THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 4, 1995 TAG: 9507040528
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
They were pounding the dust off old notebooks Monday in Dave Rosenfield's cluttered office at Harbor Park. The glorious season being played out by the 1995 Norfolk Tides had sparked a thirst for history, because, as the team piles up victories, 10 more than any other International League team before Monday, the question is unavoidable: Is this the best Tides' team ever?
The answer: Still have to hedge your bet. Two months are left, 57 games after Monday's contest in Charlotte. But Rosenfield, the Tides general manager, has seen enough to know that what's happening at Harbor Park this season isn't going to come around often.
It's so special: these 54 victories against only 30 losses, the best record in all of Triple-A; this 10 1/2-game lead in the West Division; this pitching staff with the third-best ERA, 2.78, in minor league baseball; this real chance at 90 wins, which only one IL club has accomplished since the Tides entered the league in 1969.
That powerhouse was the 1992 Columbus Clippers, who went 95-49. With two fewer games to play, 142 total, the Tides are on pace to win 91. After the bland fare that's been served up at Harbor Park, and Met Park before it, most of the last decade, this season has been a delicacy nobody quite knows what to do with, though Rosenfield has one notion.
``I'm enjoying the hell out of it,'' he said.
Sort of like in 1987, the last time one of his clubs was this far over 86-55. Or even as far back as 1969 and 1970, when the talent included players such as Ken Singleton, Danny Frisella, Jon Matlack, Leroy Stanton, Tim Foli and Ed Kranepool.
``It's very hard, with the difference in time, to try to compare teams,'' Rosenfield said. ``But I guess one of the things you have to do is measure success. If this club wins a lot more than 86 games, then you certainly have to give it consideration as the best team.''
It's the best individual pitching, top to bottom, that's ever been seen from the Tides, without a doubt. Only two of their 11 current pitchers have earned-run averages above 3.41. That's nothing short of incredible in the well-documented age of diluted arms.
Their offense is nothing like the '87 club, when Randy Milligan toasted the league for a .326 average, 29 home runs and 103 RBIs to win the most valuable player award, when the team batting average was .288, five of the league's top seven hitters were Tides and the average run production was 5.2 per game.
But it's clear the Tides, who average 4.7 runs a game, don't have to hit like Milligan and Co. to lap this year's field, so to speak. With starters who take the team past the sixth inning almost daily, with relievers who rarely blow leads, with a defense anchored by spectacular shortstop Rey Ordonez and with a manager in Toby Harrah who will try most any offensive ploy at most any time, it's easy to get giddy about what's going on.
And the thing is, personnel changes the rest of the way should be minimal. Pitcher Jason Isringhausen is supposed to go to New York shortly, while outfielder Carl Everett appears to be the only other Tide likely to be recalled before the season ends.
The Tides figure they'll insert Double-A stars Paul Wilson and Jay Payton into those vacancies and carry on.
``If a lot of people don't get hurt here or in New York, there's no reason we shouldn't continue the way we are,'' Rosenfield said. ``We're also in one of those streaks (12 wins in 14 games before Monday) where everything we do turns out right. That's doesn't always keep happening.
``When we lost our lead (in mid-June), there was a bunch of games where little things happened where we could have won but didn't. We could get back into one of those spans. But I can't believe this club could ever lose 12 of 13 like Richmond just did.''
Not unless they make everybody throw with their opposite hand. And not considering this promising note: Of the Tides' 57 remaining games, 18 are against Charlotte and Syracuse, the league's two worst teams.
So it's on to 90 wins, amazingly, and maybe beyond. by CNB