Squirrels have more fans than wins
Fred Jeter | 6/8/2023, 6 p.m.
The Richmond Flying Squirrels have struggled at times on the field this season, but their fans don’t seem to care.
Despite a record of 22-28 through games of June 4, the local pros are packing them in like never before at The Diamond.
Starting this week, the Squirrels had drawn 170,726 fans for 25 openings, for an average of 6,829 per game.
Those figures rank first in the Eastern League and eighth in all of 120 minor-league squads, including AAA.
The turnstiles were spinning last week for a homestand against the Erie Seawolves.
•On May 30, the crowd was 7,427.
•May 31: capacity 9,810
•June 1: 7,827
•June 2: 6,625
•June 3: 6,951
•June 4: 5,211
On the field, perhaps the top drawing card is shortstop Marco Luciano, the top-ranked player in the San Francisco organization, based on Baseball America, and 35th in all of baseball.
He also is the only Squirrel on the parent Giants’ 40-man roster.
Still, the 21-year-old Dominican has been slow in getting off the launching pad. He’s hitting just .158 (as of June 4), but 10 of his hits (five doubles, five homers) have gone for extra bases.
Since 2019, Luciano has 45 homers and 47 doubles while working his way up the Giants’ farm system. There was no 2020 season due to COVID.
