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Old 07-27-2010, 05:26 PM   #1846
Eugene Church
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The Islandian Times

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Around the Town in the IPA

DENTON CITY REDBIRDS
Owner : The Denton Family Foundation
GM/Manager: Ford Whiteman

Denton City is a town of 64,000 located in South Tycobbia midway between Chicopee on the west coast and South Fork in the east near the slopes of the Silver Mountains.

Denton City was founded by Douglas Denton, for whom the town is named. Douglas Denton was born in 1832 in Montrose, Scotland. As a young man Denton had heard of a new country called Tycobbia and the stories he had heard made him eager to seek adventure, fame and fortune there.

He arrived in 1851 by ship across the Kelynck Ocean, landing in the Bay of St. Clair. From there he headed south towards what he had been told was mostly virgin territory. He had travelled about 4 days when he reached his land of paradise. Denton described in his journal this way: “It was like I had found heaven upon earth, the grass was as green as it was back home in Montrose and the air I had never smelled anything like it - it was so pure and sweet."

Denton built a small log cabin for shelter and began life in his new country as a trapper. He did quite well and prospered over the next few years. Saving the money he got from selling furs in Bay St. Clair, Denton began to buy up land grants around his log cabin. So began the small origins of Denton City.

Denton expanded his business into real estate, renting and selling to trappers and their families. At this point he decided to start the Montrose Trading Company, named after his birthplace in Scotland. The area soon became known as Scotsman’s Fields.

Shortly before his 38th birthday, Denton sold the rights to mining to the McMillan Company. Because of the mining boom, the town grew rapidly with an influx of mining families from all over Tycobbia, Scotland, Ireland and England. Douglas Denton had finally made it. He was now a wealthy man.

Two years later in 1862 Denton met and married his wife Sarah and soon expanded the family with two sons, Greer and Murdock. By now Scotsman's Fields had McMillan Mining and Steel, but also a railway line to link the town with Bay St. Clair to ship out the steel and iron ore.

In 1872 on Denton’s 50th birthday Scotsman's Fields was officially named Denton City in his honor. Denton died in 1890 at the age of 68. He had dedicated his life and his fortune to Denton City. He had built a hospital, library, concert hall and the first ballpark in town.

Just like any other small town in Tycobbia at the time, it had started to follow the new sport of Base Ball. The first team of Denton were called the Denton Miners due to the fact that the team were fielded by the miners. Many teams would come and go, teams like the Denton 9, The Denton Mutuals, Ball Club of Denton and lastly the Denton City Redbirds. One person who was always there to watch was Douglas Denton who loved the game of Base Ball. Eventually he sponsored and managed a team in the town league. He named the team the Ball Club of Denton.

The Denton City Redbirds name came about because of Sarah Denton. She would spend hours sitting in the fields with her paints and canvas, painting the beautiful scenery around Denton. She also had a passion for painting birds. One of her beautiful paintings of a cardinal was on her husband's office wall. One day a meeting was being held in his office to decide on a nickname for the Ball Club of Denton. Many names had been discussed, when all of a sudden Huck McKinney, who was captain of the club, looked up at Mrs. Denton’s painting and said “that redbird would sure look pretty on a baseball jersey”.

It wasn’t long before Douglas Denton had a wooden stadium built for the town league. The first stadium was constructed in 1880 and just called the Base Ball Field. But it soon burned down and was had to be rebuilt. This time it had covered bleachers, was built of steel and seated 500 people. Denton named the new stadium McBride Park in honor of Jack McBride, who lost his life in trying to put the fire out at the old ballpark.

It wasn’t long before baseball spread across Tycobbia and The civic pride in each town raised the competition level. In Denton City they began to combine the local teams into a town team. So the Denton Miners joined up with the Denton 9 to become the Denton Red Stockings and The Mutuals and the Ball Club of Denton became the Denton City Redbirds. Eventually all the teams combined as the Denton City Redbirds.

McBride Stadium was expanded several times over the years and finally was replaced in 1971 by a new state-of-the-art facility, funded by McMillan Steel. This time it was named Douglas Denton Stadium in honor of the town's founder and biggest baseball fan.

A day at Douglas Denton Stadium is just good old-fashioned baseball with peanuts, crackerjacks, cokes and hot dogs. And good old-fashioned baseball. The Redbirds GM and manager is Ford Whiteman, one of the best lefties in the industrial leagues. He was prominent in Denton City history for winning so many postseason games.

Douglas Denton Field (1971)
Capacity: 9,250
Dimensions:

LF Line 335
LF 355
LCF 375
CF 395
RCF 375
RF 355
RF Line 335
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Last edited by Eugene Church; 07-27-2010 at 05:27 PM.
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