Scott Patterson, the actor who plays Luke in the hit show “Gilmore Girls”, was a pitcher for the Durham Bulls in the 1980s. Photo Courtesy of Matt Sutor.
There have been plenty of “Gilmore Girls” ties in the Triangle lately — a pop-up Luke’s Diner in Raleigh, a pop-up Luke’s Diner in Carrboro and all of the nostalgia that comes with revisiting old characters — but one stands out as a home run.
On Tuesday morning, the Durham Bulls tweeted that Scott Patterson, who plays Luke in the hit show, was a player on the team in 1981.
The tweet is certainly timely. “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life,” the reboot of the early 2000’s show, was recently released on Netflix on Nov. 25.
As of Wednesday, the tweet got more than 140 retweets and 230 likes.
Anyone get into #GilmoreGirls this weekend? Fun fact, Luke (Scott Patterson) played for the #DurhamBulls in 1981. (h/t @OttawaChampions) pic.twitter.com/CkJ3ddEbSM
— Durham Bulls (@DurhamBulls) November 29, 2016
Matt Sutor, spokesperson for the Durham Bulls, said the attention’s been pretty cool.
“A lot of people had absolutely no idea that there was a connection,” Sutor said.
“Some people knew he was an MLB baseball player, so it was really neat seeing people make that connection and say, ‘Oh, wow, that’s great to see one of my favorite shows, one of my favorite characters and one of my favorite teams merge together.’”
Sutor said that while there were no immediate plans for Patterson to come back to the ballpark, they are currently working on reaching out to him.
The Durham Bulls Twitter account also posted a blog on Medium that detailed his time on the team. According to the post, Patterson was a Minor League Baseball pitcher for seven seasons, spanning from 1980 to 1986.
He started with the Durham Bulls in 1981 and started 13 games. He had a 2.11 ERA with a 9-0 record and five complete games.
Apparently, from what I’ve been told, that means he was good. But of course he was.
If you’ve seen “Gilmore Girls,” this just reaffirms that he’s talented at everything he does.
Patterson made it to Triple-A status — the highest possible before entering the major leagues. He started his career with the Class A Anderson Braves and ended with the New York Yankee’s Double-A Albany-Colonie Yankees and Triple-A Columbus Clippers in 1986 (class A is the lower end of the spectrum, whereas Triple-A is the best ranking in Minor League Baseball).
His legacy isn’t the only thing that remains from his baseball career. Patterson has multiple baseball cards, including one from his time on the Durham Bulls (on which he looks like a young Bruce Springsteen).
The Durham Bulls have no current plans to re-release the card at this time, but Sutor said it could be a possibility as part of promotional material if Patterson ever returned to the stadium.
And with Christmas coming, you can buy his Durham Bulls card on eBay for only $50.
