Durham Bulls

Encyclopedia : D : DU : DUR : Durham Bulls

Tampa Bay Devil Rays
American League
AAA
Durham Bulls
AA
Montgomery Biscuits
A
Visalia Oaks
Southwest Michigan Devil Rays
Hudson Valley Renegades
R
Princeton Devil Rays

The Durham Bulls are a minor league baseball team based in Durham, North Carolina. The team, which plays in the International League, is the AAA (Triple-A) affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays major-league club. The Bulls play in Durham Bulls Athletic Park, better known as the "D-Bap," located in downtown Durham. Their mascot is Wool E. Bull. The team became more widely known in 1988 following the movie Bull Durham, which starred Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon; as a result, the Durham Bulls are arguably now the most famous minor-league club in history.

At the time of Bull Durham, the real Bulls played in the high-A Carolina League, a much lower league than they do today. The team jumped to Triple-A in 1998, when the Triple-A leagues expanded by two teams to accommodate the creation of the Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Contents

1 History
2 Titles
3 Former Bulls
4 External links

History

The team officially formed as the Durham Tobacconists on March 18, 1902, with W. G. Bramham, later President of the American League, as the owner. They took the field for the first time on April 24 in an exhibition game against Trinity College. Their first game in the North Carolina League was at Charlotte on May 5 against the Hornets, and their first home game was against the New Bern Truckers on May 12. The league, however, folded in July, not having played a full season.

In December 1912, the team re-formed as the Durham Bulls in the North Carolina State League. Their first game was on April 24, 1913 at Hanes Field on the Trinity College campus (now the East Campus of Duke University). They defeated the Raleigh Capitals 7-4. On 30 May 1917, however, the North Carolina State League folded due to the beginning of World War I. The Bulls were declared league champions, even though the season was shortened to only 36 games.

The Bulls then joined the Piedmont League, a minor league with clubs scattered around Virginia and North Carolina, on 31 October 1919. Seven years later, in 1926, the team moved to its new home, El Toro Park. The park was dedicated on 26 July by the Commissioner of Baseball Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who put on a show by riding a real bull, the team mascot, onto the playing field.

Six years later, in 1932, the team became affiliated with the National League's Philadelphia Phillies, the first of ten teams that the Bulls have been affiliated with. The next year, the city of Durham purchased El Toro Park, renaming it the Durham Athletic Park after the 1933 season, but the Bulls were unable to operate for the 1934 and 1935 seasons due to the Great Depression. Then, on 17 June 1939, the Durham Athletic Park burned to the ground, hours after the Bulls had defeated Portsmouth 7-3. The groundskeeper, Walter Williams, who slept under the stands, was able to escape. In a remarkable two-week turnaround, the Durham Athletic Park was functioning again by 2 July, with the old wooden grandstand replaced by concrete and steel. The stadium also included temporary bleachers and seated 1,000 people. The crowd that day saw the Bulls beat the Charlotte Hornets 11-4.

The stadium was completed in April 1940 in time for an exhibition game on the 7th between the Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox, that attracts 5,574 fans. Only 1,587 turned out ten days later for the Bulls' first game of the season. On September 5, 1943, the last-place Bulls played their last Piedmont League game, beating Richmond 15-5. The following year, the Piedmont League became an all-Virginia league, and there was no baseball in Durham in 1944.

In 1945, a second Carolina League formed, and on 27 April the Bulls played their first game in the new league, defeating the Burlington Bees 5-0. Three years later, in September 1948, Tom Wright, a former outfielder with the Bulls, became the first Carolina League player to make the majors when he debuted with the Boston Red Sox. And three years after that, the Bulls made history when their 5-4 loss to the Danville Leafs featured the first black player in Carolina League history, Percy Miller, Jr., who played for the Leafs. It would not be until 18 April 1957, however, that the Bulls would field African-American players. On that day, third baseman Bubba Morton and pitcher Ted Richardson took the field in a loss to Greensboro. That season also saw the first Carolina League All-Star game played in Durham.

In 1968, the Bulls merged with the Raleigh club and formed the Raleigh-Durham Mets, an affiliate of the New York Mets, playing half of its home games in the Durham Athletic Park and half in Raleigh, but before the 1972 season, the team folded and baseball would not return to Durham before 1980. On 22 June of that year, the local CBS affiliate broadcast the Bulls game locally, the first time that the Bulls had ever been broadcast on television. Ten years later, on 30 August 1990, a crowd of 6,202 made the Bulls the first class-A team in history to pass the 300,000 mark in attendance for an entire season.

A man named Miles Wolff began pushing for a new ballpark for the Bulls in 1988 in order to attract a class-AAA club, but plans for the stadium were pushed back until the new stadium opened in downtown Durham in 1995. In the meantime, the club reached several milestones. On 17 July 1992, the Bulls unveiled their new mascot, Wool E. Bull, a moniker submitted by Durham resident Jim Vicker out of a pool of 500. The "E" in his name supposedly stands for "education." The next June, the Bulls retired the number 18 belonging to Joe Morgan, the only Hall of Famer ever to play for the Bulls, who was a member of the 1963 club. Morgan's number remains the only one ever retired by the club, and he attended the ceremony in which his number was retired. The Bulls also retained the snorting Bull used in the movie Bull Durham. The original bull used in the movie and at Durham Athletic Park can be seen hanging on the wall of the concourse at the Bulls' new stadium, Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

The new stadium does have a newly built snorting Bull similar to the original. Whenever a Bulls player hits a home run the bull's eyes light up, its tails moves up and down and it snorts steam out of its nose. Whenever a player hits the bull with a home run that player wins a steak dinner at a local restaurant. A fan in the audience during the game will also win a free steak dinner.

The 1997 season, during which the bulls were an affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, marked their last year in the class-A Carolina League. In 1998 Wolff's dream of attracting a AAA club came true when the Bulls became the AAA affiliate of the newly-formed Tampa Bay Devil Rays, their parent club ever since, and began play in the International League (IL). That year saw the Bulls play their first game outside the United States when they played road games against the Ottawa Lynx, though it would be another year before they recorded their first win in Canada. The 2001 season saw the Bulls set single-game {10,916 on July 23) and full-season (505,319 set on September 1) attendance records. Then, on September 12, 2002, the Bulls won their first IL championship, defeating the Buffalo Bisons 2-0 for the Governors' Cup. 364 days later, the team became the first in the 119-year history of the championship to sweep back-to-back final playoff series, defeating the Pawtucket Red Sox.

Titles

The Bulls have won the Governors' Cup, the championship of the IL, 2 times, and played in the championship series 4 times.

1998 - Lost to Buffalo
1999 - Lost to Charlotte
2002 - Defeated Buffalo
2003 - Defeated Pawtucket

Former Bulls

The most notable baseball player to have once played for the Bulls is Hall of Famer Joe Morgan. Morgan spent an undetermined part of the 1963 season with the Bulls. His number 18 was retired by the team on August 9, 2002, during a postgame ceremony which he attended.

Other famous Bulls who are currently in the majors or were once in the majors include:

Current Devil Rays who were once Bulls:

External links

International League
North Division	South Division	West Division
Buffalo Bisons \| Ottawa Lynx \| Pawtucket Red Sox \| Rochester Red Wings \| Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons \| Syracuse SkyChiefs	Charlotte Knights \| Durham Bulls \| Norfolk Tides \| Richmond Braves	Columbus Clippers \| Indianapolis Indians \| Louisville Bats \| Toledo Mud Hens

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