San Francisco Giants, and Bryce Harper, a power hitter for the Harrisburg Senators held back by a sore hamstring.

Further, the Squirrels' run at the Eastern League crown is the latest data point in the upward arc of local sports: Virginia Commonwealth University making it to college basketball's Final Four; the University of Richmond reaching the Sweet Sixteen in the same tournament.

The Squirrels "make you feel like a fan; that as a season ticket holder, you're part of the team," said Tom Schaefer of Henrico County, a banker with two seats behind home plate.

"You feel part of the success. It's like night and day with the Braves. The Squirrels name, in two years, has become more symbolic of this commitment than the Braves did in 25 or 30 years."

In comments on the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Facebook page, Squirrels fans predicted that the team will draw an even larger audience and become a symbol of local pride.

"Not everyone can make it all the way, but they sure worked hard for it," said Jen Dodge. "I think we have a long way to go before we are a baseball town, but the Squirrels sure have started us in the right direction."

Ray Edwards said, "Richmond will never be a major league town but, we are, by far, one of the best minor league towns. Look at the attendance and you will see we had two or three times the crowds of any other team in the playoffs. … As for this year's team, it was by far the best group of players and coaches we have had since I have been going, which is over 20 years."