Opening day at Harbor Park always holds a special place in Heather McKeating’s heart.
For 26 years, the Norfolk Tides front office stalwart has welcomed anxious fans to the ballpark as it’s returned to life.
But Tuesday’s opener was different. McKeating, who is back with the team after three seasons away, had come home again.
The season’s beginning means different things to different people, from the players and field staff to the concessions workers to those like McKeating who help keep the whole operation functioning.
First-year Tides manager Buck Britton, whose team was scheduled to open a six-game series against Charlotte if the clouds hovering over the yard held their water, said opening day never gets old.
“I think whether it’s the nervous energy, the anxiety, the excitement, I don’t think it ever does,” the former Norfolk utilityman said. “We spend so much time in the offseason, it kind of seems like it drags on.
“Now that stuff really matters and it’s going on the back of your baseball card per se, it’s exciting, for sure.”
Wanting to spend more time with her then 12-year-old son, McKeating gave up the daily grind of the baseball lifer and took a job as a volunteer coordinator with a local charity racing company.
When that job went away because of COVID, she signed on as director of business development at the Virginia Beach Field House.
Formerly the Tides’ director of community relations, McKeating leapt at the chance to reassume that role while running the team store.
“It just feels right to be back here,” McKeating said on the stadium’s concourse as workers wheeled cases of Budweiser and Bud Light between meandering fans. “I mean, no pun intended, but it feels like home.”
The thousands of fans who filed in to enjoy mild, but overcast conditions likely felt equally welcome, especially once they got a glimpse of the 29-year-old park’s gargantuan new video board.
The board, which at 32 feet high and 114 feet tall is the largest in the minor leagues, towers over right-center field and replaces a much smaller one installed in 2006.
The board, Tides president Ken Young said, was installed at a cost of $1.7 million, and a second one will be placed in left field in May at a cost of $650,000.
“The thing about these facilities is you’ve got to try to keep up with the technology,” Young said. “Now, you can’t keep up with it all the time because let’s face it: Stuff becomes obsolete pretty quick. But with an investment like that, you hope this would last a very long time, and it should.”
Opening day was especially meaningful for Norfolk hitting coach Tim Gibbons, whose thoughts were taken well away from baseball the day before.