Remembering D-Day

The highlight of my weekend was Friday night's first pitch ceremony. 94 year old Dub Karriker, wounded on Omaha Beach in the 1944 D-Day Invasion, brought the heat!

Click here for the video

Local attorney Patrick Byker introduced me to the Karriker family and suggested the first pitch idea. I was all in on the D-Day observance, but skeptical about the toss. Au contraire! Dub has good genes and a baseball pedigree. A Babe Ruth coach for almost 60 years, he's in the League's Hall of Fame!

The Purple Heart recipient and his wife of 71 years, Louise, live at the Durham Regent. They recently moved here from Arkansas to be closer to family. 

It's no surprise that Dub received a standing ovation Friday evening. Thanks for your service and welcome to Durham!

Bulls on Parade

The Bulls had a sell-out Saturday night, and the weekend got even better on Sunday morning when I opened the paper...

That Durham Bulls logo was seen by 63 million people! Parade claims to be the most widely read magazine in America. 

Many of our fans were surprised that the story featured a Little League team in Woburn Mass...but that isn't out of the ordinary. Youth baseball teams all across the country wear our gear. The Bulls' insignia is among the most popular, and team apparel accounts for better than 25% of our retail sales. It's the result of a national licensing program, instituted 23 years ago, by Minor League Baseball. Total sales exceed $55 million for all MiLB teams. That's a lot of baseball caps and t-shirts!

Summer Reading

Excitement on the loading dock this afternoon! Our long delayed shipment of Bull City Summer books arrived - from the printer in China. 

It was worth the wait. This is a high quality edition from Daylight Books in Hillsborough. They specialize in photography books, and their expertise is evident in this volume.

If you pre-ordered the book last year, it's finally available for pick-up at the Ballpark Corner Store. Thanks for your patience. Otherwise, you can purchase BCS for $49.95, and enjoy the book's 200 pages of photography and prose - a chronicle of 2013 in the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

This is the companion book for the BCS exhibition at the NC Museum of Art. The show expands to additional venues in May - Raleigh's Contemporary Art Museum and the Crowe Lobby Gallery on the American Tobacco Campus in Durham.

This project was really an artistic experiment from the start.  Only thirteen months ago none of the documentary materials in this book even existed:  None of the photographs had been made nor the writing done.  I'm grateful to the dedicated artists on our team, to Daylight Books, to our partnering museums NCMA and CAM Raleigh, and especially to our sponsors - Triangle Orthopaedics, Capitol Broadcasting, the Bulls, and Baker Roofing - for believing this was possible and helping make it happen.

Sam Stephenson, Director

Bull City Summer

App of Awesomeness

We premier a new smart phone app today: MiLB Inside the Ballpark. This is the Swiss Army Knife of apps! 

It's your digital ballpark companion for stats, replays, venue maps, menus and social media - all in one place.

This news release provides a full explanation along with the download links. Don't leave home without it!

 

DURHAM BULLS ANNOUNCE NEW MOBILE APP, UPGRADED STADIUM WI-FI

“MiLB Inside the Park” App and Frontier Communications-Powered Wi-Fi

to Enhance In-Stadium Experience at Newly Renovated Durham Bulls Athletic Park

DURHAM, NC – The International League Champion Durham Bulls today announce a brand new mobile app and improved Wi-Fi capability for the 2014 season. The “MiLB Inside the Park” application specifically focuses on enhancing fans’ experience within Durham Bulls Athletic Park, providing visitors with an ability to interact with game entertainment elements, team social media accounts, and stadium maps on game day. To better serve “Inside the Park” users and mobile activity throughout the DBAP, the Bulls have partnered with Frontier Communications on a comprehensive upgrade to the stadium’s Wi-Fi system.

Available in both the iOS App Store and on Google Play, the MiLB Inside the Park app provides fans with an inning-by-inning feed of all entertainment, game information, contests, and special offers. The app includes an interactive map of the newly renovated DBAP, which allows visitors to explore new concessions areas and view menus available at each location. Fans can earn points and climb a virtual leaderboard within the app by interacting with Bulls social media accounts and other fun activities, like voting for the winner of the Bull Durham race. Inside the Park also provides access to live replays of game highlights, the promotional events schedule, and ticket purchasing links. The new ballpark-focused app serves as a companion to the MiLB First Pitch app, which provides fans with in-depth team stats and the live Gameday pitch-by-pitch tracker. To download the app, simply search for “MiLB Inside the Park” and select Durham Bulls as your preferred team.

Frontier Communications, the official Wi-Fi provider at the DBAP, customized the stadium’s new wireless network to help support unique in-game features, particularly the ability to provide live, high quality replays on mobile devices. Frontier’s team of nearly 200 Durham-based employees will provide the equipment and backhaul capacity for the Wi-Fi network, as well as 24 hour support for end users.

“There’s nothing like a game at Durham Bulls Athletic Park,” said Bulls General Manager Mike Birling. “Our new app serves to enrich that experience, and with Wi-Fi connectivity that is unparalleled in Minor League Baseball, fans will be able to interact with us on game day like never before.”

The Durham Bulls open their Governors’ Cup title defense at the newly renovated Durham Bulls Athletic Park today, April 3, versus the Gwinnett Braves. Group tickets and picnic areas for the 2014 Triple-A All-Star Game and Home Run Derby can be purchased now by calling 919.956.BULL ext. 2.  Season Ticket and Mini Plan packages for the 2014 season, which include the ability to secure Triple-A All-Star Game and Home Run Derby tickets, can be purchased by calling 919.956.BULL or visiting durhambulls.com. Tickets for Opening Day, presented by 605 West, are on sale now.

Jackie's Landing

A new feature of the renovated DBAP - my favorite - is a 10,000 square foot concourse on the third level of the ball yard. It offers a spacious "overlook" of right field with Jackie Robinson Dr. as its southern boundary. Hence, we have named the new gathering place Jackie's Landing. 

You will find southern fare atop Jackie's Landing - a new barbecue joint and fish camp. And you can watch the game from an old fashioned section of bleachers. The 42 Bar is situated in the middle serving up craft beer and spirits.

To commemorate the Robinson tribute, we commissioned a painting by Raleigh artist Pete Sack. He creates colorful images in the style of vintage trading cards. Drawing baseball players as a kid sparked his interest in art. He went on to earn a BFA in painting at ECU, and his fascination with the National Pastime persists.

Durham: Smartest Place on the Planet

The Durham Chamber held it's annual meeting last Thursday, and it was a celebration of the community's intellectual capital. I was just glad to be in the Sheraton Imperial ballroom with the really smart people.

The Chamber has established a Bull City Hall of Fame with these three inaugural inductees: Mary-Dell Chilton, a plant biotechnology pioneer at Syngenta in RTP and recipient of the 2013 World Food Prize; Duke's Dr. Robert Lefkowitz, a 2012 recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry; and Blake Wilson, co-director of the Duke Hearing Center who received the 2013 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. He's a leader in cochlear implant research. International acclaim for world-class scientists!

As part of the Research Triangle - what I like to say is the “smartest place on the planet" - we compete regularly and successfully with the likes of Nashville, Boston, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area...for companies, jobs and talent. 

And that means we don’t have to defend Durham, or protect it from the slights of others. Rather, we need to promote it, to take pride in what we have, and be passionate about Durham as the great place to live, work, learn, and play. I know you join me in that.

Michael Schoenfeld
Outgoing Chair of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce
Vice President for Public Affairs & Government Relations
Duke University

Men (& Women) at Work | Double Shifts & OT

I'm a desk jockey, a lifelong office worker. Heavy lifting is confined to my coffee mug and telephone handset. So, I've gained immense respect for the hundreds of tradespeople and construction workers transforming the DBAP during the off-season. The weather has been hard on them. Over 50 days of inclement climate has disrupted their work…but we're in the homestretch now, galloping to the finish line, Opening Day, April 3rd.

Under the direction of our General Contractor, Lend Lease, and VP Mike Higgins, THANK YOU to the…

electricians, carpenters, welders, painters, pipefitters, roofers, ceiling installers, masons, plumbers, ironworkers, heavy equipment operators, sheet metal workers, drywall installers, steelworkers, road pavers, concrete finishers, glass glazers, flooring installers, painters, landscapers and cleaners.

That's a long list, but I'm sure I overlooked a trade. My apologies. We appreciate your dedication to the DBAP makeover.

Our official construction photographer, Chris Adamczyk, shares these photos of men and women at work on the ball yard - our modest tribute to their labor: