Ah, the new Durham Bulls stadium. What would "Crash" Davis and "Nuke" LaLoosh make of it?
It's a lot fancier than the old stadium.
You get a real sense of the vibrant Durham economy sitting here. Instead of tired old tobacco warehouses you have construction cranes.
The concessions area features an on site brewery. Both Crash and Nuke would have approved. Nuke, who has no class, would have liked the beer I got there. Crash...I'm not so sure. In the movie he was seen to be drinking Budweiser but maybe that's all he could get. The old guys manning the taps here were pleasantly garrulous but the beer was uninspired.
Could our two blue collar heroes even get their minds around the concept of a ball park concession called "The Kupkake Fairy"? You may recall that Nuke in a desperate attempt to break a losing streak wore women's underwear while pitching. He thought they were pretty comfortable but reassured himself that "...doesn't make me queer or anything...". He'd sneak over and get one of these excellent cupcakes when nobody was looking. Crash would be a friend of the owner who would give him three every time he showed up for a game.
Welcome to baseball in the progressive 21st century. A little enclosed area for nursing moms. Neither Crash nor Luke could resist a guffaw over this. Annie would fix them with an evil, disapproving glare.
Oh yes, the ball game. I had actually never been to a AAA level game. These are the guys one step from "The Show". The quality of play was much better than in the low minors. Complicated things like sacrifice bunts and pickoff plays were attempted regularly and often with success. The game was shortened a bit by the storms that had marched about on all sides for the entire evening. As Nuke Laloosh famously said: "Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. And sometimes it rains. Think about that for a while."
And boy did it rain!
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