THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 13, 1996 TAG: 9608130432
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 43 lines
For Bob and Jenny Lee Carmen it started out as just another Sunday night at Harbor Park. It ended with an unusual souvenir.
The retired Virginia Beach residents are die-hard Tides fans, season-ticket holders who make annual March pilgrimages to spring training in Florida. They've followed the Tides since the team played Carolina League ball at Frank D. Lawrence Stadium in the 1960s.
On Sunday, the Carmans were joined by their grandsons, 16-year-old Joey and 13-year-old William A. Sorensen. They were watching a tight contest, tied 1-1 in the eighth, when Rochester slugger Joe Hall stepped to the plate to face Tides starting pitcher Rick Trlicek.
Trlicek delivered and Hall swung mightily. He lost his grip, launching his bat into the stands.
The wooden missile spun a half-dozen rows above the visiting team's dugout toward Jenny Lee Carman, a woman who was once struck by a foul ball in that very stadium.
``That ball bounced off her,'' recalled her husband. ``Way off.''
Getting clocked by a flying bat seemed like an even less enticing proposition. The grandmother ducked, and the bat landed in the row behind the family.
Joey reached his arm back and snagged the bat on the rebound.
Nobody was hurt. The crowd cheered as the 16-year-old held up his prize.
But Hall wanted his bat, and a Rochester coach and a bat boy came to the wall by the Carmans' seats to wait for its return.
Cheering Tides fans switched gears and directed a chorus of boos at Rochester's dugout. One frantic Norfolk fan repeatedly jerked his hands down over his knee, signalling that Joey snap the bat into kindling rather than return it.
Carman, silver-haired and clad in a Mets cap, walked down to the Red Wings' dugout to negotiate. The grandfather talked to the coach.
``I said, `Gimme another bat.' ''
The coach agreed to the terms, and the Rochester bat boy brought them a new Louisville Slugger C-271 ProStock.
Would Joey have preferred the first bat?
``Yeah,'' he said, holding the replacement. ``This'll do, though.'' by CNB