By Samantha Willis

As the Richmond Flying Squirrels prepare for the spring season and the opening home game on April 13 at The Diamond, the baseball team continues stepping up to the plate in the Richmond community — on and off the field. 

“Our philosophy, and what the team hinges on, is three things,” said Todd “Parney” Parnell, the Squirrels’ vice president and chief operating officer who has been with the team since its Richmond debut in 2009.

“First, it’s got to be fun, every single day. If we as a team aren’t having fun, how can fans and their families have a good time?

“The second thing is to be different in everything that we do,” he said.

He pointed to his pants, black, printed with red, blue and orange skulls reminiscent of the talking skull in the Disney-Pixar movie, “Coco.”

The pants are a locally known signature for Mr. Parnell, along with his big voice and outgoing personality.

“That’s part of why I wear these,” he said. “As a team, we want to present something this town has never seen before.

“The last part, which I feel is the most important,” he continued, “is to be impactful in our community.”

From the start, said Mr. Parnell, the Richmond Flying Squirrels have set out to be much more than a baseball team. The organization’s consistent goal of weaving into the fabric of the Richmond community has come to bear in many ways over the years and continues today. 

Mr. Parnell offered examples.

In a program designed to boost achievement, the Squirrels give “A” students from participating Richmond area schools tickets to ballgames. They can receive a ticket for each “A” on their report cards.

“When a kid comes up to the ticket booth, he may not be as tall as the counter, but he pulls that report card out, gets his tickets and treats his sister, his mom, his dad to a game. The smiles are a mile wide,” said Mr. Parnell.

The Squirrels also lead a reading program, in which students can read a certain number of books to get game tickets, along with several other education-related initiatives open to area school systems. 

The Squirrels help foster relationships and understanding between youths of diverse backgrounds through partnerships with community organizations such as the Metropolitan Junior Baseball League, the nonprofit founded in 1966 to provide urban youngsters an opportunity to play baseball and travel to compete against other teams.

The Squirrels and MJBL co-host a youth tournament each year, said William M.T. “Bill” Forrester Jr., MJBL’s executive director. It’s an exciting event that brings teams together from the city and surrounding suburbs.

“We were seeing that kids in the city did not have the opportunity to play against kids from the counties,” Mr. Forrester said. “In some ways, baseball has become such a ‘country club’ sport that if kids don’t come from the more affluent communities, and they are not afforded opportunities to have decent fields and good equipment, they shy away from the game.”

 The concept of the tournament is to “give the kids in the city and counties a chance to play together. We’re all neighbors,” he said. “We should all get to know and respect each other, and you can do that on the field.” 

The Squirrels’ outreach efforts are inclusive of everyone in the Greater Richmond community, Mr. Parnell said. Through its nonprofit Flying Squirrels Charities, the team, in partnership with the Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities, has raised “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Mr. Parnell, and rebuilt and refurbished baseball fields around the city. Among them are fields in largely African-American communities, including Hotchkiss Field in North Side and Blackwell Community Center in South Side.

The project, dubbed “Renovating Richmond’s Recreation,” includes 14 fields around the city.

The Squirrels also hosted a baseball glove drive, which yielded 600 youth gloves that were given to the city parks and recreation department to distribute to young players in the area.

In response to concerns from parents in the city who felt unsafe taking their children trick-or-treating in their neighborhoods, the Squirrels hosted “Squirreloween” for the first time a few years back, which drew a crowd of more than 500 for free candy, Halloween-themed games and costume competitions. It has become a smashing success and one of the most popular events of the year, Mr. Parnell said.

“Grown men and women came up to me after the first Squirreloween, thanking me and the team because they were able to make memories with their families. That’s what it’s all about for us.”

The future is bright for Richmond’s home team, one of just 160 minor league baseball teams in the country. The Flying Squirrels, a double-A team, is affiliated with the San Francisco Giants.

A new presence will be on the field this season as the Flying Squirrels welcome Willie Harris, its first African-American manager.

Mr. Harris, a 39-year-old native of Cairo, Ga., played in more than 1,000 big league games with Baltimore, the Chicago White Sox, Boston, Atlanta, Washington, the New York Mets and Cincinnati. In 2005, he was a second baseman and outfielder with the World Series champion Chicago White Sox.

He is familiar with Richmond, having played for the Richmond Braves in 2007.

Next year, the Squirrels will host the Eastern League All-Star Game, the first time the event has come to Richmond since 1992.

Mr. Parnell said the team’s overarching commitment to the community will remain as long as the team does. 

“We’re going to keep using the resources we have here at the ballfield to help people make memories,” he said. “And we’re going to keep working off the field to make Richmond the best city it can possibly be.”