When you were a kid playing baseball, did you ever get to play in a night baseball game? Did you local baseball league have lights at your ballpark so you could play well after sunset? Ever play in a tournament game or championship game at night? Didn’t it make you feel like a big leaguer? Well, it always did for me. There is just something about night baseball games. Maybe it’s the massive stadium lights focused on the field like a prop light at a historic concert hall focused on a single guitar player. Maybe it is the larger than average crowds filled with fans who worked all day and need a gigantic stress reliever. Maybe it’s just that baseball played at night has no glaring sun blasting into your eyes when you are trying to catch a pop fly. Maybe it’s just me, I love night baseball games. Loved them when I played, loved them now as a baseball fan watching them.

I am so lucky to have Harbor Park and the Norfolk Tides so close to my new home in Virginia Beach. It is a very short and simplistic ride to the stadium on the waterfront that I know so well, having visited it often when I lived in Hampton Roads back in the late 1990s. Not to mention the parking lot I parked in when I was working at the former concert hall behind the stadium, the infamous Boathouse. Harbor Park has always been one of my favorite baseball parks to catch a game and I was so excited to have the opportunity to catch my first night game there this week for the 2024 season. My first night game at Harbor Park since about 1997! Yikes, time flies doesn’t it???

With the weather looking very promising, Rachel and I took the short into Norfolk, got lucky by heading in early and parked in the Harbor Park parking lot, visited the grounds of the former Boathouse concert hall, then headed into the 3rd base gate and into the stadium. The Norfolk Tides were facing the AAA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (that’s how they spell it!).

The Tides are loaded with stars up and down the lineup, in the starting rotation, in the bullpen. Many would be playing at the major league level for other organizations, in my opinion. Unfortunately, many Tides players play the same positions as mega stars at the big club, the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles are winning and winning convincingly with their starting lineup of former Tides players. So barring injury, expect the same Orioles lineup to be trotting out day after day for the foreseeable future. Many of these Tides players will need to wait their turn to move up, but in the meantime they have a job to do at the AAA level. To finish that thought, this is the fate of many, many AAA players not only on the Norfolk Tides but throughout the AAA level of professional baseball.

It was a packed house at Harbor Park Friday night as they honored the work done at local CHKD (Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters), their patients and medical professionals, many of them children who have benefited from their services. Tons of kids, families, hospital staff were in attendance and they brought the noise, let me tell you. Game started at or around 6:30 with a decent amount of daylight helping the stadium lights do their job. It got really loud in Harbor Park after big hits, runs scored, and double plays made. The concession stand lines were long and the energy in the park was vibrant. The game, the fans, the noise, the lights – night baseball is just awesome.

Like many baseball games now, the game action flies because of the emphasis on pitch clocks and pace of play. Before you know it, it’s the 6th or 7th inning, and you’ve only had 2 hot dogs, a bag of popcorn, and one soda. Gone are the days when you can fit in a box of fries, ice cream, 2 to 3 beers, a pretzel, and then some during an average baseball game. Well, at least this new pace of play style game is healthier to attend??? But in all seriousness, it was an amazing night of baseball at Harbor Park. Having two parents who worked in medicine and in hospitals for most of their careers, I know and appreciate what hospital workers go through on a daily basis. So, thank you to everyone at CHKD for all you do. As for Rachel and I, we had an absolute blast at Harbor Park and can’t wait to attend more exciting Tides games this summer – day or night.

Side note, sorry Jackson Holliday – you were 0fer again last night which puts your total of hits in games I have attended to a whopping zero. I know you are a special player, so I will stay away for a bit so you can bring your average up.