Baseball America to let fans take home magazine memorabilia as Durham office closes

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Baseball America, headquartered in Durham since 1981, is transitioning to a fully work-from-home company but before it closes its Triangle office, the company will be giving fans a thank you by giving away memorabilia at its Bull City space.

Since the pandemic, like many other companies, staff was forced to work remotely. Now, after nearly three years, the magazine and website covering baseball from high school up to the majors is transitioning to full-time remote staff.

Rather than donate the items they've accumulated through the decades, staff has decided to allow fans to stop by and take some items they may want including oversized magazine covers, shirts and books.

"We have a lot of covers bigger than the standard covers," Editor-In-Chief JJ Cooper explained. "And, we realize some people will probably want to take some of this home."

"I'm not saying we have all 30 teams, but we probably come close to having a cover for whatever team a fan is a fan of. In addition to that, obviously college players, high school players and things like that," Cooper added.

Cooper said he has enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane while getting the items organized for fans to look through.

"I forgot when that player was one of the top draft prospects in the country and whatever happened," Cooper said about seeing the covers. "There's a little bit of all of that but hopefully, people will enjoy getting a chance to take home some various ones. We have found a lot of shirts that we've had over the years so there are a lot of Baseball America shirts. There will be more people wearing Baseball America apparel in the Raleigh-Durham area after this," Cooper joked.

"Everything is free. This is not: we're not trying to make any money off this stuff. This is a thank you. And because of that also, if someone pulls up with a truck at 11:05 a.m. we're not going to let them just unload everything because we want to make sure that there's enough. We expect that there will be a steady stream of people coming throughout the day."

Baseball America's office is located at 4319 S. Alston Ave. in Durham. Doors will be open from 11:00 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. for fans to look through items Thursday, January 5.