Reset — 2011!

32 Days to First Game @ Gwinnett

39 Days to First Home Game

Welcome to a blog about the best team in minor league baseball:

The Durham Bulls!

Watching Durham Bulls Baseball is a place to have a conversation about our favorite team.

Major League Spring Training is pretty much in full swing. The Rays have played a few games (not doing too well), but we aren’t going to know much about the Durham Bulls until April. That makes March a good time to “reset” this blog. By “reset” I mean that I’ll sort of start over from where we were about this time last year and not assume any of our readers have been here before. That way I’ll get a chance to re-visit and maybe come to a better understanding of the Bulls, minor league ball, AAA, and stuff such as just what the heck the International League really is.

Just for background, this blog started out in early 2009. At the time I really didn’t know all that much about the Bulls, the Rays, or minor league baseball. On the other hand, I figured that I was pretty much like most of the folks in the stands at any given Bulls game. As should have been clear, I also didn’t know much about blogging.

Some would say that not much has changed in the last two years. Nevertheless, I wanted to learn more and I knew that the best way to learn something was to try to describe or explain it to someone else. Plus one of the nifty things about the web is that if you don’t know something, there’s someone out there who does.

When it comes to the specifics of the Durham Bulls, I am a real newcomer to following the team. After all, I’ve only been going to games regularly for a few years, which makes me by far the junior person (along with my wife) among the regulars in front row of Section 208. They have been a wonderful source of trivia and anecdotes.

Looking back I seem to be following a couple of principles. I don’t think I’ll change them much with this reset.

• Keep the focus on the Bulls and their competitors in the International League as much as possible. That’s another way of saying this is a blog about the Durham Bulls, not the Tampa Bay Rays.
• Don’t worry too much about being wrong ... and don’t get upset when someone tells you that you are.
• The business of minor league baseball can be more than a little arcane. Explain if you must, but don’t let it get in the way of the game.
• Have fun.