July 28: Forney Assesses His Ball Club After 60 Games

The Winnipeg Goldeyes have already done just about everything manager Rick Forney could ask of them. In fact, if you base the season so far on how things turned out the last couple of years in the Northern League, the Goldeyes only need to win eight or nine more games to guarantee themselves a spot in the post-season.

Let’s be honest, though, the last thing Forney wants is to have his team go 9-27 down the stretch, but the fact remains, the Goldeyes have been so good so far, they don’t have a lot of pressure on them heading into the final month of the season.

“I can’t wait until the playoffs start,” said third baseman Brent Metheny. “Then we can play some games that really matter.”

After the first 60 games of this year’s 96-game schedule, the Fish are a rock-solid 37-23 and have moved back into first place in the Northern League. They went 19-5 over the first quarter of the season, have played .500 ball since (despite injuries and a major post-all-star-game slump) and have not only won six-straight games, but have pulled three games ahead of the Gary SouthShore RailCats in the race for first.

For Forney, there is still a lot of baseball left, but he’ll be the first to tell you that the first 60 games have been a pleasure.

“We have a lot of talented baseball players, that’s obvious,” Forney said. “More importantly, it’s a really good group of guys. It’s a special group. Every day, I keep my fingers crossed and hope that we don’t have any more serious injuries.”

Yes. One serious injury is enough, thank you. Just before the all-star game, the team’s most valuable player, shortstop Wes Long, went to tag Schaumburg catcher Richard Mercado at second base when Mercado suddenly changed direction, ran out of the baseline with his spikes high and broke Long’s left ankle.

With Long out of the line-up, the Goldeyes scuffled for almost two weeks. After building up as much as an eight-game lead, the Fish fell a half-game back of red-hot Gary in the standings. But by winning a series against the RailCats last week, Winnipeg moved back into top spot and appeared to put their troubles behind them.

“It was a great week (last week) and I’m proud of all the guys,” Forney said following last week’s six-game sweep of Kansas City and Gary. “All I do is write out the line-up card and let them do what they do. Sure, I’ll change a pitcher or two or send out a pinch-runner, but I don’t have to do too much. I just put them out there and let them play the game.”

And they do play the game pretty well.

“Our starting pitching has been pretty solid,” Forney said. “Of course, it never hurts to play good defence behind your pitchers and that’s another thing I like about this team. All teams make mistakes, but outside of that slump after the all-star game, when we make mistakes, we’ve been able to overcome them.

“What can I say? They’re not perfect, nobody’s perfect, but overall, they have been a joy to watch.”