Winnipeg Goldeyes
The Winnipeg Goldeyes are a minor-league baseball team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Goldeyes play in the American Association of Professional Baseball, which they joined in 2011. Previously, the Goldeyes were members of the Northern League from 1994 until 2010. The Goldeyes were champions of the Northern League in 1994. They are also three-time champions of the American Association; having won in 2012, and back-to-back in 2016 and 2017. The team is named after the goldeye, a fish usually served as a smoked delicacy and commonly called Winnipeg goldeye. History There have been two separate and distinct baseball teams based out of Winnipeg to use the Goldeyes name, each playing in different incarnations of the Northern League. They first played in the original Northern League from 1954 until 1964. During that time, the Goldeyes were a minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals and they won the league championship three times (1957, 1959, and 1960). The Goldeyes returned to the Short Season-A Northern League for one season, 1969, as an affiliate of the expansion Kansas City Royals, but they did not return in 1970, and the entire league shut down after the 1971 season. The Goldeyes name was resurrected in 1994 when the independent league Rochester Aces of the new Northern League relocated to Winnipeg. It was decided the team would take on the name of the former Winnipeg team in honor of the past. In their inaugural season in Winnipeg, the new Goldeyes captured the Northern League championship. The Goldeyes became the longest tenured franchise in the Northern League following the departure of the St. Paul Saints, Sioux City Explorers, and Sioux Falls Canaries to the breakaway American Association in 2005; however, the team would jump to the American Association after the 2010 season. The Goldeyes captured their first American Association championship in 2012, sweeping the Wichita Wingnuts in the finals. The Goldeyes fueled their rivalry with Wichita in 2016, when they defeated the Wingnuts in game five in Wichita for their second American Association championship. Next season, the teams would meet again; this matchup looked as if the Wingnuts won the series in game four after a ground-out won the game and the team began celebrating on the mound. However, the umpire had called a balk and the strike was re-thrown; the Goldeyes tied the game later in the at-bat and forced a marathon 17-inning game. This was the longest game in American Association history, which they won to play a game five. The Goldeyes would seal back-to-back championships with an 18–2 victory over Wichita at home in Winnipeg. In 2020, the league announced that the Goldeyes would compete as one of six teams in a condensed 60-game season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they would not play games at Shaw Park, and were instead based at Newman Outdoor Field (thus sharing a home field with the Fargo Moorhead RedHawks). Due to continued border restrictions, the Goldeyes announced plans to initially play home