It’s Back to Normal for the Durham Bulls

Nuke LaLoosh and Crash Davis have cleared their lockers and moved out of Durham Athletic Park, and that means the real Durham Bulls are back to normal in the Carolina League.

Normal for the Bulls, however, means overflow crowds at 5,000-seat Durham Athletic Park, even if Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon aren’t still doing their roles from the movie “Bull Durham.” Nonetheless, team officials say they’re still reaping the benefits of last year’s box-office hit.

“I would be surprised if we don’t draw over 200,000 again,” Bulls owner Miles Wolff said following a preseason luncheon Tuesday. “The franchise is just so good.”

Wolff apparently won’t be surprised, based on fan interest prior to Friday night’s opener against Frederick, Md., which used to be the Hagerstown team before moving. Durham is also celebrating its 10th year, and Wolff is pressing city officials on construction of a new stadium.

“As far as attendance goes, we’ve sold more season tickets this year than we ever have,” Durham general manager Rob Dlugozima said Tuesday. “The advance ticket sales for opening night are ahead of what they’ve been.”

Last spring, “Bull Durham” not only meant success for its producers. It provided a great summer for the real Bulls and now, they look forward to a real-life sequel.

“What the movie did was make us a tourist attraction,” Wolff said. “So many people would come from out of state and they wanted to come to a Bulls game because they’d seen the movie. So we’re almost becoming a tourist attraction. If you come to Durham or the Triangle, you have to go by the ball park.”

Sales of Bulls’ souvenirs--caps, T-shirts and jackets--went so well last season that the team opened a second store in a Durham mall. It was expected to be a seasonal store that would cater to the Christmas shopper, but Dlugozima said the store is still open and will remain in operation for another year.

The Bulls also are advertising their goods in a national sports publication and are awaiting more requests now that the movie has been released on videocasette.

“Anybody who has a relative living in Durham asks them to get a Durham Bulls cap,” he said. “I think that will continue through this year.

“I think it’s going to be just as exciting this year as it was last year,” Dlugozima added.

More encouraging than the upcoming financial outlook are the team’s prospects on the field. Although the Bulls finished the year at 82-58, they failed to make the Carolina League playoffs.

Manager Grady Little says because of the glut of talent in the Atlanta Braves organization, the Bulls consider themselves a threat to win the league title.

“I think we’ve got a shot at it, as good a shot as any team that’s ever been in Durham,” Little said.

One reason for Little’s optimism is the response of the players who are moving to Durham for the season.

“They see the kind of club we’ve got and the kind of people they’re going to play in front of, they come in with a smile on their face,” Little said. “That’s nothing but good for me.”