WINNIPEG — Thanks to Winnipeg’s cold climate the Winnipeg Goldeyes will once again open the season on the road. The team has embarked on a 14 game, five city, two-week long road trip.
26 players and six staff members boarded the team bus overnight for an epic trip. The club will make stops in Kansas City, Wichita, Joplin, Laredo and Lincoln before heading back to Winnipeg.
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WATCH: Animation of Goldeyes road trip
Distance (Source: Google)
- Winnipeg to Kansas City, Kansas = 1319 km
- Kansas City to Wichita, Kansas = 321 km
- Wichita to Joplin, Missouri = 294 km
- Joplin to Laredo, Texas = 1250 km
- Laredo to Lincoln, Nebraska = 1699 km
- Lincoln to Winnipeg = 1105 km
Total Trip = 5988 km
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When the trip is all said and done the Goldeyes will travel nearly 6,000 kilometres or roughly the distance from Winnipeg to England.
“Oh man. For real ?” asked Goldeyes outfielder Reggie Abercrombie. “Oh my God. Never know that. Long as we ain’t in there the whole time we’ll be okay but how you put it, that’s a long time.”
“That’s a haul,” outfielder Adam Heisler said. “I mean you can’t really prepare yourself for it. We’re gonna have a bunch of people on the bus just trying to get comfortable, try to get some sleep.”
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“I guess you can never prepare for this,” said manager Rick Forney. “It’s a long ride and a lot of miles but we’ve done it before.”
The veterans are accustomed to this annual trek that takes them within a stone’s throw of the U.S.A.-Mexico border and there’ll be a lot of sleeping during the more than 60 hours they’ll spend on the bus.
“I can’t tell you what goes on on the bus,” joked Forney. “That’s secret, secret information.”
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Music, card games and movies is how most players pass the time.
“From here to the border I’ll play a little card game to keep me awake,” said Heisler. “And then after we got on the border I’ll put my headphones in, kinda of listen to something, watch a movie and then just try to get as much sleep as possible.”
“Lucky we have Wi-Fi, we’ve got movies and everything else,” Abercrombie said. “”We got a sleeper bus so it’s gonna be pretty good alright. Strapped in a bus for 13 hours with my teammates and we gonna get to know each other real good.”
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Most of the players just met last week with 20 of their 26 players new to the team. But don’t expect the manager to have any team building exercises.
“I’m not the party director,” Forney said. “If Reggie (Abercrombie) or somebody wants to do all that stuff then they can do it.”
After 14 games on the road the Goldeyes will arrive back in Winnipeg sometime during the night of May 30, only hours before the team’s home opener.
WATCH: The Winnipeg Goldeyes discuss their epic road trip to start the season
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