The Durham Bulls Triple-A National Championship has brought home more than a trophy. It serves as a reminder that Durham is a pretty cool place to be.

Whether you followed the season or not, chances are you went to a least one Bulls game this year. The packed parking garages tell me so. It's an experience you can't get anywhere else.

The marketing signs around downtown say "Find your cool," and really, we don't have to look far. That's a better slogan than the overall Durham marketing line "Where great things happen," because that can pretty much be applied to any city. But if something's cool, it's usually fun and a bit different. No other city has the Bulls. No other city has such a great re-use of cool old brick tobacco buildings. And the recent addition to the cityscape of the Durham Performing Arts Center ratchets up downtown's cool factor. I like that DPAC is right next to the jail because Durham isn't a city that hides what it is. We lay it all out there. Take it or leave it.

Last weekend I was in Manhattan and Brooklyn, two places where "cool" is subjective, but an adjective used frequently to describe the area. Obviously, 8 million people wouldn't crowd into New York City if there wasn't anything cool about it. But a downtown doesn't have to be massive to give local residents and tourists a diverse, entertaining and engaging experience.

We just need fun things to do, cool things to see, good places to eat, and a way to get around. Downtown Durham has all those things. We could use more shopping and a few more affordable eateries, but otherwise the list gets checked off. That all converges on game days or performance nights or festival weekends.

There's a collective feeling of community when thousands of people connect in the same place. The Bulls' win has brought all of us who have ever been to a Bulls game together. Hearing about the championship reminds us of games we've attended on sunny or cloudy days, with family or friends, but always with that Lucky Strike tower in the distance and Wool E. Bull in the stadium.

I think that's why baseball is still up there with apple pie as symbols of homespun America. It brings people together. It makes people happy. Rooting for the home team isn't as divisive as rooting for a college team, especially when multiple universities are the home team. You don't have to have some sort of alumni or family connection before becoming a Bulls fan. One game is all it takes, really. In May, I wrote a column about my young son's first Bulls game experience. He's a Bulls fan, though he might not know it yet. I'm confident he will be. Because a Bulls game isn't just about baseball. One day at a park this summer, my son was wearing a baseball T-shirt when another little boy came up and started talking about how he likes the Durham Bulls and had just gone to a game. Baseball can bring us together.

I get now why men stereotypically talk about sports as a way of having a conversation without having to talk too much about themselves. It's a commonality. Talking about the Bulls is fun, and makes us proud of our city. All our differences melt away. The discussion doesn't get heated the way ACC rivalry might get the blood going. Now, that's a different kind of fun. (Go Hokies!) But baseball is a laid back kind of fun. A kind of fun that Durham needs sometimes.

Not just Durham. There's a lot of animosity in this country, and some of the most irate these past few months would have been well served by sitting back under a Carolina blue sky and relaxing for an inning.

Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan may be reached at dvaughan@heraldsun.com or 419-6563.