DATE: Wednesday, August 27, 1997            TAG: 9708270774

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   57 lines

YOUNG'S GOAL: SPRING TRAINING GAME IN NORFOLKTIDES' PRESIDENT HOPES TO CONVINCE METS TO WRAP UP EXHIBITION SEASON AT HARBOR PARK.

What if Harbor Park's first baseball game next season had lineups including Cal Ripken, Brady Anderson and Todd Hundley? Or maybe Chipper Jones and John Smoltz?

If Norfolk Tides president Ken Young has his way, Norfolk will host a major league spring training game at the end of March involving the New York Mets and either the Baltimore Orioles or Atlanta Braves.

Young says he's willing to forsake the annual exhibition game between the Tides and Mets to get a major league spring training game, which might not be such a bad thing.

The big leaguers never put much effort into the exhibition game, seven innings that usually go by in a blur of about 90 minutes. Some would say it's a nuisance for the big leaguers to come to Norfolk and play their Triple-A counterparts.

``I still see it as an important game,'' Young said. ``It gives the fans a chance to see the Mets players in person and get some autographs. In addition, it adds to the early publicity for both the Mets and the Tides. We like the hoopla that surrounds it.''

But under Major League Baseball's new agreement with minor league baseball's governing body, there is no guarantee the exhibition game will come off next season.

It used to be that if the parent club skipped the exhibition, it had to fork over $10,000 to the minor league club. In a deal struck two months ago for the 1998 season, that hitch is no longer.

The timing of that alteration coincides with the expiration of the Tides' current working agreement with the Mets.

While it's all but assured that the Mets will re-up with the Tides for two or three more years - both sides are more than content with the current partnership - Young views the bartering period as a time when he could strike a deal for a spring training game.

He'll make his sales pitch to, in part, new Mets general manager Steve Phillips, with whom he feels he has a good relationship.

Phillips was minor league director three years ago when the Tides and Mets renewed their most recent working agreement.

At the time, Young asked Phillips for one thing - that the Mets make a concerted effort to sign more quality minor league free agents and make the Tides, who had just completed their second season in their new ballpark, more competitive. The result was two consecutive trips to the International League playoffs.

So maybe Phillips will swing a game Harbor Park's way on the last Saturday or Sunday afternoon of March, a game in which the big leaguers would be fine-tuning their games days before the start of the season. It would be measurably more interesting than the first-pitch hacks the Mets take while playing the Tides in early May.

``I wouldn't want to do it every year,'' Young said. ``I still like the exhibition game between the Tides and Mets. But alternating years might be the way to go.''

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