May 1, 2008

PHOTO GALLERY

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By MIKE POTTER : The Herald-Sun (mpotter@heraldsun.com)

DURHAM -- Eleven people made the earth move Wednesday morning at historic Durham Athletic Park, and a lot more earth is going to move at the storied ballpark over the next six or seven months.

By the time the project is finished, a $5 million renovation will have returned the DAP, the former home of the Durham Bulls and the venue where "Bull Durham" was shot in 1988, to its pre-war glory.

Check that -- it's supposed to be better.

A crowd of about 500, including N.C. Central University's "Sound Machine" marching band and the student body of the Central Park School for Children, was on hand on a sunny but chilly morning for the groundbreaking to revitalize the time-worn park.

"This is a thrilling project," Durham Mayor Bill Bell said. "This is a special place in the hearts of all Durhamites. Durham has been a home to minor-league baseball for 100 years, and this restoration will help that continue for the next 100 years. ... This park is getting some much-needed tender loving care."

Outgoing City Manager Patrick Baker, who soon will be the city attorney, said that he was departing his job on a high note with the groundbreaking.

"I'm an absolute baseball purist, and the opportunity to rededicate this park means so much to me," Baker said.

When the project is finished -- in November, if on schedule -- the park will be home to the baseball teams at N.C. Central and Durham School of the Arts. It also will be a working laboratory for Minor League Baseball to train groundskeepers, umpires and all manner of budding minor-league team officials.

The Bimbe Festival, Bull Durham Blues Festival and the World Beer Festival also will call the DAP home, albeit with a state-of-the-art covering to protect the outfield.

And if Bell and Pat O'Conner -- the president of Minor League Baseball -- get their wish, it soon will be part of a complex including the Minor League Baseball National Fan Experience and Museum.

"I've run some minor-league ballparks in my day, and this is a good crowd," O'Conner said. "In some of the places I've been, this is a good month.

"You don't know how fortunate we feel as an organization and a governing body to be a part of what is happening here."

NCCU, which is playing its first season in Division I, had no baseball team for more than a generation until fielding a Division II team in 2007. The Eagles, coached by Henry White, are playing their home games at Durham Bulls Athletic Park but will be the primary team tenant at the restored landmark.

"Anyone who can't see this as a wonderful morning must be blind, deaf and without any feelings," said NCCU Chancellor Charlie Nelms, who added that the park could have importance to the university beyond just a home field for the team. "I envision graduates of North Carolina Central University working in this facility every day as professionals."

Durham native Thom Mount, who produced the movie "Bull Durham," participated in the ceremony along with director Ron Shelton.

"It's an enormous amount of fun to see this many extras in the park," Mount said. "Can we shoot something?"

Added Shelton: "I'm just happy to be here and hope I can help the ball club," a reference to a line from "Bull Durham."

Bulls President Jim Goodmon said he hadn't been to the DAP since the Bulls played their final game there in 1994. But now, he said, he sees potential for a renovation that would add more life to that part of the city.

"Everybody needs to listen to the visionaries," Goodmon said in reference to O'Conner and Nelms.

Bill Law -- Bulls ambassador and former public address announcer who was master of ceremonies for the event -- said that with the Bulls, USA Baseball, "Baseball America," two Division I college teams and the renovation of the historic park, perhaps the city should bill itself as "Baseball City, U.S.A."