DATE: Thursday, September 4, 1997           TAG: 9709040630

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   67 lines

AFTER FIVE SEASONS, HARBOR PARK STILL A TREASURE

Concerning Harbor Park, Norfolk Mayor Paul D. Fraim was wrong about one thing.

``I can see people eventually saying, `The Tides are playing at the Harbor,' or `Meet me at the Harbor,' '' Fraim, then a Norfolk councilman, said in 1992 when the stadium's name was announced.

No, the place hasn't come to be known by one word, such as the Stick in San Francisco. The Harbor has never been in the ballpark, so to speak.

But after five seasons, the stadium has lived up to practically every other prediction for its success.

I thought about that Monday as I sat on Harbor Park's press level, watching the Tides close their season. In between glances at the game and the Elizabeth River, it struck me again just what a great thing we've got.

The park remains every bit as warm and welcoming as it was April 14, 1993, when the Tides debuted there with a 2-0 victory over Ottawa. (Bonus points if you know which Tides pitcher started the opener.)

Even more so, actually, because the stadium that night remained so unfinished that frantic construction workers questioned the city's decision to open.

The sewers backed up and dust was everywhere then, but Harbor Park quickly matured into a role model, in architecture and operation, for minor league ballparks everywhere.

In the park's unique open concourse, the Tides were one of the first to go the carnival-midway route, packing in food kiosks, game booths, a strolling band and recently, a remote-control robot - the better to entertain the non-diehards who outnumber basic baseball fans by huge margins each game.

Playing where a flea market used to be, where cynics insisted the danger and commuting difficulty were too ominous, the Tides have sold 2,637,415 tickets and surpassed a half-million in paid attendance each year.

To say going to a dark-ages Tides game at Met Park, where drawing 200,000 was a great season, is different than going now is to not even get within a whiff of the truth.

On the field, the least-important aspect of the park's success, the Tides have compiled an overall home record of 186-163. Yes, their best record, 86-56, coincides with their best paid gate, 560,211, in 1995.

But Harbor Park is such a ``destination'' site that the quality of the baseball pales in relation to the quality of the customer experience.

Tides historians - and there are a couple out there besides general manager Dave Rosenfield - will remember what happened this season as a freakish fold. (They also remember that Bobby Jones was the opening-night starter in '93.)

To fall from a practically locked-in playoff position to out of the money in a month is no small feat. It takes failure on many levels to go 13-21 from Aug. 1 to blow it, the infamous six-losses-in-seven-games to Richmond being the lowlight.

Fortunately for the witnesses, the comfort of their surroundings made it go down easier. And more amenities, they say, are on the way. The Tides are pricing video boards capable of running replays - and advertising, of course - to be installed perhaps by next season.

It's a matter of staying fresh. New stadiums are going up all the time. Syracuse and Rochester moved in this year in the International League, and Toledo is talking stadium-funding.

Yet impartial people familiar with the new stadiums tell me that Harbor Park, after all, can be shortened to one word that still fits. The Best. ILLUSTRATION: Color file photo

L. TODD SPENCER

The Norfolk Tides drew more than 500,000 fans for the fifth year in

a row, including this standing-room-only crowd of 13,161 on August

12. KEYWORDS: STATISTICS HARBOR PARK

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