Thread: Durham Tobacco
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Old 02-02-2010, 08:46 PM
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Bridwell Bridwell is offline
Ron Rice
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Texas
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Default Durham

I like the Durham pieces. Although they are not related to baseball cards, they are related to the Bull Durham signs that were on outfield fences of major league parks. In the 1910 era, Durham had a bonus for players who could 'hit the bull'. That was hard to do when the ball was soft and the fences were long. There are some magazine ads that mention the contest. I've heard it said that 'Bullpens' for relief pitchers got their name because some pitchers had a warm-up area behind the Durham signs in a few ballparks. So having an unopened tobacco pack is a nice companion to other deadball collectibles.
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