Winnipeg roots run deep for new member of Goldeyes

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This article was published 09/07/2024 (792 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From just south of the border, Cadyn Schwabe is the first player from North Dakota to play with the Winnipeg Goldeyes after signing with the Fish on June 29.

From watching the team as a kid, Schwabe, born and raised in Thompson, N.D., a small town about 22 km south of Grand Forks, has Winnipeg connections and is happy to be a Goldeye.

The outfielder is actually a dual-citizen thanks to his father, Jason Schwabe, being from Winnipeg.

Jason played baseball at Mayville State and professionally in Australia — but he also made his impact in Manitoba, playing with Scott Neiles (former Goldeyes coach from 1994-2000) on the St. Boniface Native Sons, a Manitoba Senior baseball team.

The elder Schwabe and Neiles helped take St. Boniface to the Redboine League championship and the Richardson Trophy for five consecutive years — accomplishing what no other Manitoba Senior baseball team has done. Neiles is currently in the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame, taking the Fish to the playoffs every year he coached.

The younger Schwabe graduated from North Dakota State University in the spring. In high school, he played football and basketball but ultimately decided on baseball when he went to college.

“I take a lot of pride in my defence,” Schwabe said Tuesday. “Making sure that any ball that comes to be in the outfield gets caught or played the right way.”

The 23-year-old appeared in five games for Fargo Moorhead this season before signing for the Goldeyes, which thrilled his father.

“He’s pretty pumped,” said Cadyn Schwabe. “He was up here this weekend actually. Yeah, he’s pretty pumped.”

“When I was little we used to come here all the time,” said Schwabe, whose grandmother still lives in Winnipeg. “I still have pictures of me coming to Goldeye’s games.”

The Schwabe family is definitely a big baseball family. Cadyn’s older brother Calen also played at NDSU, the two of them experiencing a year on the same university squad in 2022.

Cadyn also has two younger sisters, Sydney and Jena, who both played softball.

Schwabe joined the Fish on the road about a week and a half ago when the Goldeyes were in Gary, Ind., playing the RailCats. Now that the team is back in Winnipeg on a six-game homestand, Schwabe is settling into living in the city, which he knows pretty well.

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“It’s been good,” said Schwabe. “I live with a really good family friend, so that made it easy to adjust.”

“I’ve always said baseball fields, I love a downtown setting,” said Schwabe on his favourite part about playing in Winnipeg. “I’ve been to a few MLB parks that are right downtown. I just love that, and I just love that about this place.”

Schwabe has played five games for the Goldeyes hitting a .154 so far.

“I’ve just kind of gotten my feet wet into pro baseball,” said Schwabe. “The goal would just be to keep improving, getting better each day, keep learning new things. We got a lot of experience on this team, a lot of older guys. So just learning from them and picking their brains and just advancing my game.”

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca