Phil Brassington - 2010-11 Canberra Cavalry

I was surprised to find that I had missed posting up Phil Brassington's card design from the 2010-11 ABL season. Brassington is one of the veterans of Australian baseball. He was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 1993, playing with their low A affiliate, the Eugene Emeralds.

Originally a hard throwing starter, 1993 would be his only year of affiliated baseball, with his career continually dogged by injury. He spent 9 years in the original incarnation of the Australian Baseball League, where he played for 6 different teams, but managed only 64 games. This included stints with both the original Perth Heat, and the Canberra Bushrangers.

When the original ABL finally folded, he headed over to the US,  playing five seasons of independent ball in the early 2000s, before returning at the spritely age of 40 to the newly formed ABL in 2010

It was great to see him briefly back in the new ABL, with short stints playing for Canberra in the first two seasons, and a (presumably) farewell game for the Perth Heat in 2012-13. This was possibly a tip of the hat to the team he debuted with in the original ABL back in 1991. I don't know if he'll be returning again for 2013-14, noting that the new ABL has not been kind to him: 3 seasons, 8 games, 22.1 innings, 32 runs (2 unearned), and an ERA of 12.09. He's still one of my favourite players though.

2010-11 Canberra Cavalry Phil Brassington card front - © 2011 Adam East

Phil Brassington - 2012-13 Perth Heat

 ABL veteran Brassington was probably the surprise appearance of the 2012-13 ABL season in my opinion. Having played for his hometown of Canberra in the inaugural 2010-11 ABL season, Brassington returned to the Cavalry to pitch in a single game during the 2011-12 season.

Brassington was not a part of the 2012-13 Canberra Cavalry roster, but surprised many by pulling on the Perth Heat uniform to pitch in one game of relief for the Heat during their late season road trip to Canberra in January 2013. Unfortunately, his cameo didn't prove to have a happy ending with Brassington's single innings  costing five runs.

2012-13 Perth Heat Phil Brassington card front -  © 2013 Adam East

Congrats to the Canberra Cavalry - 2012-13 ABL Champions

I managed to attend both the 1st game and the last three innings of the 2nd game of the 2012-13 Australian Baseball League Championship Series in Canberra over the previous 2 nights. The advantage of catching the end of the 2nd game was I got to see the Cavalry take out the championship, as well as the post game awards and festivities. Congratulations to the Canberra Cavalry on winning the Championship.

Even though I'm historically a Perth Heat supporter (since the original ABL started back in 1989), I do support the Cavalry when attending their home games.  As much as previously I've been a proud wearer of my Perth Heat cap during Cavalry home games, one of the Canberra General Managers asked me who I would be supporting if it was a Canberra vs Perth final. When it's been Perth vs Canberra series, I've always gone for Perth. It was a big call, but I decided I would be supporting the Cavalry in the ABLCS ... not because I no longer supported the Heat, but because after 2 successive Championships to Perth, I thought it would be "Good For Baseball" to have the Cavalry win the ABL, rather than a Perth threepeat. The level of interest in baseball in Canberra has definitely skyrocketed with the Cavalry's success this year, and will hopefully continue to foster more kids into the game.

Now that the Cavalry have won one, I'll be more than happy for Perth to get back to winning the Championship next year ... and I'll still support the Cavalry ... unless they're playing the Heat :)

Sad to see some  opposition supporters labelling the Cavalry as Team USA and complaining about all their imports. As I point out - why weren't you complaining when their imports left them in last place for the previous two seasons?

They also seem to casually ignore the fact that other ABL teams have been luring Aussie Cavalry players interstate. The Crawford brothers moved up to the Bandits, Tim Atherton went to the Blue Sox (where he joined another former Cavalry Aussie - Luke Wilkins) and that even Perth manged to get a game out of former Cavalry relief pitcher Phil Brassington. And although not an Aussie, even Adelaide are using Cavalry's original Indian import - Rinkhu Singh.It's hard to get a good core of Aussies when they get lured to the "big smoke" when they start showing some promise.

Anyway, thought I'd share a couple of photos. The first is a panorama of the storms in the background of Fort Narrabundah during Game 1 of the ABLCS.

Fort Narrabundah - ABL Championship Series Game 1- Panorama (click image to enlarge) © 2013 Adam East

And a couple from the post-game celebrations of Game 2. My lenses are rather slow, so not the best for night photography, but thought I'd grab a few happy snaps anyway.

Cavalry players pile on pitcher Sean Toler after the final out - © 2013 Adam East

The Claxton Shield - © 2013 Adam East

The Cavalry celebrations begin - © 2013 Adam East

Phil Brassington - "Flashbacks" Concept Card

Following some "How To" instructions on the web, I developed the following concept card. The player on the card is Phil Brassington of the Canberra Cavalry. The photo it was based on was taken during the 2010-11 season. Toying with developing the concept a bit further, maybe as part of a "flashback" card set, or even the basis for the 2012-13 season cards.

"Flashbacks" concept card - Phil Brassington - © Adam East 2012