THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609060690
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: TOM ROBINSON
LENGTH: 62 lines
Triple-A playoffs. You've got to have them. In many cases, you've got to endure them, particularly when your thoughts have turned to other September pursuits.
But you don't have to love them, which is something baseball fans around here have shouted loud and clear the last two nights at Harbor Park.
Lousy weather chucked an unfortunate blanket over the first two games of the International League's West Division finals and kept the crowds down to the size of a decent neighborhood block party.
But even under prime conditions, the Norfolk Tides and Columbus Clippers probably would have drawn but a few thousand people per game, at best. September baseball has historically been immaterial in South Hampton Roads, but 1,529 on Wednesday and 1,636 on Thursday is sort of rubbing it in.
``It was kind of disappointing (Wednesday), when you get 5,000 or 6,000 every game and it comes to the playoffs, everybody's pumped up and you get 1,000 people out there,'' veteran Tides outfielder Gary Thurman said. ``It's not much of a home-field advantage.''
An irony of Triple-A is that the playoffs are a necessary nuisance in a lot of ways. By the time they roll around, 142 games have been played, the guys who will be going to the major leagues want to get on with it, many who aren't want to go home, and, around here anyway, a majority of potential ticket-buyers couldn't care less.
The International League, though, requires the top two finishers in each division to play a best-of-five series, followed by another best-of-five with the opposite division champ for the Governors' Cup title.
However, unlike in the majors, the teams play for no pot of cash or bonuses, just a ring. They earn only their normal salaries for as long as they play. That's good for the guys who aren't going up, because it brings in a few more bucks, but bad for the guys who are deprived of big league pay for a week to 10 days.
At the gate, clubs don't have the luxury of season ticket or significant group sales because playoffs can't be predicted, so they can take a beating. Even last year, when an exceptionally strong Tides team played five home playoff games, the average attendance was 4,259.
Probably, the Tides lost money the last two nights. So be it, said Tides general manager Dave Rosenfield. The minors are about player development, and the experience of playing under playoff pressure, at any level, is invaluable, he says.
Not only that, but Rosenfield says the drive for the playoffs is critical over the last month of the regular season to players and franchises, particularly when one club has run away with first place.
Chasing second place is important to interest on and off the field, he says, though it can be argued how concerned local fans are about a Triple-A pennant race.
``There has to be something to play for,'' Rosenfield said. ``To have 10 teams and only two make the playoffs would be awful.''
That's why Rosenfield favors the current four-team playoff, as do most of the IL's team executives. In league meetings, a motion regularly arises to change the format to one best-of-seven series between just division winners, the better to be done with it quickly, but it never garners enough votes.
Another irony, though, is that once that race is done, the two five-game sets that follow create almost an anti-climactic air.
``This is my 14th year, and I still get pumped up for the playoffs,'' Thurman said. ``A ring is important. But I'd much rather be in the big leagues. But what else can they do? You've got to have a champion.'' by CNB