Durham is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the film that turned the city's minor league baseball team major with a celebratory luncheon, a stadium restoration and a visit from Kevin Costner.

"Bull Durham," released in June 1988, is a romantic comedy that uses Durham-specifically the Durham Athletic Park-as the setting of a love triangle between two disgruntled players on a mediocre minor league team-Costner and Tim Robbins-and Susan Sarandon as the team's groupie. The film portrays Durham and its namesake athletic park as a drama-ridden mecca for baseball fans.

The city of Durham honored "Bull Durham" writer and director Ron Shelton and producer and Durham native Thom Mount at Cameron Indoor Stadium April 30 for bringing the Durham Athletic Park and its home city into the spotlight.

"I saw the movie the year before I moved to Durham," said Dean of Undergraduate Education Steve Nowicki, who watched the film when it was in theaters. "It was an interesting introduction to [the city]. I remember when I saw the movie I thought to myself, 'Well, if there's anything like that in Durham, it's an interesting place.'"

"Bull Durham," considered by film critics to be an American cinematic classic, was shot on location at the Durham Athletic Park, the former home of the city's minor league baseball team for 68 years. But the critically acclaimed film is not commonly associated with Durham itself, Nowicki noted.

"Students may not associate the movie with Durham's sense of community that opens itself up to the outside, which I think is actually part of what Durham has," he said.

But those students who have seen the film have formed their own opinions about it and their college town.

For Durham native Becki Feinglos, a sophomore, the movie represents the old Durham ballpark and memories of Southern culture.

"I get excited when I see the Bojangles' ad on the side of the baseball park in the movie," she said.

A fan of the film since age five, club baseball President Brad Corriher, a junior, said "Bull Durham" is an accurate portrayal of what goes into the game beyond the action on the field.

"I think [Costner's character] is somebody that almost any ballplayer idolizes and is the epitome of somebody with a high baseball IQ: a 'layman's ballplayer,'" Corriher said.

Also in celebration of the anniversary, Costner and his band Modern West are coming to Durham July 4th to celebrate Independence Day with a concert at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

"This is really exciting for the Triangle," Durham Bulls General Manager Mike Birling said. "Our season-long celebration of the 20th anniversary of 'Bull Durham' couldn't have a better highlight than bringing Kevin Costner back to Durham."

He said it is hard to compare the Durham of the past to the Durham of now because the game itself has changed. The Bulls are now a Triple-A team, the highest ranking in the minor leagues, and players often have to work other jobs in the off-season. But the team still holds the same role of promoting unity among Durham's citizens, Corriher said.

"[Aside] from Duke, Durham doesn't have anything else they can hang their hat on besides the Bulls," he said. "It gives the city a face, which can be said for many other minor league baseball teams and smaller cities."

In honor of the movie's anniversary and the team's first ballpark, city officials broke ground late April on a $5-million restoration of the neglected Durham Athletic Park.

"[The Durham Athletic Park] was rebuilt in 1940 [after a 1939 fire that destroyed the original park]. It had come to a point where it had run its lifespan," said Matt DeMargel, director of media relations and promotions for the Durham Bulls. "With the Bulls anticipating the move to Triple-A, we were going to need a bigger ballpark and it was time for a newer stadium."

In February, representatives from City Council approved the use of the renovated site as a training facility for Minor League Baseball and beginning in the 2009 season, it will be the home field for North Carolina Central University.

Ballpark officials also said they are considering building a $50-million National Minor League Baseball Museum next to the stadium. Half of the funding for the museum project will come from city, state and federal resources and the rest will come from Minor League Baseball, said Joy Mickle, downtown development coordinator for Durham's Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

"We want to have it as a [place for] multi-purpose use, but we don't want to do bare-bones work," former City Manager Patrick Baker said. "We want something the community can be proud of."

The Durham Athletic Park plans to start its construction stage in July and end in February, Mickle said. It will have new fields, new seats, new clubhouses and new paint. City Council members said the city most recently dealt with the Durham Athletic Park six years ago, when it spent $80,000 on cosmetic touch-ups like painting.

Members added that they hope the Park's renovation and its new function as a community gathering place will attract crowds and promote development in the Bull City.