After the Norfolk Tides fell 5-2 at Durham on Sunday, an annual minor league ritual commenced.
Norfolk’s players, coaches and staffers scattered, happily, for a brief midseason sabbatical.
The final out of Sunday’s game marked the beginning of what used to be the International League’s four-day All-Star break. The league, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and an overhaul of the structure of the minor leagues, hasn’t participated in the Triple-A All-Star Game since 2019, leaving its principals to their own devices for a bit.
The first-half champion Tides (55-30, 7-4 second half) have players from six countries and 14 U.S. states. A cross-section of players from both near and far revealed a variety of plans for their time off.
Infielder Robbie Glendinning, for example, is a native of Scarborough, Australia. A former star at the University of Missouri, Glendinning planned to visit his fiancée, Aubrey, and their dogs at her home in Kansas City.
A return to Australia in such a short window would be out of the question.
“Going back, I would lose a day and then I would gain a day,” said the 27-year-old Glendinning, who plans to wed in October. “I think it would be fly back, look around and fly back to the States.”
Darwinzon Hernandez, a 26-year-old left-hander from Venezuela, planned to visit his wife and children at their Stateside home in Orlando. Hernandez, who has pitched in 91 major league games with the Boston Red Sox, will return to Venezuela in the offseason.
“Four days is good because you can reset and also spend some time with the family and stuff like that,” Hernandez said through a translator. “It’s good to have that reset time with the family.”
Norfolk manager Buck Britton, similarly, planned to drive his wife and two young daughters back to their home near Sarasota, Florida. Britton’s family had been with him in Norfolk since the season began.
“I think it’s huge getting a four-day break,” Britton, a native of Texas, said. “We’re playing 150 games now at this level, going all the way through September, which is unique.
“I think it’s good for these guys to get those four days off to kind of just reset, for sure.”
For players who live relatively close by, the break allows for options.
Garrett Stallings, a 25-year-old right-hander who attended Chesapeake’s Grassfield High and the University of Tennessee, planned to visit his parents in the Northern Neck hamlet of Heathsville, where they moved a couple of years ago.
Stallings, who joined the Tides late last month from Double-A Bowie, planned to take some friends with him to enjoy the nearby Chesapeake Bay.
“Sit by the water, maybe take the boat out a little bit,” Stallings said. “It’s nice having family close.”
Infielder Connor Norby, a former East Carolina star who makes his offseason home in Kernersville, North Carolina, planned to stay in the Durham area to visit his girlfriend before heading to Greenville to hang out with his brother, freshman left-hander Ethan, and their college coach, Cliff Godwin.
After that, Norby intended to return to Hampton Roads and relax.
“I don’t feel like going home this year,” he said. “Last year, I did. I just kind of want to just hang out here, maybe go to the beach for a day, get a massage, do something light.”
Norby’s roommate, fellow middle infielder Joey Ortiz, had similarly fluid plans. A native of Garden Grove, California, Ortiz figured that going home for such a short period made no sense. How he’d spend his break, therefore, was a bit of a mystery.
“I guess I spend so much time here that I never really think about time off,” Ortiz said in Harbor Park’s home clubhouse. “Maybe just hang out, relax, try and get the body right, get a massage.”
Stallings, who grew up going to Tides games, said he’s had to convince friends that he didn’t pull any strings to get assigned to his hometown team.
A look at Norfolk’s diverse roster, which includes players from as far as 10,000 miles away, makes Stallings realize how lucky he is.
“It kind of feels like a dream come true, just playing here,” Stallings said. “And then it kind of motivates me just a little bit more to make it to the major leagues.
“I’m just in that 1% chance that happened to make it to Triple-A, playing at a high level, and then also playing in the same park that I’d go to as a kid. So I’m taking all the extra time to sign every autograph I can (for) all the little kids out there because I was exactly in their same position. If you just keep working, their dream can come true, too.”
David Hall, [email protected]. Twitter @DavidHallVP.
