Due to trade deadline craziness, I’m a little late in getting the photos up from this game…sorry about that!

Here’s the entrance to the park. As you can see (if you squint) it was honey night. Saweeeet!

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We found Durham Bulls Athletic Park easily enough and were impressed right off the bat (so to speak). It’s a new, clean, spacious, very professional ballpark—you can really feel that third “A”—with no bumper boats or other pathetic gimmicks. Well, except for the large bull in left field, which will lash its tail, flash its eyes, and let smoke pour from its nostrils whenever the Bulls hit a home run. (Not sure why the bull looks so angry when the home team hits a dinger. Seems like it should be happy?) And yes, if you hit the bull, you win a steak. (Hit the grass on which the bull stands, and you win a salad.)

I was a bit confused as well by the left field wall, which is built to resemble the Green Monster at Fenway, but which is painted dark blue—with a pair of animalistic eyes glaring out—and covered with enormous light blue lettering that reads, “BLUE MONSTER.” Completing the Single White Female effect, they played Sweet Caroline in the 8^th inning. But either the Durham fans weren’t into the Neil Diamond singalong, or knew it was an import from up north, because it received a rather tepid reaction.

Nonetheless, let these not be construed as complaints—because it was an excellent place to watch a ballgame, and not just because 2008 marks the 20^th anniversary of the famous film. Now that the Bulls are the Triple A team of the Tampa Bay Rays, I was eager to get a look at next year’s crop of Evan Longorias.

I’d brought my Baseball America 2008 Prospect Handbook to the park, and we had a good time looking up the players in it as they came up to bat. I made some notes, which are now on a piece of paper somewhere in my car…so I’ll have to get back to you on that.

And apparently, Gary Gaetti is now Durham’s hitting/first base coach. That was pretty cool. We also got to see Morgan Ensberg and Tony Graffanino, both of whom were playing for the opposing team, the Buffalo Bisons.

As my gal pal pointed out, “Buffalo Bisons” is annoyingly ungrammatical (sort of like the Penascola Fishes, the Missoula Mouses, or the Des Moines Deers, all of which I just made up). She’s smart like that. For my part, it took me several seconds of pondering to figure out why the Buffalo team had chosen to call itself “the Bisons” at all. Go figure.

Alas, the Herd jumped out to an early lead, and held it, despite a late-game rally by the Bulls. This ended my streak of watching the home team win. I bought a couple of t-shirts in the gift shop, and we departed.

Right now, I need some coffee, and then to get back on the road again. Later tonight, of course, there will be photos from the Bulls game and a rundown of last night’s adventure, the Harrisburg Senators game. I’m sorry I’m falling behind! But it’s hard to type and drive at the same time.

Hey there, team. I’m at some craptastic Econolodge in Nowheresville, PA, right off of 81. The wifi only works in the lobby, so I’m going to throw these pictures up and then go hide out in my strange-smelling room. (Is it a bad sign if the scent of the room sort of stings my eyeballs? I guess I should just take out my contacts and suck it up.)

Ernie Shore Field, in Winston-Salem:

Great stories about Ernie Shore, but since time is short, I’ll let Wikipedia tell you.

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So the X-Files movie comes out on Friday, and I can’t help but wonder: will Mulder and Scully be looking for aliens, or that even more elusive creature…..the Last Eric Gagne Fan?

Here’s an item that should especially interest those of you who are now just waiting for next year: a mid-season update of baseball’s top 100 prospects. And if that’s not enough, here’s a look at the Triple A leaderboards.

Melky Cabrera waves to the fans mid-play and promptly commits an error. Just Melky being Melky?

I only wish I knew where Wendell “Send ‘em in” Kim would’ve ranked on this list.

A writerly look at Big Papi’s rehab stint in the minors.

A useful primer on the incredibly tangled web that is free agent compensation; good stuff to think about as the trade deadline approaches. Here’s the list of players who’ll be free agents after the season.

And finally, a Metro column in which I apparently begin to hallucinate.

What else should I be reading? Send me tips.

About six weeks ago, I suddenly realized what I wanted to do with my summer vacation: drive around the steamy-hot Carolinas with gas at $4.50 a gallon in a 10-year old Nissan Sentra with a bad muffler, an air conditioner that smells like something died in it (but only for the first couple minutes of use), and an engine that’s making a sound like a bird trapped in a tin can.

In other words, PURE AWESOMENESS.

Why, you ask, is this pure awesomeness? Because I will be tootling from ballpark to ballpark, bearing witness to the unspoilt beauty and unfettered fun of minor league baseball. With your help, and after many a happy hour of noodling around on the interwebs when I should have been doing better things, I have narrowed down my original list of 29 teams to a more manageable 13 contenders:

Greensboro Grasshoppers (A)

Hickory Crawdads (A)

Durham Bulls (AAA)

Asheville Tourists (A)

Greenville Drive (A)

Zebulon Mudcats (AA)

Myrtle Beach Pelicans (A)

Lynchburg Hillcats (A)

Tennessee Smokies (AA)

Chattanooga Lookouts (AA)

Johnson City Cardinals (Rookie)

Forest City Owls (CPL)

Fayetteville Swampdogs (CPL)

Like a big dork, I mapped out all the localities on this custom Google Map:

I still won’t get to all of these teams, but at least we’re now entering the realm of the possible. Any advice about pretty roads to drive, great places to eat, cheap places to stay, or ways to cut this list down a little more are, of course, appreciated. Leave ‘em in the comments or email me!

Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend. As we say in my neck of the woods, summah’s heah! This means it’s time for that most delightful of summer excursions, the baseball road trip. Thanks to the league index of that invaluable hardball resource, Baseball Reference, I have spent many a happy hour fantasizing about just such a trip. In these fantasies, I visit every team from the Albuquerque Isotopes to the Casper Ghosts to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. But in reality, at least this summer, I will probably be limited to teams in Delaware, Maryland, the Virginas, the Carolinas, and the very eastern tip of Tennessee. My Sentra and I have traveled through all these places several times before, but we’ve never actually stopped and watched a ballgame in any of them. I’m hoping that you, baseball lovers, will have some advice for me and my ride.

I have narrowed down my list of candidates to the following teams (and of course, I’m using “narrowed down” in the loosest possible sense). Any to definitely see? Or definitely avoid?

Delmarva Shorebirds (Salisbury, MD–A—South Atlantic League)

Greensboro Grasshoppers (Greensboro, NC—A—South Atlantic League)

Kannapolis Intimidators (Kannapolis, NC—A—South Atlantic League)

Hickory Crawdads (Hickory, NC—A—South Atlantic League)

Asheville Tourists (Asheville, NC—A—South Atlantic League)

Greenville Drive (Greenville, SC—A—South Atlantic League)

Richmond Braves (Richmond, VA—AAA—International League)

Norfolk Tides (Norfolk, VA—AAA—-International League)

Durham Bulls (Durham, NC—AAA—International League)

Charlotte Knights (Fort Mill, SC—AAA—International League)

Wilmington Blue Rocks (Wilmington, DE—A—Carolina League)

Lynchburg Hillcats (Lynchburg, VA—A—Carolina League)

Salem Avalanche (Salem, VA—A—Carolina League)

Winston-Salem Warthogs (Winston-Salem, NC—A—Carolina League)

Kinston Indians (Kinston, NC—A—Carolina League)

Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Myrtle Beach, SC—A—Carolina League)

Carolina Mudcats (Zebulon, NC—AA—Southern League)

Tennessee Smokies (Kodak, TN—AA—Southern League)

Chattanooga Lookouts (Chattanooga, TN—AA—Southern League)

I know nothing about the rookie-level Appalachian League, but does anyone want to put in a good word for any of the following Appy League teams?

Princeton Devil Rays (Princeton, WV)

Bluefield Orioles (Bluefield, WV)

Pulaski Mariners (Pulaski, VA)

Danville Braves (Danville, VA)

Burlington Royals (Burlington, NC)

Bristol Sox (Bristol, VA)

Kingsport Mets (Kingsport, TN)

Johnson City Cardinals (Johnson City, TN)

Elizabethton Twins (Elizabethton, TN)

Greeneville Astros (Greeneville, TN)

Leave comments or email me!

And let’s hope this trip doesn’t require as much duct tape as the last one.

Yea we’re late to the game; but our name is still Ump Bump, as in bumping the ump.

So this applies whenever.