THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 4, 1995 TAG: 9509030244
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Special two-page pullout
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines
Rear views of a remarkable Norfolk Tides season, when player development and winning remained constants, even if the faces did not:
May 29, Toledo. Butch Huskey, batting below .200, hits three home runs and drives in six runs in a 12-5 romp over the Mud Hens.
If not quite a turning point for a team that dominated the International League all season, the outburst at least sparked their leader to a season worthy of the Most Valuable Player award he won last week.
Huskey went up to the New York Mets on Aug. 18, less than three months after he seemed doomed to repeat his dismal '94 season and play his way out of the Mets' plans.
Capsulize Huskey's performance and you get the themes through which 1995 will be remembered in Tides history - the anticipation of high expectations and the accomplishment of challenges conquered.
This is true regardless of how the Tides perform in the Governors' Cup playoffs, a pair of five-game series after which the best team will not necessarily be standing.
The sprint will earn some franchise the Cup. But the just-completed five-month tour of attrition crowned the Tides, without dispute, kings.
April 6, Charlotte. Mike Birkbeck, backed by home runs by Chris Jones and Derek Lee, pitches the Tides to a 4-2 win on opening night.
Only eight men on the playoff roster wore Tides' uniforms April 6. Jones left for New York in mid-May, and Birkbeck joined him a week later, then went to Japan.
Lee remains, though, as do four others - aside from manager Toby Harrah and coaches Bob Apodaca and Ron Washington - who have been Tides all season: pitchers Chris Roberts and Bryan Rogers, and infielders Rey Ordonez and Edwin Alicea.
It was a year that unfolded just as projected by Mets executives, who after seasons of drought finally fielded a strapping Triple-A club of home-grown players. They turned most of their finest loose at Harbor Park, then stood back to enjoy.
``I think everyone there deserves a lot of credit. It's been a terrific year,'' said Gerry Hunsicker, the Mets' assistant vice president for baseball operations. ``The fact that this club has been able to maintain its consistency after losing a number of key players has been a pleasant surprise.''
Through the spate of demotions after the big league strike ended and promotions as the Mets retooled for the future, it took a club-record 56 players to get it done.
The Tides finished 86-56. They held at least a share of first place in the West Division from May 3, and were there alone after June 18.
April 13, Norfolk: Bill Pulsipher, 21, makes his debut in the home opener and beats the Rochester Red Wings, 3-0, with a masterful two-hitter.
In two months with the Tides, the quirky lefthander from Fairfax proved he was more than a product of the media hype that enveloped him and that he loved.
Stepping just-so over the base line on his trip to the mound and back, cap pulled low above the stubble on his cheeks, he provided a burst of youthful enthusiasm and restlessness. Pulsipher won six games and electrified the first two months, after which the Tides were 34-18.
June 18, Richmond. Jason Isringhausen, in the middle of his own sensational two months, pitches a five-hitter and the Tides pound the Braves, 11-0, to break a first-place tie - for good.
The 22-year-old righthander won nine games before he lost, compiled a 1.55 ERA and started for the National League in the Triple-A All-Star game before he was promoted to the Mets.
Aug. 11, Richmond. Paul Wilson, another phenom in the wake of Pulsipher and Isringhausen, strikes out 13 Braves in a five-hit, 1-0 victory. The Tides are one out away from being no-hit by Chris Seelbach when Ricky Otero singles, followed by Jay Payton's game-winning bloop double.
Aug. 22, Norfolk. Wilson and Charlotte's Richie Lewis each carry no-hitters into the eighth inning, though the Tides lead, 1-0. That's how it ends, but Lewis and Wilson lose their no-hitters to the first batter in the eighth.
They finish with one-hitters, and the Tides take away something more - the division pennant.
On the same night, shortstop Ordonez, who in the field renders the fantastic commonplace, makes perhaps his finest play of the season, sliding to catch a chopper over second, tagging the bag with a pop-up slide and throwing off-balance to first to complete a double play - almost casually, as if it happens all the time. Which for him it does.
Bottom line: Probably no other shortstop, minor or major league, makes that play. And nobody else makes it that way.
Clearly, amazing depth, especially on the pitching staff, was the foundation for the Tides' first division title and playoff appearance since 1988.
When Birkbeck left, Isringhausen came. When Pulsipher went, Reid Cornelius (7-0) took his place. Isringhausen's departure coincided with the arrival of Wilson, the Eastern League's most valuable pitcher.
Meanwhile, the Tides also sent Cornelius, Paul Byrd, Don Florence and Dave Telgheder to the Mets and lost Jason Jacome and Jimmy Williams in trades.
Then Carl Everett took his .300 average and strong arm to New York. Pity the Tides, who were stuck only with Alex Ochoa, late of Rochester, an IL All-Star who has one of the best arms in baseball. He joined an outfield that featured the Eastern League's most valuable player, Payton, who came up at the All-Star break.
The rock through it all was Huskey, whose thoughts are with the Tides in the postseason though his bat is not.
``I wish them luck,'' Huskey said last week. ``I hope they win. I need a ring.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color file photo by Paul Aiken, Staff
Outfielder Derek Lee celebrates in April after one of his 18 home
runs, second-most on the Tides to Butch Huskey. Lee was one of only
five players to stay with the Tides all season.
Color file photo by Beth Bergman, Staff
Rey Ordonez showers teammate Paul Wilson, whose one-hitter over
Charlotte clinched the West Division title on Aug. 22.
Color photos
Butch Huskey
Bill Pulsipher
Rey Ordonez
Jason Isringhausen
by CNB