Winnipeg/Peninsula Whips

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The Winnipeg Whips and the Peninsula Whips are 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 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 bring the minors to their collective knees. 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 93-year 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 11, 1970, the parent Montreal Expos moved the team to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where it was renamed the Whips and issued uniforms with logos suspiciously resembling hand-me-downs from the Montreal club.

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. Nevertheless, they again showed a modest improvement in attendance - almost to almost 96,000 - and again outpaced Toledo.

But it wasn't enough. 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 pulled up stakes and moved their AAA franchise to Memphis, Tennessee, as the Memphis Blues.