THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604030553
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Rumor has it that a new contest is going to be staged between innings of Norfolk Tides games this season at Harbor Park - Joe Gorza's Job Description.
Does he:
A) Hire and train the stadium's 120 game-day employees?
B) Suggest renovation and improvement projects at Harbor Park?
C) Oversee minor repairs?
D) Supervise the cleanup crew?
E) Make sure TV and radio crews have everything they need for a successful broadcast?
F) None of the above?
G) All of the above, and more?
The correct answer is ``G,'' as in Gorza.
It was Gorza, the Tides' stadium operation manager, who oversaw the installation of Astroturf in the Tides' batting cage beneath Harbor Park.
It is Gorza who has worked with the contractor on getting the manufacturer to replace the rotted and faded padding that lines the bottom of the stands and dugout railing.
It is Gorza who tells the ticket-takers which half of the stub to keep, which to send home with its owner.
``The thing I like best about this job is that you never do the same thing two days in a row,'' Gorza said during a recent tour of Harbor Park, which opens for its fourth season on Thursday when the Tides host Toledo at 7:15 p.m.
Gorza, a 28-year-old father of two, has just finished hiring the game-day crew of ushers and guards who will work each home game. He says proudly that the team is instituting ``All-Star Service'' this season, a plan with one simple aim.
``We want to make everyone feel as though they've walked into our house and are our guests,'' he said. ``If someone's leaving a concessions stand with a tray of drinks and food, I want our ushers to take the food out of there and walk the customer down to his seat, so they can avoid spilling anything.
``Basically, we want everyone who works here to go out of their way to make our fans feel comfortable.
``The people who take tickets, we want each of them to wish our fans a good evening as they enter the ballpark. We want them to do anything they can to make for a memorable evening at Harbor Park.''
Gorza has had his share of memorable Harbor Park evenings. Like Opening Night 1993, when the locker rooms, training room and ground-floor offices flooded because of a concrete chunk left by construction workers in a water line.
``I was down there with a crew with squeegees, trying anything I could to save the carpet,'' Gorza said, smiling.
``That's the most bizarre thing that's happened here.''
Recently, however, Gorza discovered some flooding in 13 of Harbor Park's skysuites.
``During the second snowstorm we had, some coils broke on the suite level,'' Gorza said. ``But we've already gotten the carpet repaired and cleaned and cleaned the mess off the ceiling tiles. There won't be any permanent damage.
``You do a lot of grunt work in this job; fixing locks, moving furniture, plunging toilets. It's whatever it takes to keep the place moving along.''
Gorza also has a hand in at least one special project. It's one the Tides have with local church organizations. They send six or seven workers to a Tides game, Gorza trains and assigns them certain responsibilities and the ballclub pays the church for the work done.
``What we do here has been copied by other minor-league teams,'' Gorza said. ``We get calls here all the time from teams wanting to know how they should handle certain things.''
As the Tides' fourth opening day at Harbor Park approaches, many of the little touches that make the ballpark special have been completed.
But not all.
``We will be ready Thursday. We're not where we want to be yet, but then again, we like it to look perfect,'' Gorza said. ``People talk like we have six months to get the place ready. It's more like six weeks.
``They'll walk in Thursday and see a neat, clean, perfectly wonderful ballpark and they'll think, `They've done it again.' They don't know the little things I've got going that maybe I wasn't able to finish.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by HUY NGUYEN, The Virginian-Pilot
Dave Harrah, left, and Andy Riddick, part of the crew that works the
grounds at Harbor Park, do a little tarp pulling Tuesday.
by CNB