The Down East Wood Ducks are a Minor League Baseball team of the Carolina League (CL), and the owned-and-operated High-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. They are located in Kinston, North Carolina. Established in 2017, the team plays its home games at Grainger Stadium, which opened in 1949 and holds 4,100 fans. The Rangers signed a 12-year contract with the city of Kinston, NC to provide a team to play at Grainger Stadium which began in the 2017 season.
Kinston has hosted a farm club for eleven different major league franchises and one minor league club in its baseball history. Professional baseball in Kinston dates back to a 1908 squad in the Eastern Carolina League.
Video Down East Wood Ducks
History
Kinston's Grainger Stadium hosted Carolina League baseball every season from 1962 to 2011, bar a three-season gap in the mid-1970s. But in late 2010, Carolina Mudcats owner Steve Bryant announced his purchase of the Kinston Indians franchise to replace his Southern League club in Zebulon for 2012. League travel rules combined with the gradual shift of other franchises further south and west had made a Southern League franchise in eastern North Carolina untenable, and a Pensacola, Florida-based ownership group purchased the club to move to a new stadium there for 2012, arranging Bryant's deal to replace them with a Carolina League club under the same branding at the same time. The Indians' move left Kinston without affiliated professional baseball for the first time since 1977.
Meanwhile, baseball sources had speculated as early as 2008 that two Class A-Advanced franchises could eventually move from the California League to the Carolina League, most likely the Bakersfield Blaze and High Desert Mavericks. After the Indians' departure, Kinston became an obvious destination; by 2013, rumors suggested strongly that one club would be earmarked for Kinston in any California-Carolina shift. In July 2015, the Texas Rangers signed a tentative lease agreement with the city of Kinston should a franchise become available, but the Rangers needed a move partner before Minor League Baseball would permit a switch. Such a partner emerged in April 2016 when the Houston Astros, affiliated with the California League's Lancaster JetHawks only through the end of that season, began discussions with Fayetteville, North Carolina about siting their affiliate at a new stadium there.
During the 2016 season, the Astros and Rangers worked to secure ownership of the Bakersfield and High Desert franchises to prepare for relocation. On August 22, the Rangers announced that they would indeed site an owned-and-operated High-A affiliate in Kinston for the 2017 season. The Astros would eventually announce their own stadium deal in Fayetteville, but with no suitable facility available until the 2019 season, the Astros temporarily placed their club at Campbell University as the Buies Creek Astros. Both clubs officially entered the Carolina League as expansion franchises, with their predecessor California League franchises terminated rather than relocated.
During the Wood Ducks inaugural season in 2017 they were crowned co-champions of the Carolina League by defeating the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Down East and the Lynchburg Hillcats were declared co-champions as a result of the playoffs being called off because of Hurricane Irma.
In September of 2017 the Down East Wood Ducks were named by Ballpark Digest as the best logo/branding for Minor League Baseball in 2017.
During the 2018 season the Down East Wood Ducks will wear uniforms of the Kinston Indians at seven "Throwback Thursday" games to honor the history of baseball at Grainger Stadium. Kinston Indians merchandise will be on sale the entire season at the Wood Ducks team store.
Maps Down East Wood Ducks
Naming controversies
The new ownership group, Rangers Kinston, LLC, filed a trademark application for the name Wood Ducks on August 15, 2016. One week later, on August 22, the ownership group announced that the Rangers were bringing a team to Kinston and that there would be a naming contest for the fans. On September 16, the team announced the finalists in the contest: Down East Eagles, Down East HamHawks, Down East Hogzillas, Down East Shaggers, and Down East Wood Ducks. Initially there was backlash over using Down East instead of Kinston in the team's name, but that has subsided as the community has grown to embrace the moniker. At first the names drew many negative reactions from the fans who were upset that the team would not be known by the town name, that Kinston was not part of "Down East" North Carolina, and that some of the names were demeaning. On November 2, the team announced that the new name would be the name that they trademarked on August 15, Down East Wood Ducks, without naming a winning fan. A similar situation happened when Kinston joined the Virginia League in 1925. The owners of that club decided that none of the submitted names in a name the team contest were satisfactory and picked a name of their own choosing - the Eagles.
Grainger Stadium
The Down East Wood Ducks play their home games at Grainger Stadium located at 400 East Grainger Avenue in Kinston. The original structure was built by architect John J. Rowland in 1949 at a cost of $170,000 inclusive of everything except the land. $150,000 of the money was raised by bond issue. The stadium is owned by the city and leased by the team. A dedicatory plaque identifies the structure as "Municipal Stadium", but it has been called Grainger Stadium since it was first built. Kinston Indians ownership referred to it as "Historic Grainger Stadium" due to its age relative to other fields in the Carolina League. It is the second oldest stadium in the circuit. The name Grainger comes from its location on Grainger Avenue as well as its use early on by Grainger High School. Grainger is a prominent old family name in Lenoir County. The Texas Rangers will invest in a multi-year renovation project to improve the 4,100-seat facility.
Roster
Footnotes
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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