THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 24, 1994 TAG: 9407240166
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
The crowd seemed to come out of nowhere - 12,569 paid at Harbor Park last Wednesday night for an otherwise nondescript Norfolk Tides game. There were no special promotions, no give-away items.
But about 10 days earlier, Tides president Ken Young could see that the crowd had potential to be the Tides' largest of the season. Which it was.
Three things combined to produce the standing-room only windfall. The first two were groups of more than 1,000 who independently selected that date to attend. The third was an effective telemarketing blitz, done about five times this season, that generated another 3,300 ticket sales.
Added to their season-ticket base of 2,800 and the normal walk-up gate of a few thousand, the Tides needed to sell 506 $3 standing-room tickets to accommodate their patrons.
``It's unusual to have two groups over 1,000,'' Young said of Stihl Inc., which brought about 1,500 people, and the 1,000-strong USS Guadalcanal group.
``Our preference would be that one of those groups come the night before. You'd prefer not to take the chance of having to turn people away.''
When neither group wanted to change, the sellout was on. Meanwhile, the telemarketing effort had been well under way.
Occasionally, Young said, the Tides pick dates on which they have no promotion and use an outside telemarketing firm to pitch businesses to buy groups of tickets for their employees.
``It gets people that may not normally come out to the ballpark,'' said Young, who banks on those people enjoying themselves and buying tickets on their own later. ``It's a good way for businesses to do something for their employees. And it puts people in the ballpark on nights we may have 8,000 instead of 12,000.''
Wednesday's turnout put the Tides paid attendance at 356,395 for the season through 50 dates. That is 9,589 better than last year at the same point.
SHORT-ORDER COOK: For a third choice, veteran righthander Mike Cook has served the Tides well as their closer. Cook, a 30-year old righthander, has converted 12 of 16 save opportunities in the wake of injuries that denied Pete Walker and Kenny Greer that role.
``This is probably the best year I've had closing,'' said Cook, a utility-man type pitcher the Tides obtained by trade in April.
``I'm throwing more strikes. I've been prone to throw a lot of balls in my career, but the last couple years I've been throwing more strikes.''
The Tides planned for Walker to be their late-game stopper, but he suffered an elbow injury in spring training. Then they turned to Greer, but he also hurt his elbow after a week and needed surgery.
Two days after Greer went on the disabled list, Jeff Manto was sent to Baltimore for Cook, who was in Rochester's bullpen. Since then, the Charleston, S.C., native has been quietly effective.
His record was a lowly 2-6 through Thursday, but Cook had compiled a 1.87 earned-run average and struck out 46 in 43 1/3 innings, with only 16 walks and 44 hits allowed.
He has closed games for three other teams, in between spending a little over a year in the big leagues with the Angels and Twins.
Mostly, though, the Angels' No. 1 draft pick in 1985 has filled in anywhere he's been needed on a pitching staff.
Closing is fine, Cook said, except for the limited opportunity to build innings. He rarely works more than one inning at time.
``I know I'm not going to be a stopper above this level,'' Cook said. ``So it's not really something that I can get overly excited about going to the next level to do. Because I don't have that 90-plus fastball or the good curveball. I just throw strikes and hope I get the ground balls.'' by CNB