In a column about Boston College boosters who long to see their sports programs reach elite status, like Duke basketball, Boston Herald columnist Steve Buckley
argues that the school ought to be perfectly happy with its place in
sports-mad Beantown. But in the process, although he claims otherwise,
he somewhat disses Durham:
In the end, though,
that?s all there is to Durham, N.C. When there is no college basketball
being played, it is just another minor league tank town. The Durham
Bulls. Oh. Lovely.This isn?t a swipe at Duke, or at Durham. It?s just pointing out what we are.
The Bulls are acting
like they’ve taken offense, but it looks more like they’ve seized a
promotional opportunity, putting out this in a press release:
BULLS TO BUCKLEY: DON?T KNOCK IT ?TIL YOU TRY IT
In response to Boston Herald Sports Columnist Steve Buckley’s story At Heart of Duke-ness,
in which he referred to Durham, N.C. as “just another minor league tank
town,” the Durham Bulls announced today they are extending an
invitation to Buckley to get a full Minor League Baseball experience at
the Bulls-Toledo Mud Hens game on Saturday, June 30th….
The “experience” will include leading “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”
during the seventh-inning stretch, dragging the infield with the
grounds crew one inning, and riding shotgun with Wool E. Bull in his
race car. It all sounded so exciting that Buckley couldn’t resist taking the Bulls up on their offer. The team also offered to include as part of the experience an opportunity to sumo wrestle a local sports columnist. That gave Buckley a chance at one more dig:
I?ll
pass on that…owing both to a bad back and, having met many
North Carolina sportswriters, my unwillingness to come away from the
experience with tobacco spittle and beef jerky all over my hands.
