DATE: Sunday, July 6, 1997                  TAG: 9707060185

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO

                                            LENGTH:   63 lines

IF THE MINORS HAD A MAJORS, WE WOULD BE IN THE TOP RANK

It has been a tough year for Hampton Roads citizens and politicians who flinch at the sound of the words ``minor league.''

George Shinn's dog-and-Rhino show unrealistically raised local hopes and brought civic angst to the surface before the National Hockey League officially rejected the area's bid for big league status.

Now along comes somebody else - another outsider - to remind us once again of our minor league rank.

Only this time, the emphasis is on the positive. Norfolk's Harbor Park and Hampton Roads are being celebrated as minor league locations of major proportions.

``I was just dazzled by the water beyond the outfield fence and Waterside, and, in general, the wonderful atmosphere,'' says Alan Schwarz, author of a magazine story rating Hampton Roads as one of America's 10 best minor league baseball road trips.

Schwarz's favorable review appears in the June/July edition of P.O.V., a fledgling magazine that calls itself a ``Guy's Survival Guide.''

P.O.V.? It stands for Point of View. From Schwarz's P.O.V., Harbor Park remains the gem it was two years ago when Baseball America rated the downtown playground the nation's finest minor league ballpark.

``It's not just my opinion,'' Schwarz said over the phone. ``I spoke with a lot of people about Harbor Park and about the entire area.''

Schwarz is a columnist for the bi-monthly Baseball America, but the P.O.V. piece is more travelogue than baseball chatter. His article extols Waterside and Town Point Park, and notes that Harbor Park is a short drive from Colonial Williamsburg, the Virginia Beach Oceanfront and the Outer Banks.

Even so, the diamond at Harbor Park is cited as the jewel of this very large setting.

``You guys did it right,'' Schwarz said. ``It's a great place to watch a baseball game.''

We already know that, don't we? Still, it doesn't hurt to be reminded, to see our ballpark and this area through someone else's eyes.

Schwarz's list of best minor league stops is an eclectic, funky mix. Durham, N.C., home of the Bulls, is included. So is St. Paul, Minn., where the St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League have become the country's hippest minor league franchise.

At Saints games, a nun gives back rubs in the stands, and co-owner Mike Veeck dreams up gimmicks like ``Call-in-Sick Day,'' where patrons are invited to skip work and watch baseball from behind a free pair of sunglasses.

Butte, Mont., also made the Top 10 list, in part because Butte is home to one of the weirder baseball promotions: ``Two Dead Fat Guys Night,'' commemorating the day both Babe Ruth and Elvis Presley died. Any guy who weighs more than 250 pounds gets in free.

The minors have always been a wacky place. But in recent years, they've become very trendy. There are all sorts of reasons given for the resurgence of interest in bush-league baseball, from the construction of new parks to the belief, expressed in Schwarz's article, that minor league games allow fans to ``connect to a simpler time.''

Well, maybe inside the ballpark the mood moves close to pure. But we live in a time when aggressive promotion and crass commercialism are everything - for teams and for cities lusting after the tourism dollar. The magazine story will please people who harbor a Hampton Roads point of view, though it should be noted that the words Hampton Roads do not appear anywhere in the feature.

This is another subject for another column. For now, be glad somebody likes us for what we are - the major leagues of minor leagues.

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