Simunic relishes heated rivalry between Fish, Hawks

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RedHawks manager Doug Simunic watches the action during Wednesday night’s action in Fargo. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

FARGO, N.D. -- Here's something to ponder as you're sitting in your playoff seat at Canwest Park this weekend, hurling expletives at Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks manager Doug Simunic:

Yeah, he's caustic. Yeah, he's got a special hate for all things Winnipeg. Yeah, he smacked the Goldeyes third base coach in the chops a couple of weeks ago. And, yeah, he is, to put it mildly, a large man.

But with Simunic's RedHawks playing the Winnipeg Goldeyes Wednesday night in Game 1 of their opening round Northern League playoff series, it was also worth remembering one other thing about the man.

He is, for all his faults, still the only manager to win a Northern League championship for the Winnipeg Goldeyes. Heck, he's the last man to win Winnipeg a professional league title of any kind, the 1994 Northern League title he won with the Goldeyes. So laugh at him if you want. Just know he's laughing right back at you.

Rivalry

And also know this: For all the rivalry he has stirred between the Fish and the RedHawks, Simunic is also a man who is the first to recognize the fine art that is baseball played right.

And so it is that a heart-breaking, 13-inning loss in 1998 counts as his favourite playoff memory of the eight previous playoff series Simunic has led his RedHawks into battle against the Goldeyes.

Get him talking and the moustachioed West Virginian almost waxes poetic. "It was a cold Winnipeg night and the field was pretty dewy," he begins his tale of Game 3 of the 1998 opening round playoff series between the Fish and Hawks.

"Winnipeg Stadium -- George Schmidt and Jeff Sparks," he recalls of the marathon pitching matchup that night between the Fargo and Winnipeg closers, respectively. "That was a memorable game. Ozzie Canseco threw someone out at the plate. There was just a great relief appearance by both guys. A lot of strikeouts in the game. It was a great game."

History has recorded that game as the second last baseball game ever played in the corner of Winnipeg's football stadium. It lasted a total of 13 innings, took 4:25 to play as Schmidt and Sparks waged a herculean battle that began in the late innings and continued late into the night.

Closers usually throw an inning. Sometimes two. Sparks threw five or six innings that night, depending on whose memory you were relying upon. Simunic and Goldeyes broadcaster Paul Edmonds couldn't agree Wednesday on the exact number of innings, but both men remembered this number -- 12, the number of strikeouts Sparks recorded in relief. Ultimately, the Goldeyes won the game, 6-5, but lost the series the next night and never again played at Winnipeg Stadium.

Hundreds of players have come and gone from the Goldeyes and RedHawks since that cold night in 1998. But Simunic, who managed just two years in Winnipeg before leaving for Fargo in 1996, has remained one of few constants. His formula, he says, is simple.

"Everyone has a bit of a hole in their defence, pitching, offence," he says. "And that can be exposed at times. You just try and make your deficiencies a little better and play consistently."

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 3, 2009 C2