Ben's Biz: An iconic evening with the Bulls

This is an excerpt from the latest edition of the Ben's Biz Beat Newsletter, bringing Minor League Baseball business and culture news to your inbox each and every Thursday. Check out the full newsletter HERE.

The following ballpark road trip recap is presented by Wyndham, proud sponsor of Minor League Ballpark Guides. Plan your road trip today, and check out the Durham Bulls Ballpark Guide HERE.

If you enter Durham Bulls Athletic Park through its Corner Store entrance and then board an elevator, you’ll see these words emphatically adorned along its back wall:

Welcome to the home of Minor League Baseball’s most iconic franchise.

This claim may come across as hyperbolic, or hyperbullic as it were, but it rings true. With all due respect to the Toledo Mud Hens, what Minor League team is more well-known -- around the country and around the world -- than the Bulls? The fame of Bull Durham has a lot to do with the team’s iconic status, of course, but that 1988 film didn’t occur in a vacuum. Professional baseball in Durham dates to the beginning of the 20th century, with Durham Athletic Park (where Bull Durham was filmed) serving as the Bulls’ home from 1926-94.

The Bulls’ increase in popularity post-Bull Durham helped lead to a new ballpark. In 1995 the team moved from Durham Athletic Park to the similarly named but otherwise very different Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP), located in downtown’s American Tobacco District.

Brick buildings, previously used for the production and storage of tobacco products and since repurposed, abound. The ballpark is architecturally in line with the surrounding area, and its aesthetic has since inspired the apartments, office buildings and restaurants that have sprung up around it. Capitol Broadcasting owns both the Bulls and the Tobacco District, so it all feels like a synergistic feedback loop.

In 1998, three years after DBAP opened, the Bulls jumped from the High-A Carolina League to the Triple-A International League and became a Tampa Bay affiliate. Twenty-six years and eight championships later, with Tampa Bay they remain.

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The retired numbers posted on a wall outside the ballpark illustrate the Bulls’ long history.

Crash Davis was a real person who did play for the Bulls in the '50s, but that No. 8 is more in recognition of the fictional player portrayed by Kevin Costner in Bull Durham. Chipper Jones played for the Bulls in 1992, when they were an Atlanta affiliate. Joe Morgan was with the team in 1963, when the Houston Colt .45s were the parent club. Bill Evers managed the Bulls from 1998-2005, and Charlie Montoyo was at the helm from 2007-14.

The famous “Hit Bull Win Steak” sign, located in left field, is a case of life imitating art. It was created for Bull Durham and became an attraction. When the team moved to the DBAP they had a new sign installed; after a home-team homer, the bull’s eyes light up and smoke comes out of its nostrils.

Recent renovations, largely geared toward meeting player development-related facility standards, have resulted in a reconfigured ground floor. The entrance leads into a “History Hallway,” which faces the player’s weight room (visible through glass). Fans can also glimpse Bulls players in the batting cage via windows on the outside of the ballpark.

The team store, always operating in a Bull market, has been expanded. The extra space allows for some unorthodox items, such as team-branded coffee (Bulls Brew) and seven-foot inflatable likenesses of mascot Wool E. Bull. Longtime Bulls merchandise director Brian Wilson said that caps are still ultimately where it’s at, accounting for 40% of total sales.

While her location has shifted somewhat, Darlene Clayton remains a constant among the change. She’s been at the front desk since 1996, referring to most people she encounters as “sug” (as in sugar). Darlene told me that from fans to scouts to umpires and beyond, “You wouldn’t believe all the people I’ve met.”

Moving on up, the Triangle Club is located behind home plate in an area that used to be largely occupied by the press box (which has been shifted toward first base). Capitol Broadcasting’s suite, also on the first-base side, is equipped with a barber’s chair on the inside and a barber’s pole on the outside.

I was at DBAP for the July 27 game against the Gwinnett Stripers. A pregame walk around the concourse yielded sights including, but not limited to, the following.

The view from the first base side.

And the outfield.

On the field, I ran into a pair of franchise icons. Ripken the Bat Dog began his career in 2019 with the Holly Springs Salamanders, a summer-collegiate team owned by the Bulls. The gregarious black lab got the callup to Durham in 2021.

Mascot Wool E. Bull is a DBAP mainstay, to the extent that his 00 uniform number has also been retired by the team.

Thanks to several renovations and the growth of the area surrounding the ballpark, DBAP looks younger than its years. Amid the (sometimes literal) bells and whistles, there’s one distinct old-school element: A manually operated scoreboard.

Shortly after the game began, I joined stadium operations manager Kreston Parker for a behind the scenes tour. A door on the left-field concourse led into a narrow pathway behind the outfield fence, and that pathway led to the domain of scoreboard operator Chris Ivy.

Ivy, a sprightly retired social worker, has been working the scoreboard since 2008. He’s surrounded by stacks of wooden numerical signs, as well as a large pile featuring the names of every team that plays at DBAP (International League opponents, colleges, the Savannah Bananas, countries represented in international tournaments, etc.). He watches the game through the scoreboard’s rectangular ninth-inning window, staying updated on the action via both a video feed and the radio broadcast.

Chris allowed me to work the scoreboard for a moment, a very satisfying activity for those, like me, who appreciate well-affixed slats.

The area behind the outfield fence is interesting. I learned about the vast array of netting used to protect the outfield’s video panels, as well as the control panel that lights up the outfield bull and shoots smoke out of its nose (activated via a switch in the press box).

Speaking of “lighting the bull,” I got to do just that as part of a nightly between-inning on-field ritual. I yelled “Light the bull!” and then it lit up. The power is intoxicating. Watch it HERE.

My moment of bullumination was a brief respite from a chaotic portion of the evening that was equal parts confusion, injury, and betrayal. Would you believe that this all revolved around ballpark food? I’ll cover this Designated Eater drama at a slightly later date, as this recap is reaching its word limit. It was an exhausting sequence of events, and this picture of Wool E. Bull sums up how I was feeling afterwards.

I’m being a bit overdramatic, of course. Life goes on. The Bulls cruised to a 3-0 win over Gwinnett, scoring all three of their runs on solo homers. (Of these, a prodigious blast by since-promoted uber-prospect Junior Caminero was the highlight.)

We've found a good luck charm, @DurhamBulls...

Junior Caminero leaves the yard with @bensbiz in attendance! pic.twitter.com/eqVLcvmQpU

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) July 28, 2024

During the waning moments of the game I interviewed longtime Bulls president Mike Birling about his career, and afterwards he and I went into the home dugout to watch the fireworks. The addition of new apartments and office buildings beyond the outfield has made it so that the fireworks are now shot from the field.

Reflecting on the evening in its immediate aftermath, with a fine mist of smoke wafting across the field, I came to the realization that DPAB is one of my absolute favorite places to see a game in all of Minor League Baseball. Memorable architecture, great location, lively atmosphere, historic franchise. If I had to sum it all up in one word?

Iconic.

Thanks for reading, and as always feel free to get in touch at any time. All of my road trip itineraries can be found HERE.