Safe at home, at last

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/08/2021 (1570 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The (almost) never-ending road trip came home to Winnipeg Tuesday night.

Wes Darvill waited 701 days to set foot on Shaw Park’s luxurious infield grass. His team had not played there since before the pandemic outbreak.

“I think it’s more of a relief than anything — we’ve been deprived for almost two years,” said the Goldeyes shortstop prior to Winnipeg’s 14-6 American Association victory over the Sioux City Explorers. “All the fans have, too. I know we have guys like (outfielder) Logan Hill who wanted to come play in Winnipeg, experience the city, experience the fans and the culture here and haven’t been able to do it, right?

“So I’m really happy for those guys coming here for the first time. Yeah, we’re pretty fired up and pretty relieved to be back.”

Darvill, left-fielder Kevin Lachance and first baseman Kyle Martin are the only holdovers from the Goldeyes squad that played the club’s last home game on Sept. 2, 2019, which was also Reggie Abercrombie’s final game in a Winnipeg uniform.

Manager Rick Forney presided over Winnipeg’s shortened season in 2020, all spent on the road, and the start of the 2021 campaign headquartered in Jackson, Tenn. The ordeal of being essentially homeless for most of that time was exhausting.

“I just kind of lost hope in the middle of June. You just weren’t hearing anything that was really positive, you know,” said Forney. “It all kind of came together pretty fast — I was really surprised.”

Last week’s announcement that the club was returning to play in Canada came after discussions with federal and provincial authorities green-lit a plan for the Goldeyes to host games again.

The manager found familiar surroundings a comfort zone.

“I’ve been here since ‘97 so you know (it’s been) 25 years, you don’t forget,” said Forney, now in his 16th season as field boss. “I will say I almost took a couple wrong turns around town today because it’s been two years since I’ve driven here — there’s construction going on. Everything else is the same to me.”

It wasn’t status quo with the Winnipeg roster, however.

Starting pitchers Pete Perez and Joey Gonzalez, closer Jose Jose, setup man Bud Norris, catcher Sonny Ulliana and outfielder Jay Gonzalez were all left in the U.S. when they decided not to comply with Canadian masking and vaccination requirements.

Those players are not expected to play for the Fish again in 2021. In addition, batting coach Kash Beauchamp elected not to travel with the team to Canada.

“It doesn’t make sense for me to house somebody in a hotel for a week and pay them a salary to sit there on their ass and not do anything,” said Forney. “I’m sure it’s not really a situation that they would probably prefer to be in either. But that’s our reality.”

In addition to those departures, Winnipeg had already lost five players in 2021 after major league teams purchased their contracts.

“Things have drastically changed with major league baseball and how they operate now and how they retracted 40 (minor league) clubs,” said Forney. “They don’t have the same number people around anymore and so the way they’re choosing to do business — when there’s a need in the organization they’re coming to independent leagues and they’re buying contracts in our league.

“It’s great for the players and it’s a super opportunity to get back to affiliated ball, but it’s been a nightmare for us.”

While Forney, whose club is fourth in the North Division with a 33-35 record, has been scrambling to fill holes, Sioux City is experiencing roster volatility to the extreme.

Only outfielder Michael Lang, who came off the inactive list to play, was a member of the Explorers last week.

With a low vaccination rate on the squad, Sioux City signed 24 players in the two days leading up to its three-game series with the Goldeyes.

The pandemic has also administered a big hit on Goldeyes owner Sam Katz’s bottom line.

“We’ve lost millions — there’s no question about that,” said Katz. “I’m not gonna… deny it but we felt it was important the first year (in 2020) to keep the team playing even though we know we’re going on the road for a shortened season. It was extremely challenging for the players not to have any fans and never getting cheered for. And it was tough on Rick (Forney) because he took on a lot of other duties.”

Katz wasn’t second-guessing his decision to restart games at Shaw Park now, rather than wait until 2022. A smallish crowd of 2,716 watched Tuesday’s game.

“I’ve been asked the question by many people: Is it worth it? And in this case my answer is, you know, sometimes you make decisions from here,” he said, thumping his chest. “Not from here (pointing to his head).”

Winnipeg is scheduled to play 20 of its final 33 games at Shaw Park.

“I think the crowds to start will basically be what we call walk-up,” said Katz “We don’t have any group sales, you know, that’s gone… In our world, group tickets are the bread and butter and we obviously have zero. So now, it’ll be people deciding, ‘Hey the Goldeyes are back in town, it’s a nice day, let’s go.’ So right now we need Mother Nature on our side and it’ll be whatever it’ll be. No matter what the number is, you know, they’re back in town. They’re playing.”

Darvill, one of four Canadians on the Winnipeg roster, was thrilled to be back in a familiar place.

“We were fortunate this year and appreciate the staff for getting us to the place in Jackson, that was really nice,” he said. “But it’s still not home, right? So it’s great to be back here with the fans. This is one of the best places to play in North America, I truly believe.”

EXTRA BASES: Winnipeg and Sioux City meet again tonight at 6:30 p.m. and close out the series Thursday at noon… Kyle Martin, Tyler Hill and Max Murphy homered for the Goldeyes Tuesday.

 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14