Winnipeg Whips
 |
This article may be in need of reorganization to comply with Wikipedia's layout guidelines. (March 2013) |
 |
This article should be divided into sections by topic, to make it more accessible. (March 2013) |
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2009) |
|
|
This article is written like a personal reflection or opinion essay rather than an encyclopedic description of the subject. (January 2009) |
The Winnipeg Whips and the Peninsula Whips were names of a minor league baseball franchise that played in the International League from June 11, 1970, through the end of the 1973 baseball season.
The Winnipeg Whips, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, entered the International League in 1970 when they moved from Buffalo, N.Y. They moved from Buffalo on June 4, 1970 due to poor attendance. At the time they had a losing record. The team was first in attendance, as Winnipeg had never seen AAA baseball before. They moved away from Winnipeg to Peninsula after the 1971 season due to travel difficulties, as the Toledo Mud Hens were the closest city. There were no other franchises available in the AAA American Association which would have suited Winnipeg geographically. The Whips played in Winnipeg Stadium, in the baseball portion of a football stadium used by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League that also hosted the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the Northern League from 1953 to -1964. [1] It also hosted the Goldeyes in another part of the Winnipeg Stadium, then called the Canad Inns Stadium, from 1994 to 1998.
The 1970s represented one of the lowest points in the history of minor league baseball. An overall decline in interest in the game, plus rampant telecasts of Major League Baseball and MLB expansion into the strongest minor league cities combined to weaken the minors. Another problem was the deterioration in minor league playing facilities.
This was the case in Buffalo, New York, where the decline of War Memorial Stadium and a series of poor clubs on the field put an end to the history of the original Buffalo Bisons, one of the International League's most dependable and storied franchises. The club drew only 78,000 spectators during 1969. On June 4, 1970, the parent Montreal Expos moved the team to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where it was renamed the Whips. The Expos wanted to establish their AAA team In Canada and modeled the Whips' uniforms after the Expos' uniforms.
- ^ baseball-reference.com
The Whips won only 52 of 140 games that season, and while total attendance climbed to only 89,000, the Whips still outdrew the Toledo Mud Hens by almost 3,500 people. The next season, the Whips won only 44 of 140 contests (.314) and finished 34 games from the lead.
Winnipeg and the wheat fields of Manitoba were far beyond the footprint of the East Coast-based International League and in 1972, the team moved to Hampton Roads, Virginia, USA, where the Class A Peninsula Phillies of the Carolina League had attracted 60,000 spectators in '71. The move was a disaster: the Peninsula Whips finished last on the field, and drew only 48,681 fans for the entire 1972 season. In its final campaign, 1973, the team approached the .500 mark on the field, but sank to a new low at the turnstiles - only 45,350. Finally, the Expos gave up on the team and folded it. Taking the place of the Whips were the Memphis Blues.
The franchise would technically be revived in 1979, when the modern Buffalo Bisons was established and assumed the previous team's history.
