Didcot Sativas is a professional baseball club based in Didcot, Novainsula. The club is one of the founding members of the Elite 14, the country’s first and highest-level professional baseball league, which was established in 1917. The club’s name, Sativas, is derived from the bird of the same name, a relative of the Blue Jay, known for its bright green feathers. The club is also sometimes referred to colloquially as the Greens or Didders.
History
Didcot Sativas was established in April 1916 by Arthur Pendleton, a fishing magnate who owned a large fleet of boats and a processing plant in Didcot. Pendleton was born in Liverpool, England in 1875 and immigrated to Novainsula in 1898, where he started his fishing business and became one of the richest and most influential men in the country. Pendleton was an avid sports fan and a philanthropist who wanted to give back to the community and promote the development of baseball in Novainsula, a sport that he had learned and loved during his visits to the United States.
Pendleton heard of the newly-formed Novainsula Baseball Federation (NBF), a governing body for the sport, run by Johnathan Harrowood, who is widely regarded as the founding father of Novainsula baseball. Harrowood had a vision of creating a professional baseball league in Novainsula, similar to the ones in the United States and Canada, and invited interested parties to join the NBF and help him realize his dream.
Pendleton contacted Harrowood and expressed his interest in joining the NBF and forming a club in Didcot. He offered to provide financial and logistical support to the NBF and to the club, as well as to share his contacts and connections in the international baseball scene. Harrowood welcomed Pendleton’s initiative and invited him to be part of the NBF’s inaugural meeting, which was held in April 2, 1914 in Alnwick, the capital city of Novainsula.
Pendleton hired Franklin Jones, a former player and manager from the United States, to be the first manager and player-coach of the club. Jones was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1880 and played for several professional teams in the United States, before retiring in 1915. Jones brought with him several experienced players from abroad, such as Charles Miller, Robert Johnson, and Thomas Davis, who had also played in the MLB or other professional leagues. Jones also recruited local talent from Didcot and nearby towns, such as Henry Smith, George Wilson, and Edward Baker, who had shown potential and passion for the sport.
Stadium
Didcot Sativas play their home games at Meridian Park, a baseball stadium located in the eastern part of Didcot, near the coast. The stadium is commonly referred to as “Meridian”, after the name of the nearby theatre that was built in 1905 and is a popular cultural venue in the city.
The stadium has a capacity of 23,000 spectators and features a grass field, a scoreboard, and a press box. The stadium is known for its distinctive outfield walls, which are 12 feet high from the left field foul pole to right field, where they jump up to 21 feet to incorporate a giant advertisement. The advertisement was originally for Pendleton’s Fishing, the company owned by the club’s founder, Arthur Pendleton, but was changed to various other sponsors over the years. In 1962, the advertisement was converted into an out-of-town scoreboard, which displays the scores of other games in the Elite 14 and other leagues.
The stadium is also known for being one of the most pitcher-friendly ballparks in Novainsula, due to the high walls that make it difficult for left-handed batters to hit home runs. The stadium has the lowest home run rate and the highest strikeout rate in the Elite 14, according to the official statistics. The stadium has been the site of several memorable pitching performances, such as the no-hitter by Henry Smith in 1919, the perfect game by William Clark in 1932, and the 20-strikeout game by James Lee in 1971.