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Around the Town in the IPA
OXFORD RED CAPS
Owner: Tyco-Tech
GM: Babe Friedriksen
Manager: Dennis Hartwig
Oxford is a town of 89,000 found in the east central plains of Tycobbia, 10 miles east of Blue Lake and 10 miles west of the Silver Mountains. It is a rural area, settled by English emigres in the 1850s and was originally called Mills Creek. In its early days farming and sheepherding were the mainstays of the economy. One of the emigres was a young commoner, Charles Emerson Winchester, who had been turned down for admission to the famed Oxford University in England. It was his dream to be an educator and eventually become a university scholar and administrator. His heart was broken by Oxford's rejection, so he enrolled in a lesser school and graduated summa cum laude. He then emigrated to Tycobbia, where there was no class system and started a small rural college in Mills Creek. Winchester said, "My voice shall be heard from this wilderness"... and it was. It was the first college in Tycobbia and within a few years became so successful that the name of the town was changed to Oxford. Winchester said his dream to teach at Oxford had finally come true. Oxford College rivals St. John University in Ruthlandia as the outstanding higher learning institution in the Islands.
Today Oxford College is a thriving private institution and much desired by the Islands high school graduates. The Oxonian graduates are in much demand in Tycobbia and Ruthlandia. The university is the town's dominant industry and supplies the local high tech companies with outstanding recruits. One of those high tech companies is Tyco-Tech, which is the owner of the Oxford Red Caps in the Islandian Pro Alliance. The team is named in honor of the university and adopted Oxford's red and white colors for their own. The school even shares historic Winchester Park (circa 1909) with the the college team.
Oxford's entry into baseball began in the late 1890's, when the college began an intramural baseball league. That soon expanded to include the townspeople. By 1905, Oxford baseball expanded to playing other town teams in Tycobbia. In 1920 the Amateur Baseball Alliance changed it rules, so that players could be employed by companies and play baseball. In theory, they were not paid to play baseball, just given time off from work to practice and play games. It continued that way until 2001, when Ban Johnson, the ABA commissioner, said it was time for a professional baseball league, where players could be paid just to play baseball and do it legally. The company and industrial league sponsors had long been circumventing and violating the spirit of the amateur rules. Johnson said it was time to bring it out in the open. That is how the IPA came to be.
Winchester Park is situated on the beautiful Oxford campus. Smokestacks and school buildings are visible beyond the outfield fences. The Oxfordian fans have a rousing good time at the Red Cap games. It is a college crowd, filled with undergrads and alumni. Cheerleaders and a dance team inspire the fans with all of the old Oxford cheers, adapted for the Red Caps. You still hear "two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar" and the Oxford fight song reverberating throughout the ballpark. In the seventh inning there is the traditional "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". Then in the eighth, everyone sings the Oxford Alma Mater. If the game goes into extra innings and reaches the fourteenth frame, the fans will again sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the Fourteenth-Inning Stretch. This is unique in all of baseball. No one else does this. Food concessions at Winchester Park are just the typical hot dogs, hamburgers, cokes, beer, peanuts and crackerjacks.
The Oxford Red Caps have an experienced management team, consisting of Babe Friedriksen as general manager and Dennis Hartwig as manager. She was the women's softball coach and athletic administrator at Oxford. Hartwig was an outstanding hitter and outfielder, who played college ball at Oxford, then signed with the Red Caps upon graduation. He starred for 16 years, batting .303 with 338 home runs and 1349 RBIs. Hartwig was a Golden Glover, Ruthlandian Rookie of the Year in 2023, Batter of the Year in 2025 and a 5-time All-Star.
Winchester Stadium (1909)
Capacity: 10,250
Dimensions:
LF Line 335
LF 355
LCF 382
CF 420
RCF 368
RF 335
RF Line 300
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