That Old Feeling

Historic Grainger Stadium ready to welcome fans on opening day in Kinston, N.C.

From the moment you pull into the vast parking lot and look up at Grainger Stadium in Kinston, N.C., you know you’ve arrived in a special place. Lots of brick and metal beams come together in a way that evokes memories of a time gone by, a time when our summer pastimes involved boardwalks, wooden roller coasters and the crisp crack of a baseball bat.

Inside, new structures blend with the old to give the stadium an up-to-date look while maintaining a solid foot in its historic past. It’s almost as if someone designed a brand new stadium and did a fantastic job of making it look old.

Comfortable stadium seating in an old-fashioned setting .

Grainger Stadium in Kinston, N.C., home of the Single A Down East Wood Ducks, is one of the oldest ballparks in Minor League Baseball. It opened in 1949, a year before I was born, to provide a new home field for the Kinston Eagles of the Coastal Plains League.

Professional baseball in Kinston goes back more than a century, but it really began to take hold in the mid-1920s with the independent Eagles. There were a few years of no baseball during the Great Depression until the Eagles joined the Coastal Plains League in 1935. A succession of teams then called Kinston home until the CPL folded in the 1950s. Other teams came and went as part of the Carolina League into the 1970s and 1980s. A long association with the Cleveland Indians lasted from 1986 until 2011, when the Kinston Indians moved to Zebulon, N.C., and became the Carolina Mudcats.

Dewd, the mascot, gets his Ducks in a row for the opening day pre-game festivities.

Baseball returned to Grainger Stadium in 2017, when the Texas Rangers established the Down East Wood Ducks as a new team in the Carolina League. Other major league teams that have had minor league affiliates in Kinston throughout Grainger Stadium’s history were the Red Sox, Tigers, Pirates (twice), Senators (before they became the Twins), Braves, Yankees, Expos, and Blue Jays.

The crowd was good for the Single A opening night game between the Wood Ducks and the visiting Kannapolis Cannon Ballers. The electronic scoreboard used their nicknames, Ballers and Woodies, as did the players’ uniforms.

I got the feeling that the crowd is usually a good one here, with generations of baseball under their belts. One fan told me his son is the team’s general manager. Some of the liveliest fans were the many kids who cheered for their Woodies throughout the entire game, and who agonized when things didn’t go their way. The fans were friendly too and so were the stadium staff. They went out of their way to make me feel welcome at their ballpark.

The Taters are hardly visible under a pile of goodness in the Five Tool Tots.

It’s easy to get around the stadium with a broad walkway between the upper and lower seats in the main grandstand. Concessions are located on the first and third baselines, within view of the playing field. I was able to join the crowd singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” while I waited to get my Five Tool Tots in the middle of the seventh inning. It wasn’t just the snack-sized helping I expected. There were enough Tater Tots smothered with pork, cheese and lettuce to feed two people. Jalapeños and sour cream came on the side. I was able to sit at a picnic tables by right field and watch the game while I ate.

I love these older ballparks and Grainger Stadiums, with its well-executed updates, is one of the best. I have now been to seven of the 11 oldest minor league ballparks. Benjamin Hill, who’s been to more ballparks than anybody, compiled a list of them a couple of years ago for milb.com. You can see what he had to say by clicking here.

The countdown continues.

And here’s what I wrote after I went to these old ballparks for the first time. I’ve added the year each opened and the current home teams.

Jackie Robinson Park, 1914, Daytona Tortugas

Excite Ballpark, 1942, San Jose Giants

Valley Strong Ballpark, 1946, Visalia Rawhide

First Energy Stadium,1951, Reading Fightin’ Phils

I’ve also been to these two ballparks, but I haven’t written about them yet: 

LECOM Park, 1923, Bradenton Marauders: I went to a spring training game here in March 2020. It was one of the last baseball games played before everything was shut down by the covid-19 pandemic. The ballpark is 100 years old. Maybe I’ll go back for a minor league game this summer and write about it then.

McCormick Field, 1924, Asheville Tourists: This was one of my stops on an early road trip in 2022. Some day I’ll catch up on this stadium and the many others that I never wrote about last year.

I can’t wait to see these other oldies-but-goodies, maybe the first two this year:

Modern Woodmen Park, 1931, Quad Cities River Bandits (Iowa) 

Bank of the James Stadium, 1940, Lynchburg Hillcats

Funko Field, 1947, Everett AquaSox

Nat Bailey Stadium, 1951, Vancouver Canadians

The scoreboard and video screen were easy to read from almost everywhere
in the ballpark.That clock on top was a little bit off.

The Cannon Ballers scored first in the game for a 2-0 lead, but the Woodies tied it up and were ahead 3-2 after 6 innings. Tim Elko’s 3-run homer in the seventh put Kannapolis ahead for good, spoiling the home opener for the Woodies and their fans.

Baseball’s new “speedy” rules seemed to be working in Kinston. The final score was Kannapolis 5, Down East 4, with the two teams combining for 15 hits. Even with plenty of offense, the game was over in a short 2 hours and 13 minutes.

The little team store was sell-stocked for the new season, but there was
only one choicewhen it came to  collectible pins. Lucky for me, it was the right one.

Back to 'D-BAP'

The main gate at DBAP leads right into the team store.
You have to take stairs on the left and right to get into the stadium.

I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to start the 2023 season with the Durham Bulls on AAA opening day. Several months ago they announced their plans to celebrate the 2022 championship that they won in Las Vegas last season. There would be a championship ring ceremony, pennant giveaway, and fireworks the first night. There was a separate flash sale for tickets to the second game. The first 100 people to buy tickets would get a bobblehead figurine of Wander Franco, a fan favorite with the Bulls who has stepped up to the major league level with the Tampa Bay Rays. Special throwback uniforms would pay tribute to 110 years of Bulls baseball in Durham.

It sounded like fun, especially because I had been in Las Vegas for the AAA championship games. I saw them win. Why not go help them celebrate? It would mean a return to a ballpark that was one of the earliest ones I visited in my quest to go to all the affiliated minor league teams. In fact, my first visit was so long ago, that I hadn’t even considered such a crazy notion.

Back in those early days, I was mostly interested in teams close to where I lived in Florida and in northeastern Pennsylvania, and teams that were about halfway between them. I would be making frequent trips back and forth and would need to stop at least one night along the way. If I could work a baseball game into the itinerary, so much the better.

I found one championship pin from 2017 buried in a box full of newer pins.

I found myself in Durham on one of those trips in September 2017. I had only been to a handful of minor league ballparks, but here was a chance to see the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders on the road in the best-of-five International League championship series. The Railriders won the game to tie the series at one game apiece. The next day I continued south to Florida and the two teams traveled north to Pennsylvania where Durham won the next two games for the title. A few days later the Bulls beat the Memphis Redbirds from the Pacific Coast League for the AAA championship.

I have foggy memories from that first game at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, or DBAP for short, which is pronounced “D-BAP’ as I indicated on the title of this post. But the stadium still seemed like a familiar place, and it would to you too if you’ve ever seen “Bull Durham,” the excellent baseball movie about life and love in the minor leagues.

Celebrating last year's championship season.

There it is near the left field foul pole, waiting to snort steam through it’s big nostrils when a home team hero belts one over the fence for a home run. The giant bull sign with its incentive messages to batters, “Hit Bull Win Steak,” and in the patch of painted grass below, the booby prize “Hit Grass Win Salad.”

Art imitates life as the movie spins the tale of two players at opposite stages in their playing careers, and the woman who helps them get through the long summer season. Much of the film was shot at the older Durham Athletic Park, which is still standing and still being used for baseball games.

Crash Davis, the real one gets a commemorative stone at the main gate.

Crash Davis, the character in the film is completely fictional, but he bears the name of a real player who has a memorial plaque in the pavement outside the stadium’s main entrance. On a wall nearby, the fictional Crash’s number hangs alongside the retired numbers of several real players.

Life imitates art when it comes to the bull sign. It was completely made up for the film, but the prop became a permanent fixture at the old ballpark after the filming stopped. The original prop was removed and put in storage, but several replacements have occupied its space ever since, including at the new stadium.

DBAP also has the familiar and nostalgic look of ballparks like Camden Yards in Baltimore and the many other red brick stadiums that mimic its design. The stadium was built on the former site of the American Tobacco Company, which produced and sold Bull Durham loose smoking tobacco. Restored buildings and some new ones around the stadium make up a large downtown complex featuring apartments, offices, restaurants, shops and a performing arts center. Some of the buildings include seating where you can watch the game from rooftops and balconies.

A model of the ballpark and surrounding old and new buildings is on display across
the street. Zoom in to see a tiny bull sign at the far end of the blue wall in left field

Another feature of the stadium that might look familiar is the 32-foot wall in left field that is a blue version of Fenway Park’s Green Monster. There’s a hand-operated scoreboard in the wall and a jump video screen, and you can buy tickets for seats along the wall’s lofty top. Behind the row of seats is a broad part of the concourse that circles the playing field. They call it a 360-degree concourse, but that part that cuts through the main seating area is just a wide aisle. You can’t really gather there or stop to watch the game for much more than an at-bat.

DBAP is one of the first batch of “new” ballparks that were designed to put fans closer to the action with fewer obstructed views, but some old-fashioned features remain. The food concessions are located under the grandstands where you can’t see what’s happening on the field while you’re waiting to pick up your hot dogs.

Wander Franco's bobblehead flashes a two-fisted bull horn gesture.

Prepare yourself for some climbing if you want to stroll all the way around the park. There’s a long staircase leading up to the top of the Blue Monster and the rest of the outfield walkway. A recently added plaza area at the right field corner offers a good place to stop for food with a good view of the playing field. Two long staircases greet you at the stadiums main gate as well, but there are street level entrances near the left field corners. Elevators are also available for those who can’t navigate the stairs.

It was a celebration weekend at DBAP, but it was the Norfolk Tides who did most of the celebrating on the field. The Tides took an early lead in game one and never looked back. Most of the game was played in a steady drip, drip, drip of rain — not enough to stop play, but enough to make it annoying for the fans. I gave up trying to keep my scorecard dry after two innings and took shelter a couple of innings later in the team store, where I picked up a souvenir pin from that 2017 AAA championship. I found comfort in a soft-serve waffle cone before heading back to my seat in time for the seventh-inning stretch. The Tides won 6-4.

Never a good sign, but the tarp came up in time for a 1:30 first pitch.

Game two was even worse for the Bulls fans. There was a 20-minute delay so the field could dry out from more rain in the morning. The original plan was to start the game at 1:10 to mark 110 years since the first game played by a team called the Durham Bulls. This is one of the oldest team names in the minor leagues although there have been a few gaps and temporary changes in all that time.

The players wore throwback white uniforms with black trim that looked particularly sharp on the players who wore their black socks over the calf. On the right front of the jersey was a simple large black D, and on the left side was a black silhouette of a bull. The white cap had a black bill, a big D on the front and a thin black ring around the top that gave it a pillbox look.

Throwback uniforms looked good, especially with high socks.

Rain clouds gradually gave way to blue skies and sunshine, but the good weather came with a crosswind that played havoc with fly balls and lofted several hits out towards the Blue Monster and beyond. Right fielder Ruben Cardenas had two home runs for the Bulls, but Josh Lester smacked three out of the park to keep theTides ahead from the get-go. Every time the Bulls managed to score a couple of runs, the Tides answered back with more for a final of 13-4.

I missed Sunday’s final game of the short series, but it was more of the same with the Tides winning 7-4 to take the three game sweep. The two games I saw in Durham were the third and fourth consecutive Bulls games I’ve attended, counting the International League and AAA championship games I saw in Las Vegas. I’m not done. My next game is the home opener in Jacksonville tomorrow, where the Jumbo Shrimp will open a six-game series against none other than the Durham Bulls. The streak ends at five, as I’ll be back on the road after that for the Single A season opener with the Down East Wood Ducks in Kinston, N.C.