Durham Bulls
Last week’s blog challenged readers to identify the location of the above sign. The following hint was provided: the location is east of the Mississippi, south of the Mason-Dixon Line and a famous baseball movie was filmed there. Finding the spot entailed using logic, geography and geometry skills, but most importantly, a knowledge of baseball. To that end, which group of people would be most interested in knowing how far it was to various major league ballparks? The answer is a ballplayer in the AAA minor league, one step removed from the Majors. MLB’s website has the following map of all the AAA minor league clubs.
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| Locations for all AAA Minor League Baseball teams |
Any knowledgeable baseball fan would know the city where each stadium depicted on the sign is located. Therefore, the distance to the AAA club is closer to Camden Yards (Baltimore) than Fenway Park (Boston) and Yankee Stadium (New York), the AAA club must be south of Baltimore (and the Mason Dixon Line). Similarly, the location is about equidistant from the Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati) and Yankee Stadium, so the location must be in the southeastern section of the country.
On a moments notice, a AAA player called up to the Major Leagues and would have to make the trip as quickly as possible. So logically they would take an airplane flight to make the next game. If you recall anything from high school geometry class, the way to triangulate a location is to strike arcs from three surrounding spots; with the location found at the intersection of the arcs. For example, that’s how the epicenter of an earthquake is identified as shown on this map.
Checking this website for distances between airports by entering various AAA cities in the SE USA to the home cities of the Major League ballparks depicted on the sign yields Durham, North Carolina, the home of the Durham Bulls, a Tampa Bay Rays AAA affiliate.
The Bulls have a beautiful stadium known for its trademark sign of a snorting bull indicating “Hit the bull, win steak, hit the grass, win salad”.
The first Hall of Famer to play for the Bulls was the Reds' own Joe Morgan, who was a member of the 1963 club. Morgan’s Bulls number 18 has been retired.
The Durham Bulls became internationally famous following the release of the 1988 movie Bull Durham starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon.
Last year, the Bulls finished with a 75-64 record, making the playoffs as a wild card, and advanced to the Governor's Cup before losing to Columbus. After the season, the Bulls were named the most successful MiLB franchise of the decade.
Did you notice the arrows on the sign are all screwed up, pointing in all the wrong directions. My wife could have painted it as she’s directionally challenged and doesn’t know squat about baseball! Here’s her kinda sign:
On a side note, Saturday, we attended the 18th birthday of a friend and had a great time, although the party ended at 9:00, surprisingly early for an 18 year old, perhaps because he was born on Leap Day 1948! Here are the Major League baseball players born on Leap Day:
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