Thursday, March 14, 2013

Ballparks Teach History


This week's big story has been the election of a new Pope, so I pose this question: What does the Papacy have in common with baseball? Answer: Three Papal Masses were held at Yankee Stadium, in 1965, 1979 and 2008.

That factoid comes from a neat feature on ESPN's website called STADIUM 50. It's a ranking of fifty historical stadia events that were not directly related to sports competition.

Number One is from 2005 when the Superdome became home to Hurricane Katrina refugees, and Number Fifty is Janet Jackson's 2004 "wardrobe malfunction" in Reliant Stadium.

Durham made the list - ranked at 27th - thanks to Bull Durham, of course. The classic movie, filmed here in 1986, "helped usher in a new era of minor league ball with one of the greatest sports films ever made" at the Durham Athletic Park.

The Bulls manage the DAP for the City of Durham. It's a great venue for corporate events, especially in 2013, the 25th anniversary of the film's premier.

Rent the DAP this year...and make history!