The Winnipeg Goldeyes won the 2017 American Association championship tonight, defeating the Wichita Wingnuts at home 3 games to 2 in the best-of-five series. The final score tonight was 18-2. The independent baseball league historical championships page has been updated with the Goldeyes’ victory.
Here is the video clip from the Goldeyes’ Twitter channel showing the final out:
Goldeyes Win 2017 American Association Championship! pic.twitter.com/lRumwsISpx
— Winnipeg Goldeyes (@Wpg_Goldeyes) September 21, 2017
The deciding game had some unexpected attention from across North America. On Monday night, with the Wingnuts leading Game 4 (up 2-1 in the series) by a score of 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth a balk call was made on what appeared to be the final out. Wichita thought it won the league title, but the umpire sent the players back to the dugouts.
The game was tied in the bottom of the 9th inning and then went to the 17th inning where the Goldeyes won, tying the series a two games apiece. The balk call made several national news outlets including the following:
- https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/09/19/independent-league-championship-wichita-wingnuts-winnipeg-goldeyes
- https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/independent-league-team-loses-game-in-17-innings-after-thinking-it-won-championship/
- http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/09/baseball-team-loses-umpire-balk-celebration-wingnuts-goldeyes-american-association
- http://deadspin.com/baseball-team-cruelly-loses-game-eight-innings-after-ce-1818552007
League commissioner, Miles Wolff, was quoted in this article:
If you want to see the balk call, it happens right after the 3 hour, 19 minute, 30 second mark here:
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