Forney searching for his new normal Goldeyes manager dealing with delayed baseball season while mourning the loss of his oldest son By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Apr. 28, 2020

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/04/2020 (1606 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like a comfy old chair or a favourite sweater, baseball has always been there for Rick Forney. The 48-year-old Maryland product has spent his entire adult life eating, breathing and sleeping the sport, including 23 straight seasons with the Winnipeg Goldeyes.

But now, as he continues to mourn the sudden death of his oldest son, David, in February, the much-needed distraction Forney was counting on may never come. The start of the 2020 American Association campaign is on indefinite hold due to COVID-19, with the very real possibility it will be cancelled entirely and leave Forney with an empty summer calendar to go along with a broken heart.

“Probably now more than ever I need baseball in my life,” Forney told me Tuesday in a telephone interview, his voice cracking with emotion. “Obviously with what’s happened in our lives, baseball’s kind of important to me. It would keep me busy and keep my mind occupied.”

Life as the Forney family knew it was turned upside down on Feb. 20 when 22-year-old David was found unresponsive in his dorm at the Naval Academy, where he was a midshipman and key member of the football team. Autopsy results cited sudden cardiac arrest as the cause of death for the 6-3, 300-pound guard, who was described as a gentle giant and charismatic natural leader on and off the field.

More than 3,000 people attended David’s funeral on March 3, which included full military honours. Superintendent Vice Adm. Sean Buck called him an “athletic powerhouse, a humble leader in the football brotherhood and a friend of all who knew him.” His casket was carried by 16 pallbearers, including numerous teammates.

“There was a lot of love there. The Navy did a hell of a job putting this thing together,” said Forney. “A lot of people reached out. David touched a lot of lives. He impacted a lot of people. A lot of people kind of watched him on TV and saw the monster that he kind of turned himself into on the football field, but David was so much more than that.”

“Probably now more than ever I need baseball in my life. Obviously with what’s happened in our lives, baseball’s kind of important to me. It would keep me busy and keep my mind occupied.”

Forney’s pride was evident every time we’d chat about family while shooting the breeze in his office at Shaw Park, usually after batting practice. David was a political science major who was set to graduate next month and had been commissioned as an ensign and cryptologic warfare officer. He had also been slated to work out for NFL scouts at the Navy football “Pro Day” on March 26. A bright future, suddenly gone.

None of this makes any sense to Forney, his wife Erika and their other children, Chris, Rebekah, and Erik.

“Certainly being home now with the family is a blessing,” Forney said of the silver lining to an extended off-season. “Tomorrow is never promised. At the end of the day we’re all put on this Earth on loan. When it’s your time it’s your time. There’s no answers for it. It doesn’t make it any easier. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

Forney said the outpouring of support has helped, including from his second home in Winnipeg. He first landed here in 1997 and soon established himself as one of the most dominant pitchers in Goldeyes history. After retiring in 2000, he joined the club as the pitching coach before taking over managerial duties from Hal Lanier in 2006. He led the Fish to league championships in 2012, 2016 and 2017 and has never seemed to lose the passion for doing what he loves.

With his family’s blessing, Forney had been trying to maintain a business-as-usual approach to the ball club during the off-season, including getting 22 players under contract for the coming year. Goldeyes owner Sam Katz and general manager Andrew Collier offered all the time and help he needed.

Like he’d often do to his catcher while on the mound, Forney shook them off.

“Tomorrow is never promised. At the end of the day we’re all put on this Earth on loan. When it’s your time it’s your time. There’s no answers for it. It doesn’t make it any easier. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

“At no point was I thinking that I may need to miss the season. If I was struggling that bad because things weren’t going well, Sam and Andrew would have understood. But that was never a conversation that took place,” said Forney.

Then came a massive curveball in mid-March in the form of the global pandemic, which brought the sports world to a halt. The Goldeyes’ season, which would have kicked off May 19 in Texas, is now very much up in the air. The best-case scenario is a projected July start and a condensed season of less than 100 games which would run through September. That’s contingent on fans being allowed into the ballparks of all 12 teams, which seems unlikely.

“If there’s no fans, then our league’s not going to operate. That’s pretty much a given,” Forney said of the gate-driven American Association, which doesn’t have a lucrative television contract to help pay the bills.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a summer off and I’m hoping I don’t have to do that this year. But I know my normal is never going to be the same just because of the hand we’ve been dealt. We’ll all have to do the best we can to figure out what our new normal is going to be.”

“You’d like to think in 60 days from now the world will be a much better place, or at least settled. But it’s really hard to know what’s going to happen with this. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that I can travel up there at the end of June.”

A lost season could be devastating for minor-league baseball players, especially those on the independent circuit who were hoping to showcase their skills and get back with a big league organization, something the Goldeyes have done a very good job at over the years under Forney’s guidance.

“For most of them you have to consider packing it in, especially if you’re in (independent) ball for a couple years already. You miss the whole season, what’s the point of putting off the real world?” said Forney. “And let’s say you’re an affiliated guy, 27 or 28 years old and there’s not gonna be a minor league season this year. It could be a career ender for those guys. They may need (independent) ball to keep their careers alive.”

Like everyone, Forney is trying to make sense of what the future may hold. His hope is that baseball will still be waiting for him, the way it always has. He sure could use it right now.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a summer off and I’m hoping I don’t have to do that this year,” he said. “But I know my normal is never going to be the same just because of the hand we’ve been dealt. We’ll all have to do the best we can to figure out what our new normal is going to be.”

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg