Finding America in a Minor League Baseball Park

A Season Hosting for the Durham Bulls

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A baseball sitting on top of some grass.

Finding America in a Minor League Ballpark

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Purchase a Signed Copy

About the Book

Over forty million people attend minor league baseball games each season. Who are they? Why do they come? What happens in the stands?

Noted social scientist Harris Cooper took a job as a Seating Bowl Host for the most famous minor league baseball team, the Durham Bulls. As a host, he helped fans find seats and other stadium amenities, made sure everyone was safe, took pictures, and chased kids from the aisles. He got to talk with a wide-ranging assortment of people, from regular attendees to those at their very first baseball game, from retired judges to middle school students.

Minor league baseball games draw a broader array of Americans than any sport. The fleeting moments spent talking baseball with the fan sitting next to you or with a ballpark employee disguise the remarkable variety of people who call themselves "baseball fans." Dr. Cooper brings these people to life.

Throughout the book, Dr. Cooper draws on his knowledge of social science to extract from his experiences a description of the inhabi­tants and goings-on at a ballpark. It illuminates not just baseball writ large, but also provides a compelling portrait of Americans as a people and their shared love of our national pastime.

A baseball glove and ball in the grass.

In the Book You Will Find

  • A description of what goes on in the ballpark
  • A brief history of minor league baseball, the Bulls, and the city of Durham, so typical of small American cities
  • Profiles of the ballplayers, focusing not on their on-field statistics but on who they are and where they come from
  • Pro­files of twelve baseball movies, all of which focus on baseball not played in the major leagues
A man with long beard and blue jacket.

Meet The Author

Harris Cooper is the Hugo L. Blomquist Distinguished Professor of Psychology & Neuro­science, Emeritus, at Duke University. At Duke, he served as chair of two departments and as the Dean of the Social Sciences for the College of Arts & Sciences, helping administer the departments of history, sociology, political science, and cultural anthropology, among others. He is a Gold Chalk Award winner for Excel­lence in Graduate Education. Dr. Cooper is also the author of American History Through a Whiskey Glass: How Distilled Spirits, Domestic Cuisine, and Popular Music Helped Shape a Nation. He has been an avid baseball fan since growing up in the shadow of Yan­kee Stadium.

Praise for Finding America

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"The next best thing to attending a baseball game with Harris Cooper, is to read his delightful, insightful and, yes, unique take on the national pastime. Finding America is a major-league book centered joyously on a minor-league team (in Durham, N.C.), with players yearning to rise to the big leagues, with heart-felt fans and even heart-felt ushers cheering them on. My scorecard has it: A fresh view of a long-beloved game."

- Ira Berkow, Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist and author of "How Life Imitates Sports" and "Baseball's Best Ever."

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"After spending a year as an usher for the Durham Bulls, Harris Cooper gathered insights now presented in Finding America. Easy to read because of a format rich in charts, photographs, and sidebars, Cooper says fans of all ages, sizes, sexes, colors, and political persuasions came to the park for a good time.

The best part of this diary-like journey is the section on minor-league history, including the history and map of the minors; why Branch Rickey owned 32 teams; how a game lasted 32 innings; and when a 17-year-old girl named Jackie Mitchell struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. Readers will also be amazed that there are 20 things a pitcher can do to be charged with a balk. They're listed in this gem of a book.

It's a real keepsake."

- Dan Schlossberg, author of Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron

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"Just when you begin to fear you've lost all touch with Major League Baseball, along comes a book like Harris Cooper's Finding America in a Minor League Ballpark to reassure you there indeed is still joy to be found in your lifelong love affair with our National Pastime. Harris makes sure he lives up to the personal credo he adopts: Treat the park as your home and each new arrival as your guest in it. His reward is a pleasure-filled summer."

- David Nemec, award-winning baseball historian, author of over 20 books on baseball, including The Absolutely Most Challenging Baseball Quiz Book, Ever

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"A great ride through the Durham history of monikers, origin stories, and fun quirky facts and the evolution of the Bulls, the minors, and the game itself. I thoroughly enjoyed taking a trip down baseball movie memory lane and reading about the everyday fun (and annoyances) of being at the ballpark, with great commentary and insights of the psychologies behind fans' behavior. And the quotes from the likes of Casey Stengel and Bob Ueker- vintage!”

- Tom Dondero, President of Baseball America