On Redemption
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| Harbor Park, 2015 |
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Durham Bulls (Tampa Bay Rays) vs.Norfolk Tides (Baltimore Orioles)
Harbor Park
International League (AAA)
Norfolk, VA
7:05 PM
Outside the Game:
There wasn't much outside the game this day except for driving. A quick check of the weather let me know that either Bluefield or Princeton, WV, were going to be rained out tonight, so my only hope was to cut five hours across the state to try and hit a makeup with Norfolk. Not looking to have two rain-outs in one trip for the first time ever, I buckled down and committed to the drive.
I grabbed my breakfast from the buffet and went back to my room for a relatively lazy morning. I was going over all my options and double- and triple-checking the math before finally getting fully in gear, showering up, packing, checking out, and hitting the road.
It was a little before eleven when I headed out, but there was nothing to do for the day except drive across the state. One minor mercy was that the Thursday afternoon drive didn't encounter any real traffic at all. Beside a quick stop for gas and shoveling some food in my mouth, the only setbacks were a couple of small packets of congestion before reaching Norfolk. I was straight off to the stadium when I got there, grabbing a ticket and heading right in, as I was getting there just as the gates were opening, and I had already taken all my outside shots of the park during my first rainy trip at the start of the trip.
After the game, I made the short drive to my chosen hotel for the evening. It was right downtown, and the only real hitch was figuring out where to park. I stopped right in front of the hotel to check in, but it turned out I had to go all around the block to get to the entrance of the parking lot I inadvertently passed on the way in. But I was able to get parked rather quickly, and I spent most of the remainder of the evening trying to figure out what I was going to do to get the trip back on schedule, so it was a lot of referring to weather reports, which teams were where, and wishing in the most effective ways I could imagine to do so.
The Stadium & Fans:
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| Home plate to center field, Harbor Park |
Harbor Park has a wonderfully un-corporatized name, and it is a wonderfully old-school look about it. The facade of the circular structure is brick below concrete, and it has more going on outside than the average park. For starters, beyond the expected team offices, team store, and ticket booths, there are two transit hookups to the station: a light rail station as part of the cavernous parking lots that surround the park, and a ferry terminal outside of right field. There are three entrances at home plate, first base, and third base, all with plazas outside of them (not to mention the handicapped, groups, and VIP entrances that the average fan can't use). There is a statue of "Sandy Tide," a mermaid baseball player, right by the home plate entrance, and there are a number of other memorials outside of the park, including a fan brick walk by home plate, a memorial to Dave Rosenfield, the stadium dedication, and a plaque about Baseball in Norfolk. There's also the entrance to the "Hits" restaurant from the outside, as the restaurant operates even when there isn't a game on.
All the entrances dump out onto an upper promenade that runs from outfield to outfield behind home plate. All the concessions and stores face out onto the field, so fans can grab grub without missing the game. A lower walkway runs through the lower seating bowl, separating box seats below from regular seats above. And since this is a AAA park, there are actually two sections of legitimate upper deck in the left and right field corners that have their own walkways at the base of the seating areas. A large second tier separated from the other upper deck seating runs from about dugout to dugout behind home plate and houses the press box along with several floors of luxury boxes. And out in right field, there is the building for the "Hits at the Park" restaurant, whose windows let its patrons see the game while having a sit-down meal. Right field ends in a party deck with a large roof, and left field ends with a party area picnic hill with tables in left-center.
There are a ton of scoreboards in the park, starting with a digital strip auxiliary boards on either side of home plate. A digital scoreboard sits in left-center, above the picnic hill, a pitch speed board is in left closer to center, and a giant digital video board (with more ads than actual video board) in in right-center. A single-tier outfield wall runs below it all, with only a few big ads on it. The batter's eye rises black from center field, and the cranes and bridges of the dockyard form the backdrop for the stadium.
There is a ton crammed into the main promenade besides concession stands and stores. Dozens of "Tides Facts" and Hall of Fame plaques (most dating from the NY Metropolitans long affiliation with the team) line the promenade, as well as the "10-Year Tides All Stars," and plaques for the Youth Baseball Fund and the dedication to the old stadium. There is a small kids area in an alcove in right, and a collection of baseball statues showing a kid pitching to a batter and a catcher are also on the promenade.
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| He's... something, I guess. |
The local mascot is Rip Tide. He is... I want to say "fish," but maybe see monster. He's kind of blue and indistinct. For "Super Hero Night," he also was equipped with a cape, as were the humans on the fun team. A couple of the between-inning events were superhero themed, but most were your standard variety minor-league contests, races, and giveaways, with a couple of unique events throw in like a contest to catch items in oversized skirts. The first pitch was thrown out by a bunch of cosplayers, but for "superhero night," I don't think a stormtrooper or a Ghostbuster really qualified, but no one asked me.
The crowd was no doubt diluted by the pre-game rain-delay, but given that, there were a decent number of butts in the seats for a rainy, Thursday game in the middle of summer.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Disreputable scoring |
So after finally getting into the stadium at Norfolk on the second attempt, I darted around and tried to get all the interiors shots that I could, which was a challenge with just an hour and a half at a AAA park, but I needn't have worried. At around 6:30 PM, the sky opened up for a two-and-a-half-hour rain delay to the start of the game, so I had all the time in the world to wander around and take pictures, albeit damp, before the game got started.
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| Hot dog platter and souvenir soda |
I spent some of my time eating a hot dog platter, and in wandering around the only dry, covered parts of the field during the delay, I ran into a lot of the cosplayers who were there for "superhero" night, though I almost did ask one woman dressed up as Thor if she could knock it off with all the rain. But I demurred.
During the delay, I had to sort out where the heck I was going to spend the night. I was holding off on getting a hotel to perhaps get some of the drive in back across the state that evening so I wouldn't have another five-hour drive the next day. But as the rain plowed on, I realized that even under the best-case scenario, I was going to be stuck in Norfolk for the night, either after a late ending to the game, or to try and pick up the Tides the next day when there would inevitably be a double-header that I would be able to get in the rained-out game.
But I had left my tablet in the car, so I called up a friend of mine who went onto Hotels.com and went through the listings for me until we found a historic hotel that was a short drive from the park that seemed like the best idea, so I got the number from him and booked straight after, so at least I had a place to stay for the evening.
The rain delay did eventually end, with the game kicking off just after nine. My ticket was on the box seats right by the field nearly right behind first base, so I had a good, damp look at everything. The crowd was definitely less than it had been when the rain started, and around me, only the family directly to my left, who were clearly season ticket-holders, were there. They kept to themselves, so I just scored the game and was happy enough to just get the game in and make it my hotel sometime before the middle of the night.
The Game:
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| First pitch, Bulls vs. Tides |
This damp International League contest got started after a two-hour rain delay, and both the Norfolk Tides and the Durham Bulls played like they had somewhere to be after the game, which started late and was only getting later.
The visiting Bulls lead off with a bunt single in the wet grass, had it second and third after a double, and a ground-out got in the first run, staking them to an early 1-0 lead. Norfolk went in order. Reversing things, Durham went in order in the second, while the Tide got on the board with a homer to right center to tie it up, 1-1. The Bulls again went down in straight numbers in the third, while Norfolk stranded a one-out double on the base paths.
Durham had a sole single in the top of the fourth, while the Tide had back-to-back singles to lead off the bottom of the fourth, and a sacrifice fly gave them the first lead of the night, 2-1. Both sides went down quickly in the fifth, and the Bulls did it again in the top of the sixth, while Norfolk head a leadoff homer to left to extend the lead to 3-1.
In the top of the seventh, Durham stranded two singles, while the Tide did the same. There was then a hiccup to the home team victory in the top of the eighth as a two-out single was followed by a homer to left to tie it up at three. Not rising to the challenge, Norfolk went in order in the bottom of the inning. The Bulls tacked on two more runs in the top of the ninth with a single, a walk, and a double to pull out to a late 5-3 lead. And there it would end, as Norfolk again failed the final challenge and went down in order in the ninth to seal the Durham victory.
The Scorecard:
Bulls vs. Tides, 07/02/15. Bulls win, 5-3.
The scorecard was the centerfold of the $1 full-color magazine program on glossy paper. The scorecard was simply a mess. Sixty percent of the spread was taken up by ads on the top and bottom. The glossy paper made it literally impossible to write in red pencil, so I had to score in regular pencil. I compensated by numbering the outs to make them stand out. There were exactly nine lines for players, with the boxes just large enough for replacements. A pre-printed diamond was in the scoring boxes, but it was large enough to score adequately. Pitching lines were underneath the batting lines, but there was space for only three pitchers, which was inadequate. The batting lines did not include summary columns, and the innings also lacking summary rows. Tiny columns were left at the end of the pitching lines for Notes. The home team was on the left side, which was pretty odd, also.
The game itself was not very interesting from a scoring perspective, and there was only one item of note. In the bottom of the seventh, the Tide center fielder was called out on a grounder to second. He disagreed with the call and was ejected for arguing before his manager could intervene.
The Accommodations:
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| The Tasewell |
For a last-minute hotel pick for a one-night stay, I pretty much lucked out as much as possible. To start off with, the Tasewell was just a short drive from the park, so it gave me the longest rest period I could expect. The hotel was a renovated old classic, which was amazing to just walk around in to see the architecture of a legitimate old hotel such as this one. I went wandering the halls and the floors for a bit when I got settled just to see the layout of this old place.
The room itself lived up to the hype, featuring actual furniture, and not "hotel furniture," the same style and brand of interchangeable furniture that you see in nearly every hotel chain, even if they aren't owned by the same company. The main room had a king-sided bed with two nightstands on one wall, with a dresser and a desk on the adjoining walls. Opposite the bed was another dresser/TV stand with a CRT TV, next to a 3/4 refrigerator with a microwave on top. The bathroom was in the corner of the room, leading to a structurally imposing room with an old sink and a modern shower stall put inside.
I wasn't doing much than sleeping for a night, but it was one of the few times I was compelled to walk around a hotel to take it all in ever, so that says something for it. I got a great night's sleep in the solid room, and I was sad to leave it the next day.
2015 Virginia
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