Inaugural game, season just ahead for Down East Bird Dawgs
KINSTON, N.C. (WNCT) — It's just a few days until the inaugural game for the Down East Bird Dawgs at Grainger Stadium in Kinston.
Baseball is back in the town after the Down East Wood Ducks left at the end of last season. It's a place rich in baseball history.
'Oh, man, there's so much history here,' Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations Spencer Pattison said. 'I mean, just looking back at the teams that have played here, the players that have come through here, there's just so much history.'
When the news came that the Wood Ducks would be leaving and moving to Spartanburg, S.C., many people in the area had serious doubts about the future of the sport in the city.
'I think the community here around Kinston was kind of scared and upset when the Wood Ducks packed up and left town,' Director of Marketing, Promotions & Fan Experience Kris Dumschat said. 'I think that a lot of people thought, is there going to be baseball still around?'
The announcement soon followed that the Bird Dawgs would be coming to town as an expansion team in the Frontier League, a partner league of the MLB.
'It's been chaos, but it's also been really exciting because everything we've been working toward since we launched the team in October is finally coming,' Dumschat said. 'There's a lot that we have done to not only enhance the stadium, but also keep the historic feel to it as we don't want to lose those kind of traditional values. The towns that have had baseball for a while, that's where it's meant to be and I think this town embodies that.'
The Bird Dawgs are hoping to embrace the past with an eye on the future. 'And I think what's really great is that we are locally owned now. So, as long as fans continue to come out and support this team, this team is going to be here to stay,' Dumschat said. 'Because when the community invests in it, just like the community of owners invested into this, the team is going to be here to stay and we're going to be able to have a lot of fun and do a lot of great things for the community.'
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