Herring Winfield

was a lineup player for the Baltimore Crabs, and was with the team from the until Winfield has played for the Charleston Shoe Thieves.
==Official League Records==
Winfield joined the ILB as a pitcher in the Shadows for the Charleston Shoe Thieves with .
During the , Winfield joined the Shoe Thieves' active roster in exchange for Blood Hamburger as a result of the Shoe Thieves' will, becoming a lineup player in the process.
During the , Winfield received a combined stat change of as a result of the Shoe Thieves' will.
Winfield was traded to the Baltimore Crabs in exchange for Jessica Telephone during the via the Shoe Thieves' will.
On , Day 22, Winfield was attacked by Consumers, losing their last Soul. Winfield was then Redacted and removed from the Crabs' roster.
==History==
Little is known about the life of Hendry “Herring” Findlay prior to the sinking of his ship sometime during the 1800’s. Even the ship’s name has been lost to time. When Herring tries to recall its name, he pictures instead a young girl, waving from the dock of a lush, green land. His heart aches, but he knows not why.
Winfield never felt at home with other fish, preferring to live a solitary life. No one is quite sure what inspired Winfield's fascination with investigating the unknown. Whatever the cause, he longed to roam the land in search of mysteries to solve.
The two met one day at the end of a hook. Herring, being a fisherman by trade, hooked Winfield, being a fish. Winfield offered the ghost a deal— release him, and he would grant Herring one wish. Herring replied that he had no need of wishes, being a ghost. Herring offered instead to let Winfield have the wish for himself. Winfield was touched, and said that he wanted more than anything in the world to be on land, without dying. Herring chuckled, and told the fish that he need not use a wish for that. Herring, being a ghost made of salt water, would let the fish swim inside his form and take him wherever he liked. Since then, the two have been inseparable. Except when they need space apart, at which point Winfield has a lovely portable aquarium.
===Life on the Shoe Thieves===
Herring Winfield first joined the Shoe Thieves organization as part-time private investigators hired by team manager Cornelius Games. While Herring Winfield primarily joined in order to investigate the team's connection to the ruins of Sunken Charleston, Games put them on payroll to solve the mystery of the stolen shoes, intending for the pair to expose any loose ends and sloppy thieving by his partners in crime.
Unfortunately, Winfield's enthusiasm for mystery-solving is not accompanied by any skill in the craft. The fish is somewhat notorious among his teammates for fixating on false leads and entirely missing obvious clues. As a direct result, Winfield has yet to realize that the Charleston Shoe Thieves are the perpetrators of innumerable shoe thefts within Charleston and throughout the world. They swear that someday they will bring the culprits to justice.
With the sudden disappearance of teammate Blood Hamburger just before Season 14, Herring and Winfield were called up to play in the ILB along with fellow off-the-books Shoe Thief, Simba Davis.
While the pair were initially nervous about participating in the high octane world of professional splorts, due to Herring having drowned decades before the first observed instances of Blaseball and Winfield being a fish, they quickly acclimated to the league and became strong game-in, game-out performers near the back of the Shoe Thieves' batting lineup. The pair's use of a half-rotted oar, retrieved from the wreck of Herring's old ship, as a bat has been permitted by ILB management on the grounds that it "is not even the fifth weirdest thing any of us have seen today."
====Physical Appearance====
Colloquially now known as Herring Winfield, they are a symbiotic pair. One half, a sentient, talking fish named Winfield. The other half, the briny ghost of fisherman, Hendry "Herring" Findlay. “Herring and Winfield's relationship is,” according to scientific and occult expert Fitzgerald Wanderlust, "a semi-symbiotic, cross-planar, consensual spiritual possession with simultaneous ectoplasmic manifestation." In layman's terms, Winfield lives in Herring's spooky ghost body, which Herring is able to manifest because Winfield allows themself to be possessed. Herring's ectoplasmic body, conveniently, has sufficiently similar properties to the seawater.
====Hobbies and Interests====
While both Herring and Winfield have less time to themselves since joining the league, they still make room for their respective pastimes and hobbies. Winfield’s painting hobby has spanned a number of mediums and styles. While Winfield feels most at home making landscape paintings on a lake, his work also includes many portraits and still lives in styles ranging from abstract to interpretive to realistic depending on his mood.
Despite his unfortunate shipwreck and drowning sometime in the 1800’s, Herring still loves the sea and enjoys taking a boat out on the water to go fishing. Given Winfield's understandable discomfort with joining Herring on these fishing trips, the fish usually stays behind in a bowl at Choux Stadium. Curiously, no matter the body of water, all Herring is able to catch are wellington boots.
They also enjoy doing puzzles together.
====Connections with Other Players====
Herring Winfield spent a significant amount of time with fellow rookie Simba Davis before they were pulled up to the majors. Simba cheerfully helped the pair learn the ropes of Blaseball with her typical over-enthusiasm. Herring Winfield initially struggled to get results at practices before receiving the advice of league veteran, Esme Ramsey, who advised them to do "literally whatever the opposite is of whatever Simba told you to do." Nevertheless, the three of them remain good friends.
Herring Winfield do their best to be a part of the team. They feel honored to take Blood’s spot, but also nervous. They cook meals for the team (which often include something pickled). Employed by Cornelius Games (a gentleman of strong moral fiber), they do their best to solve crimes, despite constant false or misleading information. Herring has an eye on Gunther O’Brian, careful never to leave Winfield, the fish, alone with the O’Brian, the penguin. They remain pleasant with Fitzgerald Wanderlust, despite the unnerving suspicion that Fitz is trying to study them as a supernatural phenomenon.
Winfield, despite Herring’s pleadings to remain cordial, is intensely competitive when facing another fish or fish-adjacent player.
===Herring on the Crabs===
Following their unexpected and somewhat confusing trade to Baltimore, Herring and Winfield were quick to assess their new surroundings and meet the Baltimore locals. Herring was delighted to discover Baltimore’s more ghost centric subculture, getting along famously with haunted team captain Kennedy Loser, who only briefly confused Herring with one of his regular ghosts. Baltimore’s Clawliday Inn also caught Herring’s attention, and he spend several days enjoying the Inn’s slights and sounds as much as the city’s prime fishing environment. Winfield on the other hand took to exploring the city’s waterways, though was quickly frustrated by the prominence of snippy crabs in their way. Luckily their fish-based teammate Finn James was able to get them connected to all the best spots in town, and the two of them spent several afternoons enjoying the water and scaring tourists in the Chesapeake Bay.
When the duo discovered that here in Baltimore shoes had a habit of staying exactly where they belonged, they went on the hunt for a new case to match their expertise. They learned how Avila Guzman was investigating the various disappearances and redactions throughout the league, while Silvaire Roadhouse was “dealing with” the rash of unstable players at Crabs games, so Herring and Winfield felt that they may just be out of crimes in Baltimore to solve. Finally on day 58 of the season the duo bore witness to a game that ended at the 9th inning on a tie, with the Kansas City Breath Mints declared the winner. While the Umpires simply shrugged and moved on, the players and fans were flummoxed. This was just the case for Herring and Winfield to unravel.
The duo were quick to interview players involved in the case, with their prime suspect being Jon Halifax who had hit the “winning” run for the Mints. Halifax was uninterested in talking however, and moved out of reach back to Kansas City shortly after the game. On the Baltimore side the detectives started their interviews with the active pitcher at the time, Montgomery Bullock. Bullock for their part was mostly just embarrassed about the incident and the 20.2 run home run that resulted in their faxing. He did point them to their next clue however, and the duo spoke to Axel Campbell who, while not exactly cooperating with the investigation, did mutter something about a floating point error and shrug when asked to clarify. The scorekeeper for the game could not be reached for comment, and seemed to just be sobbing gently in their booth. 
With their investigation underway, Herring and Winfeild were stalled when Jon Halifax was incinerated five days later, leading the detectives to simply declare the case closed. 
====The Redaction of Herring Winfield====
In season 24 the league was flipped leaving the team in dangerous waters. Sure enough on day 14 the consumer attacks began and Herring and Winfield found themselves the sole target of several attacks by the circling consumers. While their teammate Finn James did her best to fend them off with her steel chair, it wasn’t long before Herring began to feel their spiritual connection to the physical world grow weaker and weaker. While Winfield resented Herring’s attacks, complaining bitterly that other members of the team could take their share, by the time that Herring’s strength was starting to fail, Winfield was at peace with the decision and glad at least that the duo could go out together. 
Herring however had other ideas. Using the last of their strength on Day 22, Herring made their way to the edge of the Crabitat’s outfield and with their last bit of energy they plopped their fish friend into the bay, fully losing his soul. While Herring may get rebuilt by the Baristas he would never be the same. Winfield was gone shortly afterwards, last sighted swimming outside the Crabitat arena, desperately trying to find any remnant of their old companion.
With Herring gone Guzman kept a close watch on the secret bases throughout the league hoping to catch a glimpse of the old ghost, but as the season spiraled towards it’s chaotic end neither Herring nor Winfield made an appearance, and the team was left wondering about their eventual fates.
==Fan Works==
File:Old Man and the Sea (now with fish).jpg|Herring and Winfield by 
File:Fish and Ghost are Friends.png|Herring and Winfield up to bat! by 
File:Herring Winfield Tlopps Card.jpg|Tlopps Card for Herring Winfield of the Charleston Shoe Thieves by 
File:Origins of Herring Winfield?.png|Herring and Winfield by grr#3180 on discord
----
Category:Former Shadows Players
Category:Nominative Determinism