‘It’s more than just a baseball team here’

Max Murphy is officially one of us now.

Want proof? The veteran Winnipeg Goldeyes outfielder, who was born and raised in Minnesota, has now experienced one of the great local traditions — the wedding social.

“It went really well. A really good time,” Murphy told the Free Press on Wednesday with a laugh. “I had never really heard about them. Then I got here and people were like, ‘This is a thing here.’ Went to a few and they were pretty fun. Figured, ‘Why not have my own?’”

The party was held two weekends ago for Murphy and his Winnipeg fiancée, Maddie, and included plenty of Goldeyes teammates and staff, along with family, friends and even some fans. It was a vivid reminder to Murphy of why he loves playing here so much.

Weather aside, Goldeyes warmed by potential of new season at training camp

It may feel more like hockey weather than baseball season around here, but that hasn’t stopped the Winnipeg Goldeyes from getting into the swing of things.

Sure, these Fish might be frozen during spring training, but optimism is already heating up about what these boys of summer could accomplish by early fall.

“I think we’ve got a really good team. I think we’re going to make a run at it,” veteran slugger Max Murphy told the Free Press on Wednesday at Blue Cross Park.

He’s talking about an American Association championship, which the Goldeyes last accomplished in 2017. They came close to winning it all in 2024 — the first year under skipper Logan Watkins — but ultimately lost in the final. Last year represented a step back, with a 41-58 record which led to missing the playoffs entirely.

Goodbye, Goldeyes — hello, Manitoba Mosquitoes

Goodbye, Winnipeg Goldeyes.

Did we get you?

On Wednesday (also April Fool’s Day, coincidentally), Winnipeg’s pro baseball club made an appropriately timed announcement that it would be taking on a pesky and all-too-familiar alternate identity for one game this summer.

The Manitoba Mosquitoes will take the diamond for a weekend series-opener against the Lincoln Saltdogs on July 31, with hopes of being equally irritable to their opponent.

Former St. James A suiting up for Czechia in World Baseball Classic

It turns out Winnipeg has produced its own version of a Shohei Ohtani.

“Yeah, the Temu Ohtani,” joked Ryan Johnson in a recent chat with the Free Press.

The St. James A’s alum is currently pitching and hitting for Team Czechia at the World Baseball Classic. The 33-year-old will get a chance to go up against the real Ohtani on Tuesday (5 a.m. CT) when Czechia (0-3) closes out the round-robin against Japan (3-0) inside the Tokyo Dome.

If Johnson’s lucky — or unlucky depending how you look at it — he might find himself on the mound at some point against the best ball player on the planet.

Goldeyes all-time home run leader returning for sixth season

Max Murphy will continue to chase records with the Winnipeg Goldeyes.

It was announced Wednesday that the 33-year-old outfielder will return to the Fish for a sixth season this upcoming summer.

This past year, Murphy belted his 93rd career home run in a Goldeyes uniform on June 11 against the Chicago Dogs to pass arguably the greatest player in American Association history Reggie Abercrombie to become the new franchise leader.

Murphy finished the season with 14 more homers to further extend his lead in the record books.

Goldeyes close out regular season with second-worst finish in club history

The summer of 2025 will not go down as a keeper for the Winnipeg Goldeyes.

The Fish closed out the regular season on Monday with a 12-8 loss at home to Sioux City to finish the race at 41-58. It’s the second-worst record in the American Association’s 12-team circuit, and the second-worst record in the franchise’s 32-year history.

The 2018 edition of the Fish went 41-59 and this year’s group was able to dodge that mark since they only played 99 games as they had a contest against Chicago in late July that was rained out that never got rescheduled.

“We just weren’t that good. Honestly, we didn’t play well,” is how star outfielder Max Murphy summed it up in a chat with the Free Press on Tuesday.

Goldeyes ride big second inning to victory over Railroaders

The Winnipeg Goldeyes (36-47), powered by a six-run second inning, held on for a very needed, close 7-6 victory over the Cleburne Railroaders (39-44) Thursday night at Blue Cross Park in front of 4,016 fans.

Goldeyes’ slim playoff hopes fade with loss to Saltdogs

The Winnipeg Goldeyes (32-46) have suffered back-to-back heartbreaking losses, falling 9-6 to the Lincoln Saltdogs after a three-run ninth-inning effort by the visitors broke a 6-6 tie to take Game 1 of the series at Blue Cross Park in front of 5580 fans.

The Goldeyes were looking prove themselves following a brutal 11th-inning loss in Sioux City on Thursday, when the Goldeyes could not find a way to back up an incredible pitching performance by starter James Bradwell with the batting to match.

To try and help with the need for offence, a few hours before Friday’s game, the Goldeyes announced the signing of catcher Rob Emery for the remainder of the 2025 season.

In the Goldeyes’ 2024 West Division-winning season, Emery played 83 games, putting up 11 home runs, 70 RBI and a .293 batting average.

Desperate Goldeyes get hot as season hits homestretch

A sentiment Winnipeg Goldeyes manager Logan Watkins has echoed all season is hitting is the key to winning — something the team has been hot and cold with all year, often slumping throughout the lineup at the same time.

Luckily, the Goldeyes have found their hitting groove in August, winning four much-needed games in a row on the road, before dropping a close 5-4 game Tuesday evening against the Sioux Falls Canaries.

Although the club still sits 11 games behind the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, who are 8-2 in their last ten and hold a strong grip on the final West Division playoff spot, all the Fish can focus on is their own play. Right now, it’s the best it’s been all season, fuelling the longest win streak of the year.

The Goldeyes opened the month with a dominant 9-0 shutout win, arguably, the best series of the season with the Milwaukee Milkmen — a team in a similarly desperate spot, chasing the playoff line over in the East Division.

RedHawks teach Goldeyes a lesson

The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks showed the Winnipeg Goldeyes why they’re in the final West Division playoff spot — and the Goldeyes are not — Wednesday evening, making it look easy with a lopsided 10-4 victory in front of 4,540 people at Blue Cross Park to complete the series sweep.

The Goldeyes barely had time to find hope for a win before the RedHawks blew things wide open in what was a game-costing start for pitcher Mitchell Lambson.

On just the second swing of the game, the RedHawks got on the board, with Lamar Sparks blasting a home run over the left field fence.

A couple of outs later, it was RedHawks designated hitter Brendon Dadson who sent a home run of his own out of Blue Cross Park, this time over the right field fence, to give his squad a 2-0 lead at the top of the first.

Narrow loss to RedHawks leaves Fish 10 games out of playoff spot

Max Murphy rounded third base thinking he was 90 feet away from forcing extra innings.

The Winnipeg Goldeyes outfielder was standing on first when second baseman Keshawn Lynch ripped a line drive down the left baseline with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Unfortunately for the Fish, Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks shortstop Aidan Byrne played the role of the cutoff man perfectly as he fired a strike to catcher Parker Stroh, who tagged Murphy in front of home plate.

The play preserved a 5-4 victory for the visiting RedHawks in front of 3,365 fans at Blue Cross Park on Monday night.

“Right off first, I was hauling… (The third base coach) was sending me the whole way, so I thought ‘I got this’, and then I could see the catcher getting ready to catch it and I was like ‘Ah, unless he clanks it, I’m out,’” said Murphy post-game.

Goldeyes hang on to down Dogs

Back home and playing their first game since the American Association’s all-star break, the Winnipeg Goldeyes were in dire need of a fresh start. With a close 6-5 win over the Chicago Dogs on Thursday evening at Blue Cross Park, the Fish are hoping the tides are finally turning.

For a team that has been at the bottom of the American Association’s West Division for most of the season and is trying to squeeze into a playoff spot, the past two weeks could not have been more disastrous.

Despite going into the all-star break coming off a 9-3 win in Lincoln, Neb., against the Saltdogs on Sunday, it could not erase the season-high nine-game losing streak the Goldeyes went through beforehand.

“It goes without saying the last two weeks have been pretty rough,” said Goldeyes manager Logan Watkins. “But I guess that’s baseball. The hard part is seeing how many one-run losses we’ve had, being that close and not coming through to win at least half of them, but just kind of is what it is. We have a lot of baseball still left, so I think we just needed a quick break, let everyone reset mentally, and then come back.”

For longtime voice of the Goldeyes, theatricality is the name of the game

It’s likely one of the longest sporting streaks going in the city. For the last 31 years, Ron Arnst has settled in behind the microphone for nearly every game at the ballpark to deliver his signature call — “And now, your Winnipeg Gooooooldeeeeeeyeeesss” — before delving into the on-field action.

Goldeyes’ struggles continue as club drops pair to visiting Monarchs

It’s been a tough go as of late for the Winnipeg Goldeyes, who have dropped their last three series and didn’t get the start they wanted entering a weekend series against the Kansas City Monarchs, dropping back-to-back games in a doubleheader Friday night at Blue Cross Park.

“We just need to win,” said Goldeyes manager Logan Watkins. “I mean, we’re running out of time to get rolling. We’re in the second half of the season now. We battled back to get to .500 and then just had a couple tough series, and now we’re kind of back in a hole again. We just got to keep trying to climb out of it.”

The first game of the doubleheader was a continuation of a rained-out game on June 8 against the Monarchs, in which the Goldeyes were trailing 2-1 at the bottom of the third.

The Monarchs picked up right where they left off a month later, with runs by Jaylyn Williams, Josh Bissonette and Ryan Leitch at the top of the fourth to extend their lead to 5-1.