June 7: While The Goldeyes Win, Manitoba’s Baseball Hall of Fame Gathers in Morden

MORDEN, MB – At Canwest Park on Saturday, the Goldeyes won a 12-inning thriller. Brent Metheny, Kevin West, Cory Patton and Dee Brown all had multi-hit games while Zach Baldwin earned the win in relief as the Fish shaded Fargo-Moorhead 6-5.

It was another 13-hit night for the Fish, who built a 5-0 lead before the RedHawks battled back to tie it against starter Bear Bay. But the bullpen (Derek Feldkamp, Matt Davis and Baldwin) held it together long enough for the Fish to win it in the twelfth.

It was Winnipeg’s second-straight win as the Goldeyes improved to 14-5 on the season and moved two full games ahead of second-place Schaumburg in the Northern League.

While today’s Goldeyes were winning in Winnipeg, a couple of former Goldeyes were centre-stage in Morden as the 2009 class of inductees into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame was honoured.

Scott Neiles, the former Goldeyes first-base coach and the man who still provides the team’s uniforms through his business, Home Run Sports, was one of eight individual inductees. As well, former Goldeyes general manager John Hindle, already in the Hall as an individual player, joined one of his former teams, the 1988-93 Giroux A’s, as one of three teams inducted.

“Baseball has provided me with a wonderful life,” Neiles said as he acknowledged his family members in attendance. “But I would like to say this to my brother Kevin and sister Deb. Kevin won a Grey Cup and I was lucky enough to win a Northern League championship with the Goldeyes. Deb, if you’d just won the Stanley Cup, we would have had the trifecta.”

Neiles was inducted along with other players Rod Fallis of Vita, Bill Kinley of Stonewall, Kerry Lowe of Bradwardine, Brian Reid of Carman and Wayne Seidler of Winnipeg. Neiles was also inducted as a builder along with Reid, Bob Smith of Winnipeg and Gordon Fines of Stonewall.

Three teams were inducted: The 1962-67 St. Lazare Athletics, the 1979-84 Carberry Royals and the 1988-93 Giroux A’s. And there was a special induction awarded to the Robertson Family – Al, Lorna, Jeff and Randy – from Hamiota.

Amazingly, there was only one standing ovation on the evening. That was reserved for Wayne Seidler who has been battling Parkinson’s Disease for more than two years with a combination of baseball, golf and humour.

Seidler, who played in the national over-45 championship in Red Deer two years ago, despite his Parkinson’s, gave the attendees a five-minute stand-up comedy routine that brought down the house. In it, he told a story about himself and Hindle.

“I was glad to see that John nominated me for the Hall because I didn’t think he liked me,” Seidler said. “Back in 1979, I was pitching and I hit him in the foot. He wasn’t very happy. A couple of years later I talked to him and apologized. But I also had to tell him. When I’m pitching, you have to pay attention... when you’re in the on-deck circle.”