November 2: Forney Likes The Goldeyes New Schedule; Even With Four Fewer Days Off

Rick Forney will be the first to admit he hasn’t spent hours pouring over the 2010 Goldeyes schedule to see when and where his team plays each day.
However, he will say that the schedule he was sent by GM Andrew Collier last week is one of the best Northern League schedules he’s seen in the five years he’s been the team’s manager.

“The best part about it is we’ll make fewer trips and travel about 5,000 fewer miles,” Forney said, via telephone from his off-season home in Maryland. “You figure 5,000 fewer miles, wow, that’s a lot of extra time we won’t be spending on the bus.”

Next season the eight-team Northern League will play a 100-game schedule in 114 days. That means four fewer off-days than NL teams had last year. However, the schedule is set up to avoid the one-series trips from Winnipeg to the Chicagoland area and vice-versa.
In fact, the shortest trip the Goldeyes have all season is a three-day trip to Fargo right after the all-star break in July. The rest of the season, the Goldeyes travel for at least six days and sometimes nine days.

“I like the nine-day trip to Schaumburg, Lake County and Joliet in June,” Forney said. “That cuts down on the travel and the players won’t be as tired. I think with this schedule, the quality of play throughout the league will improve because players won’t be worn out from all the time they spend in the bus.”

Last year, no team spent more time on the road than the Goldeyes. In fact, in a survey conducted by the Nibble, we estimate that Winnipeg traveled 16,367 miles. Gary was next at 13,210 miles, Kansas City was third at 12,109 miles, followed by Fargo at 12,001, Joliet at 10,676 and then Schaumburg at 10,213.

“The only thing the league needs to try and do now is find a travel partner for Kansas City,” Forney said. “If we could have a second team to play down there, it would make things even easier. As it is, we only go to Kansas City twice this year.”

Last season, the Goldeyes played in Kansas City three times, once as part of a single, three-game series. This year the Goldeyes go to K.C. twice -- once as the final series in a June/July trip through Lake County and Joliet and the second time as the start of a K.C.-Fargo six-game excursion.

“I like this year’s schedule,” Forney said. “From what I’ve seen, this is a good schedule for every team in the league.”