Commentary: Richmond: I’m just not feeling you

In case you didn’t know: Richmond is a funny place. Not funny as in funny-looking. Funny as in unique.

Historically speaking, Richmond is a rich city. The Confederacy, the colleges, the James, Arthur Ashe-Richmond floats in it.

What Richmond does not have is a professional, national sports team. And the national teams this city does hold near and dear are, well, not near at all.

And before this really gets started let’s make one thing perfectly clear: No, NASCAR does not count. No letters, please, complaining about my lack of empathy for Richmond’s NASCAR fans. You’re right. I have none.

Sure, NASCAR brings a ton of money into this city and that is a good thing, but NASCAR is not a sport. It is an event. And I am no fan of that.

What I’m really talking about is the big ball sports. The NFL, NBA, MLB, college football even. This is what gets my heightened attention. This is what Richmond lacks.

What Richmond does have is the Kickers and the AAA Braves. It has Ben Hamlin and high school sports. We need more.

When I moved to Richmond six months ago, the Washington Nationals were in the middle of a three-game winning streak. I didn’t have a television so I dug out an old radio and ran through the spectrum.

On the dial I found the Cubbies and the Braves. Somewhere out there a lonely father ran the play-by-play of a little league game. I found some weird German gibberish and some great ethnic stations.

What I did not find was the Nationals broadcast.

Later, when I got a television, I found that Richmond’s networks devoted more time to the Atlanta Braves, the A-Braves, than they did to the Nationals. I found that high school football trumps the Washington Redskins highlights. And the Redskins on the radio, with its fading signal, is a laughable endeavor. What’s going on here?

I try to rationalize: I know that the Nats are a young team. I know that there was a lot of confusion this summer surrounding broadcasting rights and Comcast vs. Mid Atlantic Sports Network and the like. I know that the hometown Richmond Braves, the R-Braves, are the AAA affiliates of the big league team.

There is really no excuse for networks devoting more time to U.Va., Virginia Tech and high school football than the Washington Redskins. Do network managers have children in these institutions?

It can’t be a proximity thing. Washington is just 100 miles to the north. Charlottesville is 100 miles to the Northwest. Why the black hole? What’s the backstory?

And what I’m left with is a diverging crater between the Yanks and the South. This could be a socioeconomic thing, or maybe we could explain it away as a relic of times long past.

I don’t know. I don’t have the answers.

What I do know is that Richmond is a town reborn, in principle, at least. But its rebirth will pause without a national sports draw-be it in the grass or on the television.

Without that, all we have is NASCAR.