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Hello and welcome to the web site of the Deltaville Deltas! After many exciting years (and championships in 1993 & 2004) in the Virginia Baseball League, the Deltas are excited to join the Southern Virginia League for our third season of intense baseball competition.
Mark your calendar! The Deltaville season kicks off May 16th at home versus the division foe Peninsula Cardinals. And July 4th is Heritage Day in Deltaville, with the Deltas facing off against SVL rival York Cannons at 5:00pm, followed by the Deltas Old Timers game and fireworks!
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A Diamond That Shines
In Deltaville, baseball and boating rule the day
by Mike Holtzclaw, the Daily Press - Published June 18, 2006
A lot of baseball fans will offer you a laundry list of "what's wrong with the game today." They will tell you the players are overpaid and unresponsive to the fans. They will tell you that the game is too expensive for families and that the ballpark atmosphere has become too commercialized. They will lament that the sport has gotten away from its pastoral roots.
They have never been to a Deltaville Deltas game.
To take in a game at the Deltaville Ballpark -- that's its name, plain and simple -- is a different experience than even a low-level minor league can provide. It's amateur baseball, featuring mostly college-age players, at a World War II-era ballpark in a small town that adores its team.
Think it costs too much to take the family to a ballgame these days? Admission to a Deltas game is $5 -- unless you're 12 or younger, in which case you get in free. There's no charge to park in the grass next to the ballpark, and in fact, if you arrive early enough you might run into some of the players as they get dressed for the game in their cars (since the park has no locker rooms). At the concession stand, you can get a hot dog, chips and a soft drink for less than $3.
Many years ago, there were ballparks like this one all around the Northern Neck. The Deltaville Ballpark -- lovingly maintained by the entire community -- is the last one still standing. A few years ago, the outfield fence had to be replaced. Chain link would have been cheaper, but the committee that maintains the ballpark knew that wouldn't do. In order to keep that vintage look, they made it from lumber and corrugated metal, using volunteers and prison labor to construct the fence.
Deltaville fans sit in wooden grandstands behind home plate or along the third-base line, protected from foul balls by a fence. Most similar ballparks used chicken wire; at Deltaville, they used the same type of wire used to make crab pots. "It was very available in this area," Deltas manager Jerry Crittenden says.
Crittenden is part of the family that is synonymous with Deltas baseball. His late grandfather, T.H. Crittenden, helped found the team and build the ballpark. His father, Fred Crittenden, began playing for the team in 1944 and can still be found on game days rubbing up the baseballs and getting the field ready. Jerry's brother Tommy is a coach on the team, but even at age 40, he'll still take the mound in a pinch. Jerry's son Spencer is the team's batboy.
On any given weekend, the Deltas might have 50 fans in the stands for Friday night game, but more than 200 for a Saturday night game, when tourists and out-of-town visitors arrive (often by boat at the Stingray Point Marina). The regulars include family and friends of the players, plus the local fans who have been following the team for decades.
"There's nothing else that can match the atmosphere of a game in Deltaville," says Mike Zitz, who manages an amateur team in Fredericksburg. "There's a lot of places where you can see good baseball around here, but Deltaville is special. That's the best place I know of to play a ballgame or to go to a ballgame."
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Read the original article
by Mike Holtzclaw on
the Daily Press Website:
Photos by Mike Holtzclaw
Banner photo by Stephen Blue
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