Do My Job: Behind the Durham Bulls’ Scoreboard

WRAL-TV’s Kim Dean (left) learns the ropes about the Bulls manual scoreboard from Chris Ivey.

As part of her weeklong series, “Do My Job,” WRAL reporter Kim Dean learned how to work the manual scoreboard at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.   This story ran on WRAL.com on May 16, 2008.

In left field, Chris Ivey works behind the board and changes the numbers by hand.

“It takes you back to the great days of baseball, you know, afternoon games (and it) really puts you in touch with the game,” he said.

“It’s not very luxurious back here,” Dean said.

Kim Dean peeks out from behind the Bulls scoreboard in left field.

“No, no,” Ivey laughed.

A manual scoreboard in a ballpark is rare these days, but Ivey said he treasures the job, which he has been doing for about a year.

First and foremost, Ivey says, he is a fan. He works the part-time job, not for the money, but for the love of the game. He keeps detailed score on paper because he likes to, not because it’s part of his job.

Ivey’s job is to record hits, runs and errors and post the numbers on the board, which can make the job a little hectic at times, especially when the numbers face away from him.

He also has another challenge. He uses a radio to keep up with the game, since he can’t hear it that well behind the board. One perk of the job is his great seat that’s practically on the field.

“Some people would probably pay to have this job. So it is kinda fun that they pay you a little bit to do it,” he said.

Thanks to WRAL-TV’s Kim Dean and WRAL.com for this capcom story & to WRAL-TV’s Robert Meikle for this capcom photo.