The BIG 22

Greetings from the Triad!

Today, as many of you already know, is my 22nd birthday. I will certainly never forget this birthday...

My bro and I woke up super early this morning to head over to the North Carolina A&T track for the National Youth Championship. My bro, after waiting for 30 other jumpers to start, cleared his opening height at 6-0. He then ran into some problems at 6-2 and ended up finishing there. He was very, very upset, but I am so proud of him. In all my high jumping, I never competed at a national meet. He is already leaps and bounds ahead of where I was at his age. I'll tell all of you right now that he is going to be a phenomenal high jumper.

After the meet, we were both super hungry and tired, so we took the ritualistic trip to a Waffle House for brunch. While the food was not exactly stellar, it was a lot of fun just to go. We then came back to the hotel and crashed, literally, for almost three hours. Both of us were incredibly tired and exhausted, so the rest did us a lot of good.

We woke up and drove the hour and a half to Durham and proceeded on a quest to find Cameron Indoor Stadium on the Duke University campus. Earlier, I had bought a cheap basketball at Wal-Mart with the plan of somehow gaining access to the court inside Cameron and shooting some hoops. It would have made for some incredible pictures and stories.

Duke is an absolutely gorgeous campus. All the buildings are of the same design and it is located in a very pleasant wooded area outside of Durham proper. The arena itself was pretty difficult to find because it blends in so well with the surrounding buildings. We eventually did find it, however, but could not find any open doors to the gym. I did get some pretty cool pictures of the outside.

After our failed entry to Cameron, we then went back into Durham and went to the game.

Durham Bulls Athletic Park is certainly one of the finer minor league venues in America. It is set just outside the main downtown area in a restored commercial district of old tobacco warehouses. There are a lot of neat restaurants that surround the ballpark in this district and it appeared that they had been busy for a long time before we got there. Once you get to the DBAP, you proceed up a circular stairway to the main concourse. It is very wide and you get the feeling that this is almost a major league park, but when you enter the main seating area, you can really see the intimacy and closeness of the seats.

There are some interesting quirks at the park. First, in left field, is a large wall that the Bulls have dubbed the "Blue Monster." It is obviously an attempt to copy the "Green Monster" in Boston, even right down to the manual scoreboard at the base. Atop the "Blue Monster" is the famous Durham Bull sign. As made famous in the 1988 movie Bull Durham with Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins, if a player hits the bull, a lucky fan wins a steak. If the player hits the grass, then the lucky fan wins a salad. Whenever a Bulls player hits a home run, the bull's eyes light up and steam comes out of its nostrils.

With all of its neat quirks, I would have to rate the DBAP pretty high in my book. While I prefer the smaller parks, like in Burlington, I am very partial to these new AAA parks that are being built.

The Bulls got some solid pitching and were bolstered by a home run in the 7th to beat the Indianapolis Indians 2-0.

Tomorrow, I am going to be flying home to Eugene. I will hold off on a final debrief until I get back to Oregon. Thanks so much for reading!

Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)