DATE: Thursday, September 4, 1997           TAG: 9709040631

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  143 lines

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS ABOUT TIDES IN SPITE OF THEIR AUGUST SLUMP, THE TIDES MADE SOME LASTING IMPRESSIONS THIS SEASON.

A season to forget, or one to cherish? After leading the International League's West Division for much of the season, the Norfolk Tides failed to make the playoffs. They flopped in August - at one point losing 16 of 20 games - and missed postseason play by a game and a half.

While winning is a sure measure of success - and Norfolk did that by going 75-67 - at the Triple-A level it's not always the most important measure. The Tides sent four players to the major leagues early in the season and those four continue to produce for the New York Mets in big ways - pinch-hit specialist Matt Franco, shortstop Luis Lopez, catcher Todd Pratt and pitcher Cory Lidle.

The pipeline didn't stop there. A dozen players who started the season either with the Tides or at a lower level took the flight from Norfolk to New York.

While they were here, they made news in a variety of ways as Harbor Park buzzed much of the season.

Izzy's roller coaster

The good news: Pitcher Jason Isringhausen, who would start the season in Norfolk rehabilitating after shoulder and elbow surgery, blasts nine home runs during spring training.

The bad news: He does it playing softball for a topless bar in Stuart, Fla., 10 miles up the road from the Mets' spring training facility. His night-time trips up Interstate 95 end when Mets manager Bobby Valentine is tipped off by an anonymous phone call.

The not-so-good news: Isringhausen fractures a bone in his pitching hand while making his second start of the season, but the break isn't career-threatening.

The bad news: He does it while punching an oversized plastic trash can in the Tides' dugout between innings. Asked if it was out of frustration after giving up two first-inning runs, Isringhausen snaps, ``What do you think?''

Followed by more bad news: While recuperating the hand injury, Isringhausen is diagnosed with tuberculosis.

The good news: It's treatable.

More good news: Isringhausen makes it back to the Tides, pitches solidly in one game, then rejoins the Mets and wins his first two starts.

The bad news: By the time he makes it back in late August, the Mets' postseason hopes are minimal.

When it rained, it poured

The fourth week of July saw Tropical Storm Danny blow through the area on its way to regaining hurricane strength. It wiped out three games with the Charlotte Knights and forced the Tides to give Charlotte those three games as parts of three straight doubleheaders at Knights Castle the following week.

The three lost home dates threatened the Tides' run of consecutive seasons drawing 500,000 or more at Harbor Park.

But the Tides made a large attendance charge, including drawing 13,079 on Fan Appreciation Night on Aug. 30, and reached the plateau with 500,632 tickets sold. That makes the Tides 5-for-5 at Harbor Park.

Irabu peek-a-boo

When the Columbus Clippers came to town Aug. 11, they had Hideki Irabu, the New York Yankees' Japanese import not only in-tow, but also scheduled to pitch at Harbor Park against the Tides.

Irabu showed, warmed up in leftfield, then packed his bags after it was announced he was rejoining the Yankees to make a start later that week in New York.

The hype surrounding Irabu's ``scheduled'' start in Norfolk nonetheless drove ticket sales through the roof and the Tides packed 13,161 into Harbor Park, the third-largest crowd ever for the facility and an unheard of attendance figure for a Monday night.

Norfolk then beat the Clippers, who still had Darryl Strawberry and Tim Raines on the roster, 3-0 on an outstanding pitching performance by Shannon Withem.

As fans were pouring out of Harbor Park that night, Tides president Ken Young quipped, ``We should send (Yankees owner) George Steinbrenner a fruit basket just for announcing Irabu would pitch here.''

He doesn't belong here

Teammates and opponents said it all season: What is Roberto Petagine doing in Norfolk?

The power-hitting lefthander was the class of the International League all season and finished the year ranked third or higher in seven major statistical categories.

By season's end, he was a runaway winner of the league's MVP title and his 31 home runs are a Tides Triple-A record. Nineteen of them, by the way, came at Harbor Park, which is usually a graveyard for long balls to right.

Don't look for Petagine in the Mets organization next season. Chances are he'll go in the major league expansion draft as two new teams join the big-league ranks for 1998.

And if not, there's always Japan.

Virginian-Pilot jinx

After The Virginian-Pilot ran a feature story on Jeff Tam, the reliever-turned-starter pulled a Steve Carlton, refusing to talk to The Pilot's beat reporter the rest of the season.

``Forget it, we're through,'' Tam said, almost completely out of the blue. ``You jinxed me. I went out on my next start and gave up four runs in the first inning. You and I aren't talking any more this season.''

The day after Tam's final start for the Tides, Tam was all smiles when he ran into the same reporter in the tunnel leading to the team's clubhouse.

``Hey, no hard feelings, OK?'' Tam said. ``It was nothing personal.''

Nope. It was just another superstitious baseball player. For the record, Tam finished 7-5, converted all six save opportunities, and was 4-4 as a starter.

Benny's No. 44 and No. 1

With a month to go in the season, the Tides held ``We'll give you the shirt off our back'' night at Harbor Park. Players peeled their jerseys off and gave them to lucky fans whose ticket stubs were pulled - lottery-style - throughout the evening.

The first jersey to be claimed belonged to outfielder Benny Agbayani, who was a crowd favorite all season.

Agbayani, who wears No. 44, confided afterward that he felt a bit embarrassed by his game jersey. You see, he rests his bat on his right shoulder when at the plate.

``The jersey was covered in pine tar,'' Agbayani said. ``It was a mess.''

How about a prospect?

If a major-league prospect is defined as a kid just out of his teens who has the unrealistic build of an ``action figure'' and a resume that reads like Joe DiMaggio's, the Tides were without any this season.

Many national publications went so far as to rank the Mets organization dead last when it came to promising prospects.

Next year could be different.

The Tides expect to see two very promising prospects in outfielders Fletcher Bates and Preston Wilson. The latter is the son of former Mets World Series hero Mookie Wilson and had a 30-homer season combining his stops in Class A St. Lucie and Double-A Binghamton. Also, highly touted catcher Vance Wilson (no relation) is expected to make it to Triple-A.

And sometimes, major league prospects are nearing 50 and have a mustache almost as old. Tides manager Rick Dempsey said that if he doesn't land a major league job in the off-season, he'd feel fortunate to return to Norfolk next spring.

``In my opinion, there's no better organization at this level,'' Dempsey said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

A season to cherish, or forget?

Norfolk Tides manager Rick Dempsey says he'd love to return next

season if he doesn't get a major league job.

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