Durham Athletic Park

Best field by far in the D1 MEAC baseball conference! Love playing here as a member of the NCCU baseball team. The Bulls field crew do the best things to this field. Free admission to everyone. Also the area around the ballpark is a great area for a family to spend a day. With restaurants and various bars and attractions one would love to visit this area of Durham.

The DAP is the main reason my lady and I decided to take a weekend trip to Durham, making the 6-​hour drive from Atlanta. I’d wanted to come here for some baseball for some time and Durham has been getting a lot of press lately for its downtown dining and entertainment scene. When I happened to notice that we could catch a NCCU game in the afternoon at DAP and then a Bulls game at the new stadium in the evening, it looked like the perfect time for a getaway.
Did I mention Bull Durham may be my favorite film and I can practically recite the whole movie from memory? So this was a pilgrimage for a film buff and a baseball fan. And I think I was grinning the whole time we were here. NCCU games are free, so we just walked right in to the «Church of Baseball» and sat wherever we wanted in the mostly-​empty stadium.
And then proceeded to have our ears blasted by the way-​too-​loud and way-​too-​frequent PA barrages of over-​enthusiastic announcements and crappy nu-​metal (although one player had the sense of humor to choose «Barbie Girl» as his batting music. Or maybe he lost a bet.) Anyway, I hate to take a «Kids these days!» approach here, but a quaint old ballpark is the one place I was hoping to get away from the short-​attention-​span theater of modern sports. I just wanted to hear the ping of the bat and the dugout chatter carried on the Saturday afternoon breeze.
But I brought my own pre-​conceived notions along, so that’s my fault, I guess. They did mix in some organ music, but it was the incessant noise that keeps this from a five-​star review. Not that it matters.
Kudos to Durham and NCCU for keeping this old gem around and finding a use for it. It helped bring our tourist dollars to town and I loved every second of my time here, despite the racket. Bring your earplugs and it’s a perfect setting for baseball.

This is the place where it all began for me with my love for baseball. I spent many a summer nights at the DAP as a youth, spectator and also later as an employee. The DAP as it’s well known has had a long history. Durham Bulls baseball, Women’s Professional Fast Pitch, movie set (Bull Durham), blues festivals, farmer’s market, beer fests, etc. The ballpark sat dormant for a few years, but is now back as a baseball venue thanks to Durham voters. It serves as the home for the NCCU baseball program. Minor League Baseball uses the ballpark for as a business and facility training center. The DAP seats fewer spectators than in it’s past, but it is still a nice place to catch a game. Catch a game whenever you can, NCCU games are free to the public and there are a number of amateur games played here as well.