Durham Athletic Park

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Durham Athletic Park ca. 1990

Durham Athletic Park, affectionately known as "The DAP", is the name of a former minor league baseball park in Durham, North Carolina. The ballpark site was home to various incarnations of the Durham Bulls from 1926 through 1994. The DAP still stands north of the downtown, on the block bounded by Washington, Corporation, Foster and Geer Streets.

Durham Athletic Park became perhaps the most famous minor league ballpark in history, thanks to a 1988 movie called Bull Durham. The film's star-powered cast included Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. Most of the filming was done at the DAP, following the end of the Carolina League season of 1987. The film's wide acclaim helped fuel the burgeoning public interest in minor league ball in general, and in the case of Durham this explosion of popularity caused the DAP to become a victim of its own success; despite expansion with temporary bleachers, it was just too cozy to handle the crowds that overflowed the park every night.

In their early days, the Durham Bulls played at Trinity College's Hanes Field, named for the founder of the clothing company, and who happened to have graduated from Trinity. The college eventually became the east campus of Duke University. Hanes Field is now called Williams Field and is still used for minor sports at Duke.

In mid-1926 the Bulls moved about a mile straight east, to a new field called El Toro Park. The facility was renamed Durham Athletic Park in 1933. In 1939 it was destroyed by fire. During the off-season of 1939-1940 it was replaced on-site by a mostly-steel-and-concrete structure. 1939 is the year from which the current DAP is normally dated. As for the Durham Bulls, they came and went over the years, par for the course for minor leagues and their teams. In 1980 the team was revived after a lengthy dormancy, and the DAP also came alive again. The park was painted in the bright blue and orange team colors. Over the interior entrace was a sign reading El Toro Stadium, a variation of its original name. The team was an immediate hit, leading the Carolina League at the gate in their first season, and they were on their way.

Their enormous success over the next 15 years prompted the city to build a new ballpark on the other side of the downtown. 1993 was promoted as the final year for the DAP, but construction delays compelled the team to play one more season here. They sold T-shirts bearing the legend "2nd Annual Final Season at the DAP". In 1995, the Bulls finally abandoned their long-time home and moved to the new Durham Bulls Athletic Park or "D-BAP". Attendance continued to be so good that the Bulls were promoted to the AAA level 3 years later, when Major League Baseball's most recent round of expansion required the addition of two new AAA teams. Despite the relatively small size of the city, they continue to hold their own in attendance figures among the larger member cities of the International League.

The DAP is still used for events such as concerts and softball tournaments, but as of this writing in the winter of 2004-2005, its future was in doubt. However, as of summer 2006, the ballpark still stood.

In the summer of 2005 rumors of baseball being played at the DAP surfaced again. Nearby North Carolina Central University is looking to expand its athletic department to include baseball and has released press statements identifying the DAP as a candidate venue for its new home stadium.