The damndest thing happened in the summer of 1981 — baseball went on strike. No superstation! No internet! What was a fan to do? In response, newly rechristened SuperStation WTBS (formerly WTCG-17 Atlanta) decided to bring their MLB broadcast crew of Skip, Pete and Ernie to AAA to cover the Braves AAA affiliate in Richmond, VA for the duration of the labor stoppage. And so my minor league fixation was born.
It helped a great deal that the Richmond 9 were actually a pretty good team with a core that would feature in our dreams — and break our hearts — in the years that followed.