Winnipeg Goldeyes


The Winnipeg Goldeyes are a professional baseball team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Goldeyes play in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which they joined in 2011. The American Association is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. 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 2016–2017.
The Goldeyes have played their home games at Shaw Park since 1999. 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. 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 would fuel their rivalry in 2016, when they defeated the Wingnuts in Game 5 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 4 after a ground-out won the game and the team began celebrating on the mound. However, the ump 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 5. 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 will not play games at Shaw Park, and will instead be based at Sioux Falls Stadium.

Stadium

From 1994 to 1998, the Goldeyes played their homes games at Winnipeg Stadium, a Canadian football stadium retrofitted for baseball. The team moved into CanWest Global Park, their own baseball-only facility, prior to the 1999 season.

Year-by-year record

Playoffs

Retired numbers