Day 69: June 16, 1991

Durham, NC

Park # 75

What I Remember

Minor League baseball has undergone a surge in popularity since the Excellent Adventure of 1991. Teams, even in the lower levels of the minors, routinely draw crowds in the thousands and there are parks in the minors that rival any big league stadium in terms of creature comforts for fans.

But in 1991 if you asked someone on the streets of Los Angeles, say, to name as many minor league teams as they could there would have been a bunch of people who would have come up with only one…the Durham Bulls. The team, its logo and its iconic ballpark all became famous in a movie that had come out three years earlier, Bull Durham.

We got to Durham early on a hot Sunday afternoon. It was hazy and humid but dry(ish). We got some good video of the classic park and looked forward to the game that night, but by the time we had meet up with our friends the Thalers and gone back to the stadium it had clouded up. Before the first inning was over it started pouring and lightning lit up the sky..that was the end of our night of baseball at Durham Athletic Park and there isn’t much more to write about the game but you will a good look at the old park and hear a bull story in the video below.