New Cards From North Of The Border

Canada has contributed greatly to the world of sports cards over the years.  Where would we be without hockey cards.....

or football cards from a league with a 55 yard line and field goal posts in the front of the end zone?  (Go Redhawks! Beat Kansas)

or baseball cards with the players position written on the front in both French and English?  

I shutter to think of a world without all of these great contributions that our fine neighbors to the north have made to my favorite hobby.  The Canadians have also had a pretty good run of producing some fairly nice baseball players.  The Cardinals have even had a few over the years, most of them not as good as Fergie Jenkins or Joey Votto, but still good.  

Who remembers Stubby Clapp?  

He's actually turned into a really nice Minor League Manager for the Cardinals currently working for their Triple A team in Memphis.  

John "Axman" Axford?  Probably a better memory for Brewers fans, but I actually have a card of him playing for the Canadian National Baseball team......

He's been making some pretty funny tweets recently about being an unemployed baseball player.   Then there is Larry Walker who is easily the best Canadian born player to have ever worn the Birds on the Bat.  

Walker played for the Cardinals the last year and a half of his career.  Not sure people always remember him ending his career in St. Louis, definitely a very memorable career with the Expos and Rockies, still a nice player during that time for the Cardinals.  

His power dropped off and he was much more of a role player behind stars like Pujols, Edmonds, Rolen, and Chris Carpenter.  

It's been awhile since the Cardinals have had a Canadian on the roster, but there is a pretty talented outfielder in Triple A right now who has a pretty good shot at getting to St. Louis in the near future.  

Meet Tyler O'Neill.  

The Cardinals actually traded for him this summer.  He was originally drafted by the Mariners out of high school back in 2013, but was traded over to St. Louis in exchange for Marco Gonzales.  Over the last three years in the Mariners system his home runs totals have been 32 in 2015, 24 in 2016, and 29 this summer.  Almost every major baseball publication who ranks prospects puts him within the Top 50 in all of the Minor Leagues.  

Seemed like the type of player you'd buy a baseball card of, file it away in a box for a few years, and then revisit it at some point in the future.  So, I set out to find one.  Maybe two. 

Here's the first one I found.  

For a Top 50 prospect, who hits a lot of home runs, his cards aren't too expensive.  I mean, they aren't giving them away on Ebay, but it's realistic to set a $5-$10 budget and walk away with something fairly nice.  I ended up with this Bowman's Best autograph which made me very happy.  There is a nice finish on this card and the signature is on-card, always a plus.  

The only thing I don't like about this particular set of Bowman's Best, 2016, is the honeycomb design in the background of the card.  Sort of reminds me of the alternate Georgia Tech football helmets.  

Now the really nice autograph.  I have always loved this set, every year it has been released, and was happy to have another player with a Cardinals connection in this set.  

This is also a 2016 card, but the year doesn't really matter with the Inception brand.  Topps always does a really nice job with the cards.  It's one of the few sets with a dark background that still looks good with a signature on the front.  The autograph of O'Neill is consistent between the two cards, but this is easily my favorite of the two.  If he were to not remain on the Cardinals, they do have a ton of outfielders between their Major League and Triple A rosters, I would still keep this card.  The scan doesn't even really do the nice card stock used justice.  

Hopefully I can look back at this card in a few years and O'Neill will already be amongst the best Canadians to ever play for the Cardinals.  Not sure that's a very high bar considering that would mean being better than Stubby Clapp and John Axford.  

Jumbo Axman

John Axford has been on the Cardinals for a little more than a month and I think I might have already conquered his two best non-plate cards.  I picked up a copy of his Topps Tribute autograph when he was traded to the Cardinals on August 31st, but managed to pick up a copy of his lone jumbo relic cards last week.  I was a little disappointed that his only certified autograph features the Axman pitching for the Canadian National team, his token jumbo relic out on the market features the reliever as a Brewer.  Nothing against Canadians, the World Baseball Classic is stale, but the Brewers card makes me a little bit happier.

2013 Topps Museum Collection John Axford Jumbo Jersey

The card also features a cool picture of Axford with his trademark high socks and awesome mustache.  This card is limited to a print run of just 35 cards and features a large swatch of Axford's road grey uniform.

The Brewers traded Axford after he had fallen out of the closer role with the team and seemingly out of favor with a lot of Brewers fans.  In 62 games this season Axford had sported an ERA over 4 and had surrendered 10 home runs in a set up role for the club.  Since being traded to the Cardinals Axford has seemed to settle back into his old self.  In one months work he has an ERA of 1.74, more than a strikeout per inning, and an ERA+ of 217.  Not too shabby.

Here's a look at Axford in a Cardinals uniform: