Monday, June 30, 2008

USA Baseball at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park

Sunday afternoon I had a pleasant time with a pal at the DBAP watching the USA Baseball National Team vs. Chinese Taipei. (Click on any picture to make it larger.)

Safe! Here's a slide back to 2nd base:

It wasn't exactly a nail-biter of a game (the USA team won handily) but it was a nice late afternoon, the beer was cold, and it'd been a while since I'd had a hot dog and beer and listened to the crack, sometimes literally, of the bat. Clouds began building during the game and sure enough in the 8th the storm hit with a fury, blowing loose bulletins and empty paper cups into the air and dumping rain fast and furious.

The pitcher for the Taipei team had a very low and interesting pitch:





No game would be complete without Wool E. Bull in his crazy go-cart, sumo wrestlers, and of course, a rousing rendition of YMCA:



It's a great way to spend the afternoon--even if you're not a big baseball fan. I can't believe I was kind of out-of-the-loop on enjoying baseball games until I went with friends a few times recently and I realized I truly enjoy it. And nothing beats seeing how much the kids love the game . . . and getting pictures with Wool E. Bull and drippy sticky sno-cones and the thumping music and the gestalt that is a baseball game.

2 comments:

Tribe Bly said...

I don't know why more more people don't show up for these Team USA games. They're a lot of fun. Other than Chinese Taipei, I've seen Taiwan, Korea and Nicaragua play at the DBAP.

The choir/chorus that did both national anthems at the park the other day did an outstanding job. And props to the announcer who didn't stumble while reading off the names of the players before each at bat. I've seen some pretty sad attempts at pronouncing players names there before.

For a stadium that can accomodate 10,000 fans, a Sunday afternoon crowd of 3,654 left a lot of holes in the seats.

I think that they need to advertise these games more.

Jeff Hart said...

not many people at the friday june 27th game i saw there either. was interesting to see the taipei guys do the tomahawk chop at the dugout steps (they haven't heard of political correctness or don't give a flip - more power to 'em) when they scored. lovely pics. we're lucky to have such a great baseball facility so close to us.