Minor league baseball isn’t about the money or the glory. According to James Bailey, long time Durham Bulls fan and sports novelist, the romanticism of the minor leagues carries a nostalgia for the spirit of the sport: having fun.
But that romanticism doesn’t always pertain to those playing the game. Bailey, N.C . State alum, turns the spotlight of his new book away from the athletes and directs his dramatic comedy piece onto those off the field. His book, The Greatest Show on Dirt, pays tribute to the Durham Bulls and the team’s former stadium, the Durham Athletic Park, a former home away from home for Bailey.
“What I wanted to achieve with this book was that the game of baseball isn’t all about the pros,” Bailey said. “I wanted this book to be something that the average person could relate to.”
The book follows Lane Hamilton, a man disappointed in life. He hates his job at the First Carolina Bank in Cameron Village, he hates his boss and most of all, he hates the fact that he seems to be going nowhere in life. After being fired for sleeping through a meeting, Lane lands a job working for the Durham Bulls-and starts on the adventure of his life.
The book is reminiscent of Bailey’s college years, when he worked at the souvenir shop of the Durham Bulls. He remembers having two lives in college: one working at the Durham Athletic Park and one studying for a major in communication and a minor in journalism.
“My college years were split between Durham and Raleigh,” Bailey said. “My family moved to Durham when I finished high school, and I commuted back and forth.”
When he graduated in 1993, he began working full-time for Baseball America, a magazine that focuses on the sport at all levels of play.
For Bailey, his stints at Baseball America and the Durham Bulls weren’t just ordinary jobs. Bailey has been a baseball fanatic ever since he was a kid and recalls fondly going to see baseball games with his grandfather growing up in Seattle, Washington.
He started working for the Bulls in early 1990 at a souvenir store called Ballpark Corner. When he started working for the Bulls, there was a huge demand for merchandise and souvenirs due in part to the 1988 film Bull Durham featuring Kevin Costner . Bailey worked the souvenir stand and occasionally ran the stadium’s message board on the old scoreboard. The memories and mishaps from his time at the Durham Athletic Park, affectionately referred to as the “DAP ,” laid the foundation for The Greatest Show on Dirt, and ballpark acts as a character in the book.
“The park has a personality, an aura,” Bailey said. “It drew people from everywhere. Working there in college was like the perfect job for a student.”
Though the Bulls moved to a newer park in 1995 and sold the DAP to the city of Durham, the team took ownership and responsibility of the park again in 2011.
Alpha Jones, DAP Head Groundskeeper , said the park has an alluring charm to it.
“It’s evolving,” Jones said. “I can see why so many people are drawn here. It’s got a history, a rich one, and everyone who’s been here is reminded of it just walking through the gates. I’ve met minor league guys who’ve played here and they had so many memories. It’s quite sentimental.”
Though the restored DAP isn’t the crumbling one held together by paint from Bailey’s memories or new book, visiting the field fondly reminds him of his days working the souvenir stand and writing as a sports reporter.
“Being in here brings back many special memories,” Bailey said.
For Jones, the memories and the stories, whether fictional or true, embody the soul of the DAP .
“I think that’s what this place is all about,” Jones said. “The DAP has been here for more than 100 years, and so it grows on you.”
And for protagonist Lane Hamilton, working at the DAP and for the Bulls proved to be a tough but rewarding job-the very spirit of minor leagues. As Bailey wrote, “No one got rich, but they sure had a good time.”
Bailey’s book can be found in Raleigh at Quail Ridge Books & Music and in Durham at Regulator Bookshop. The e-editions are compatible with Kindle and Nook formats.
James Bailey, sports writer, sits in the Durham Athletic Park with his new book, "The Greatest Show on Dirt." Bailey worked for the Durham Bulls while studying at N.C. State. Photo by Charlie Harless
