Spawning Season Part Two: The Retirements

The Goldeyes have lost two of their 2016 American Association championship team to retirement: catcher Carlton Tanabe was the first to hang it up as a pro-ball player (in the fall), followed up by OF Adam Heisler, who announced his retirement Jan. 16, 2017.

As a strong baserunner and hitter who worked the top of the rotation, Heisler will be missed. A base-stealer of renown, Adam also graces the background image of this blog, sliding against the now-defunct Joplin Blasters.

Tanabe worked the slight majority of games behind the plate for The Fish in 2016, helping to fill the hole left by the departure of Luis Alen.

In the clubhouse,  you couldn't meet two nicer guys, they'll be missed by fans and people behind the scenes. Best of luck in the future lads!

Carlton Tanabe belts in the game winning RBI, July 30, 2016.

Retro variant Adam Heisler, August 2016 at Shaw Park.

Meet your 2016 American Association Champions!

It's been quite month for the Winnipeg Goldeyes: make the playoffs in the last day of the season, come back from a 2-1 deficit to beat St. Paul, and then they do it again, coming back from a 2-1 deficit to beat Wichita for the championship.

I thought I'd celebrate this win...after all, championship seasons don't come around often...with a special digital card set. This design will be used again, my hope is to do a complete league set in the off-season. Gentlemen, it's a been a pleasure to follow this amazon season!

Socks Up for Kids

Goldeye Great Max Poulin was at the July 3 game vs. Sioux Falls for a very special reason: to support Beyond Borders and their efforts to combat child exploitation. Both the Goldeyes and the Canaries wore their socks up for the game, and even took a rare break during the 7th inning for a mid-field photo. Great cause aside, I love the look of the high socks; Gary-Southshore wear it team-wide for each game and it looks very sharp. Maybe I'm old school but I love it. Pictured here are: Pitcher Shawn Blackwell and the Canaries; Adam Heisler, who returns after two-weeks on the injured reserve with his name still in the AA's top 10 batting leaders; Canaries' David Bergin; and the giant Goldeyes/Canaries group shot with Max Poulin.

Fish will look to new leaders in 2016

The 2016 camp makes its formal debut in Winnipeg tomorrow with the Goldeyes annual open house at Shaw Park. This will certainly be a different team front the 2015 edition. The Fish were hit with a slew of retirements in the off-season: Casey Haerther, Matt Jackson, Nick Hernandez, Brendan Lafferty, Ryan Babineau are among the Fish who bid adieu to pro ball. Josh Mazzola signed with Fargo in an off-season shocker and Luis Alen was traded to Lincoln. So that leaves 2015 AA All-Star Adam Heisler (pictured with the departed Haerther), Casio Grider (who looked great during an injury plagued season last year) and Reggie Abercrombie becomes the elder statesman in the clubhouse. On the mound, we only have three returning hurlers: Edwin Carl, who showed all sorts of promise last season, Kyle Anderson and closer Jailen Peguero. First baseman Jacob Rogers and outfielder Josh Romanski are among some highly-regarded new recruits. Lots of new faces to learn, but that's indy ball in a nutshell. Come down to Shaw Park tomorrow and meet the lads, it should be a great day!

Heisler a key 2016 signing for The Fish

Amidst the various Fish signings and player moves in the off-season, one of the obvious "must-sign" players was American Association all-star Adam Heisler, who had an outstanding rookie year with the Goldeyes. The Fish signed their leadoff hitter on Jan. 5, offering some relief for fans in a week that saw several veteran players get their release (see related story above).

Flashback: June 2, 2015

June 2, 2015. Adam Heisler gets interviewed on Shaw TV after a 5-3 Goldeyes win over Sioux Falls. No idea how this sounded on TV with all of the fireworks in the background, but it looked cool!

2015 American Association All-Star Team

A special wave of Digital Gum, on the heels of yesterday's 2015 All-Star team announcement. Sadly, this is an incomplete set: Outfielder Denis Phipps and the Laredo Lemurs never came through Winnipeg this year. And I struck out on both pitchers...Sioux City's Patrick Johnson and Joplin's Winston Abreu. Abreu did pitch an inning's worth of relief here, but this was pre-blog and I missed him on the mound. Johnson did not start in Winnipeg, but I borrowed a shot from xsbaseball.com for his card; if I can dig up shots of Abreu and Phipps, I'll include them here later.

Goldeyes stop RedHawk sweep with 8-1 victory

A commanding pitching performance by Kyle Anderson and some spark at the plate resulted in an 8-1 Goldeyes victory over Fargo-Moorhead, Aug. 16 at Shaw Park, Winnipeg. Pictured: 1) Kyle Anderson on the mound; 2) Josh Mazzola tosses to first; 3) Casey Haerther and Adam Heisler celebrate a two-run homer from the Mighty Casey; 4) the RedHawks' Joe Bonfe darts back to first; 5) Red Hawk Zach Penprase and Goldeye Ryan Babineau meet at second; 6)Chad Mozingo, who had the lone RedHawk homer of the game; 7) Mazzola slides safely home.